Syntactic dialectal variation in Middle English
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Cristina Suárez-Gómez
Abstract
ME is widely known as “par excellence, the dialectal phase of English” (Strang 1970: 224). It is therefore not at all surprising that the linguistic differences among dialects in ME have long attracted the attention of scholars. It is generally assumed that northern dialects innovate mainly due to Scandinavian influence as opposed to southern dialects, which maintain the tradition. The aim of my study is to test whether this tendency is also reflected in relativization, both in the system of relativizers used and in the position adopted by the relative clause. My study shows that the system of relativizers inherited from OE, with deictic relativizers, and the tendency towards extraposition typical of ME are associated with southern dialects, while the North shows a simplified system of relativizers as well as a marked tendency for relative clauses to be intraposed. The data for the present study have been drawn from The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts: Diachronic and Dialectal.
Abstract
ME is widely known as “par excellence, the dialectal phase of English” (Strang 1970: 224). It is therefore not at all surprising that the linguistic differences among dialects in ME have long attracted the attention of scholars. It is generally assumed that northern dialects innovate mainly due to Scandinavian influence as opposed to southern dialects, which maintain the tradition. The aim of my study is to test whether this tendency is also reflected in relativization, both in the system of relativizers used and in the position adopted by the relative clause. My study shows that the system of relativizers inherited from OE, with deictic relativizers, and the tendency towards extraposition typical of ME are associated with southern dialects, while the North shows a simplified system of relativizers as well as a marked tendency for relative clauses to be intraposed. The data for the present study have been drawn from The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts: Diachronic and Dialectal.
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
