The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

tion stranding (This is easiest to gain heaven by) would be a direct result of theintroduction of this new wh-option.(69) the which ibyn herdur [ CPOP i[ IPPRO to vndurstonde t i]](70) hit iesy [ CPOP i[ IPPRO to dele wi t i]]The history of the ‘easy-to-please’ construction 283Another response to the situation might consist in the use of a passiveinfinitive, yielding they are harder to be understood and it is easy to be dealtwith, in which the participial morphology would absorb the Case and externaltheta-role of the lexical verb, and in that way provide a possible derivation forthese sentences. This response implies that there was a rather abrupt changein forms, rather than the superficially more gradual process of reanalysis bywhich the wh-derivation arose. It is possible that this correlates with the locusof the change, where perhaps language learners were responsible for the introductionof the wh-analysis, while adult speakers reacted to the ongoing loss ofthe infinitival ending by adapting the form of the verb in what for themremained a basically passive derivation; the factors discussed above wouldmake the adaptation employed a natural one for them. Alternatively, thisabrupt innovation may be taken to lend support to Lightfoot’s (1991) hypothesisthat language learners take their cues from main clauses (degree-0domains) only, which can lead to rather drastic changes in embeddeddomains; see 1.1.3.1 for a description of this approach.The explanation that we have now arrived at has several attractive properties.First, it may help us understand why the two major Middle Englishchanges in the ‘easy-to-please’ construction took place at roughly the sametime: it views them as alternative responses to the certain features in theprimary data confronting language learners around 1400. Furthermore, theexplanation provides a clear trigger for the changes, in the form of the reductionof infinitival morphology that is known to have been underway in thisperiod. The explanation can be integrated with the other factors discussed inthis section, as pointed out above for the appearance of the passive infinitive.The borrowing scenario can also be made more precise by noting that thediffusion of It is easy to deal with would result in reanalysis specifically if theborrowing variety had more advanced decline of the verbal endings; in such avariety, moreover, borrowing of the perhaps more frequent modal passivepattern This is to deal with would not be possible, since there would be noinfinitival morphology to absorb Case and the external theta-role, and noalternative wh-derivation existed for this sentence type (hence also the eventualdisappearance of the modal passive).