'Tis he, 'tis she, 'tis me, 'tis – I don't know who … cleft and identificational constructions in 16th to 18th century English plays
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Claudia Lange
Abstract
It is generally assumed that the construction It is me emerged in the 16th century as the more colloquial alternative to It is I. In this paper, we focus on the structure and distribution of two constructions featuring It is I/me, namely cleft constructions (ClCs) and identificational copular clauses (IdCCs) in plays from 1600 to 1800. Surprisingly, it turns out that it is I or rather ‘tis I is the general rule; the very limited occurrences of me in the relevant constructions are either licensed by the syntactic context in ClCs or by referential conditions in IdCCs. We further provide evidence for the assumption that IdCCs are historically prior to ClCs, which in turn are not fully grammaticalized in the period under discussion since they do not unambiguously display the biclausal structure which is a defining property of clefts.
Abstract
It is generally assumed that the construction It is me emerged in the 16th century as the more colloquial alternative to It is I. In this paper, we focus on the structure and distribution of two constructions featuring It is I/me, namely cleft constructions (ClCs) and identificational copular clauses (IdCCs) in plays from 1600 to 1800. Surprisingly, it turns out that it is I or rather ‘tis I is the general rule; the very limited occurrences of me in the relevant constructions are either licensed by the syntactic context in ClCs or by referential conditions in IdCCs. We further provide evidence for the assumption that IdCCs are historically prior to ClCs, which in turn are not fully grammaticalized in the period under discussion since they do not unambiguously display the biclausal structure which is a defining property of clefts.
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
