The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

Verb–particles in Old and Middle English 195Table 6.4. Distribution ofparticles in Old English subordinate clausesclause type before lexical verb after lexical verb totalwith auxiliary/modalINFL-final clauses 24 (100%) — 24INFL-medial clauses 60 (96.8%) 2 (3.2%) 62with inflected lexical verbINFL-final clauses 69 (98.6%) 1 (1.4%) 70INFL-medial clauses 98 (73.1%) 36 (26.9%) 134total 251 39 290a different explanation might not be possible. The distribution of particles in factforms an important piece of evidence for Pintzuk’s idea that there can be V-movement in subordinate clauses, as discussed in chapter 4. We will briefly repeatthe main features of her analysis here. Pintzuk analyses (early) Old English as anOV language, but her hypothesis is that the position of INFL may vary. It mayeither precede the VP, so that the order is SIOV (with movement of the finite verbto I; this gives surface word order SVO) or follow it, so that the order is SOVI(with movement of the finite verb to I; this gives surface word order SOV). Thetwo positions are called INFL-medial and INFL-final. Many SVO clauses arestructurally ambiguous in this analysis (either there is simple INFL-medial orthere is INFL-final with a postverbal object). On the other hand, when there areheavy elements (such as nominal objects) before the verb, the clause can only beinterpreted as INFL-final. Pintzuk (1991) shows that the distribution of particlesis different when we make a distinction between clauses with auxiliaries/modals on the one hand and clauses with just a (lexical) verb on the other. Wewill start with the figures Pintzuk (1991: 88) gives for subordinate clauses. 6 TheINFL-medial clauses include the structurally ambiguous ones.As can be seen from table 6.4, a particle appears after the inflected lexical verbquite often, but, with a single exception, this always occurs in clauses which canbe analysed as INFL-medial. When there is an auxiliary, it is extremely unusualfor a particle to appear after the non-finite verb. The evidence provided by table6.4 strongly suggests that there is V-movement in subordinate clauses, and thatparticles can be ‘stranded’ just as in main clauses. It should also be noted thatthe two cases with the particle after the non-finite verb occur in clauses whichcan be analysed as INFL-medial, and in fact have the present-day word order,6Pintzuk (1991) included poetry and prose in her database. Some texts were sampledexhaustively, while from other texts the first fifty instances each were taken of main,coordinate and subordinate clauses with auxiliary/modal verbs. For a full descriptionsee Pintzuk (1991: 288 ff.).