‘Thone vpon thother’
-
Jerzy Nykiel
Abstract
A frequent result produced by a search of the digital corpora of Middle English (henceforth ME) for instances of reduced th’ is a nominal involving the pronouns one or other with initial th- or t- attached. In this study I argue that two different mechanisms, that is reduction of the definite article and misanalysis of the preceding demonstrative, need to be taken into account when scrutinizing the emergence of what turns out to be four different pronouns, namely thone, thother, tone, and tother. First I flesh out the ways in which these pronouns were used in ME. Then I analyze textual evidence which sheds light on the question when and how these pronouns emerged. Finally I argue that while initial th- is always a definite determiner reduced as expected given the DP cycle, initial t- can be either a definite determiner or, less likely, part of a lexicalized pronoun.
Abstract
A frequent result produced by a search of the digital corpora of Middle English (henceforth ME) for instances of reduced th’ is a nominal involving the pronouns one or other with initial th- or t- attached. In this study I argue that two different mechanisms, that is reduction of the definite article and misanalysis of the preceding demonstrative, need to be taken into account when scrutinizing the emergence of what turns out to be four different pronouns, namely thone, thother, tone, and tother. First I flesh out the ways in which these pronouns were used in ME. Then I analyze textual evidence which sheds light on the question when and how these pronouns emerged. Finally I argue that while initial th- is always a definite determiner reduced as expected given the DP cycle, initial t- can be either a definite determiner or, less likely, part of a lexicalized pronoun.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The dynamics of changes in the early English inflection 9
- “Subsumed under the dative”? 35
- ‘Thone vpon thother’ 57
- Leveraging grammaticalization 77
- Old English wolde and sceolde 111
- A corpus-based study on the development of dare in Middle English and Early Modern English 129
- Counterfactuality and aktionsart 149
- Conservatism or the influence of the semantics of motion situation in the choice of perfect auxiliaries in Jane Austen’s letters and novels 175
- Signs of grammaticalization 199
- From time-before-place to place-before-time in the history of English 223
- Variation and change at the interface of syntax and semantics 247
- Further explorations in the grammar of intensifier marking in Modern English 269
- The rivalry between far from being + predicative item and its counterpart omitting the copula in Modern English 287
- Index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The dynamics of changes in the early English inflection 9
- “Subsumed under the dative”? 35
- ‘Thone vpon thother’ 57
- Leveraging grammaticalization 77
- Old English wolde and sceolde 111
- A corpus-based study on the development of dare in Middle English and Early Modern English 129
- Counterfactuality and aktionsart 149
- Conservatism or the influence of the semantics of motion situation in the choice of perfect auxiliaries in Jane Austen’s letters and novels 175
- Signs of grammaticalization 199
- From time-before-place to place-before-time in the history of English 223
- Variation and change at the interface of syntax and semantics 247
- Further explorations in the grammar of intensifier marking in Modern English 269
- The rivalry between far from being + predicative item and its counterpart omitting the copula in Modern English 287
- Index 309
