The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

need a special account for the fact that in topic-initial sentences like (50)–(51),the pronominal subject precedes the finite verb, whereas the nominal subjectfollows it. Van Kemenade (see also Koopman 1997) places the special behaviourof pronominal subjects in topic-initial sentences in a wider context: personalpronouns in general observe positional restrictions in Old English, andthe positions occupied by pronominal subjects are available to object pronounsas well. This is illustrated in (55); (55a) is a subject-initial root clausewith an object pronoun on the left of the fronted finite verb (recall that subjectsin subject-initial root clauses occupy the same position as topics, wh-elementsetc.); and (55b–d) show that a pronominal object can also occur in theposition following the finite verb in clauses with initial wh-, negative and a(analogous to (52)–(54)):(55) a. God him worhte a reaf of fellumGod them wrought then garments of skins‘Then God made garments of skin for them’ (ÆCHom I, 1.18.18)b. Hwæt tacna us onne Saul buton yfle hlafurdas?what betokens us then Saul except evil lords‘What is signified to us by Saul but bad masters?’ (CP 28.197.22)c. a sticode him mon a eagan utthen stuck him someone the eyes out‘then his eyes were gouged out’ (Or 4.5.90.13)d. Ne geseah hine nan man nateshwon yrrenot saw him no man so little angry‘No-one ever saw him so little angry’ (ÆLS(Martin) 306)Van Kemenade argues that the special behaviour of pronouns reflects a formof syntactic cliticization, whereby personal pronouns cliticize onto the finiteverb. However, since the position of the finite verb is putatively the same in thevarious types of root clause, this still does not account for the positional discrepancyof pronouns between topic-initial root clauses and questions, etc.Van Kemenade argues that in the unmarked case, cliticization is on the left ofthe fronted finite verb, which is the position in topic-initial contexts:(56) [ Spec,CPtopic [ Cpron–Vfin [ IP. . .]]]In contexts with initial wh-, negative and a, this procliticization is blocked,and pronouns are enclitic on the finite verb:(57) [ Spec,CPwh/neg/a [ CVfin–pron [ IP. . .]]]The Verb-Second constraint and its loss 119This approach relates the choice for procliticization/encliticization to thenature of the first constituent. The idea is that in interrogative and negativecontexts (and, by distributional similarity, a), there is a logical operatorin Spec,CP which changes the character of the sentence (to interrogative,