The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

154 The syntax of early English(45)initialstructureintermediatestructureLFV O O V O VSpell-Outin language ASpell-Outin language Bsurface VOsurface OVIn language A, Spell-Out occurs relatively early in the derivation, with theresult that the underlying VO order is reflected in the pronunciation of sentences.At some point before LF, both object and verb move into AgrOP, yieldingOV order, but in language A, this movement is covert or invisible: it takesplace after Spell-Out and therefore has no effect on the actual pronunciation.In language B, Spell-Out applies later in the derivation, i.e. after verb andobject have moved into AgrOP. This movement is therefore reflected in thepronunciation of sentences in language B, and is called overt. As for the reasonfor this difference between language A and language B, within the frameworkof Chomsky (1993) this is generally held to be due to a difference in strengthof the features of AgrO. In language A, these features are weak, which meansthat they can be checked after Spell-Out (i.e. covertly); in language B, they arestrong, and therefore need to be checked before Spell-Out (since uncheckedstrong features are not permissible in the phonological component). We notethat, in the absence of clear surface correlates of richness or weakness of features,this element of the model introduces a certain degree of circularity intothe enterprise. More precisely, the model as it stands does not provide independentcriteria for arguing about the question of whether a language hasSpell-Out before or after object movement; we return to this issue below.This, in essence, is the way in which the model of Chomsky (1993) capturesthe difference between surface OV and VO languages. The remainder of thissection is an exercise in how Old English word order can be analysed fromthis perspective, to see what kinds of leftward movement rules would beneeded to derive the OV word orders, and to discuss some of the problemsthat such an analysis faces. The analysis is similar in spirit, though not inexecution, to Roberts (1997). We start off by recapitulating the descriptiverequirements which a VO account must satisfy. Those surface patterns whereVP constituents precede the non-finite verb should be derivable by motivatingleftward movement rules that apply optionally to those constituents thatmay occur preverbally (object NPs, PPs, bare infinitives), obligatorily to thoseconstituents that must occur preverbally (personal pronouns, strandedprepositions, particles, some types of adverb, negative ne), and cannot apply