On the Post-Finite Misagreement phenomenon in Late Middle English
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Richard P. Ingham
Abstract
Early Modern English shows some incidence of misagreement between a singular verb and a plural subject. A corpus of 15th century London chronicles was searched in order to investigate the origins of this phenomenon, and whether it should be handled in structural terms. It was found that misagreement almost always arose with a postfinite subject, and co-occurred in texts allowing null impersonal subjects. It is analysed as agreement with a singular expletive subject, overt or null, existing as an option alongside the option of regular number agreement. A preverbal subject contained no expletive element, hence number agreement was regular. The structural position of the postverbal subject was found to be irrelevant: three postfinite subject configurations were identified, in all of which agreement was optional. It is further noted that an increase in the phenomenon occurred during the 15th century for which a dialect contact explanation is proposed.
Abstract
Early Modern English shows some incidence of misagreement between a singular verb and a plural subject. A corpus of 15th century London chronicles was searched in order to investigate the origins of this phenomenon, and whether it should be handled in structural terms. It was found that misagreement almost always arose with a postfinite subject, and co-occurred in texts allowing null impersonal subjects. It is analysed as agreement with a singular expletive subject, overt or null, existing as an option alongside the option of regular number agreement. A preverbal subject contained no expletive element, hence number agreement was regular. The structural position of the postverbal subject was found to be irrelevant: three postfinite subject configurations were identified, in all of which agreement was optional. It is further noted that an increase in the phenomenon occurred during the 15th century for which a dialect contact explanation is proposed.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
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Part I. Old and Middle English
- The balance between syntax and discourse in Old English 3
- The Old English copula weorðan and its replacement in Middle English 23
- Verb types and word order in Old and Middle English non-coordinate and coordinate clauses 49
- From locative to durative to focalized? The English progressive and 'PROG imperfective drift' 69
- Gender assignment in Old English 89
- On the position of the OE quantifier e all and PDE a ll 109
- On the Post-Finite Misagreement phenomenon in Late Middle English 125
- Syntactic dialectal variation in Middle English 141
- Particles as grammaticalized complex predicates 157
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Part II. Early and Late Modern English
- Adverb-marking patterns in Earlier Modern English coordinate constructions 183
- 'Tis he, 'tis she, 'tis me, 'tis – I don't know who … cleft and identificational constructions in 16th to 18th century English plays 203
- Emotion verbs with to -infinitive complements: From specific to general predication 223
- Subjective progressives in seventeenth and eighteenth century English 241
- Index of subjects & terms 257
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Old and Middle English
- The balance between syntax and discourse in Old English 3
- The Old English copula weorðan and its replacement in Middle English 23
- Verb types and word order in Old and Middle English non-coordinate and coordinate clauses 49
- From locative to durative to focalized? The English progressive and 'PROG imperfective drift' 69
- Gender assignment in Old English 89
- On the position of the OE quantifier e all and PDE a ll 109
- On the Post-Finite Misagreement phenomenon in Late Middle English 125
- Syntactic dialectal variation in Middle English 141
- Particles as grammaticalized complex predicates 157
-
Part II. Early and Late Modern English
- Adverb-marking patterns in Earlier Modern English coordinate constructions 183
- 'Tis he, 'tis she, 'tis me, 'tis – I don't know who … cleft and identificational constructions in 16th to 18th century English plays 203
- Emotion verbs with to -infinitive complements: From specific to general predication 223
- Subjective progressives in seventeenth and eighteenth century English 241
- Index of subjects & terms 257
