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Chapter 7. Syntactic changes in verbal clauses and noun phrases from 1500 onwards

Abstract

Can the promise of data-driven methods hold in historical linguistics? Can they detect salient syntactic changes and open new research avenues? I first use data-driven measures to detect patterns in the ARCHER corpus. Secondly, I qualitatively interpret the differences and build hypotheses. Thirdly, I validate these, with the Penn Corpora, investigating frequency and creativity. We observe several trends – among them: verbal (‘Doric’) style is decreasing, nominal (‘Attic’) style is increasing. A cascade from full to non-finite clause, and from paratactic to hypotactic style unfolds. Furthermore, constituent order is increasingly becoming fixed, strengthening the principle of dependency length minimisation. While data-driven approaches entail a complex interpretation step, their holistic perspective goes beyond well-trodden envelopes of variation to more global language models.

Abstract

Can the promise of data-driven methods hold in historical linguistics? Can they detect salient syntactic changes and open new research avenues? I first use data-driven measures to detect patterns in the ARCHER corpus. Secondly, I qualitatively interpret the differences and build hypotheses. Thirdly, I validate these, with the Penn Corpora, investigating frequency and creativity. We observe several trends – among them: verbal (‘Doric’) style is decreasing, nominal (‘Attic’) style is increasing. A cascade from full to non-finite clause, and from paratactic to hypotactic style unfolds. Furthermore, constituent order is increasingly becoming fixed, strengthening the principle of dependency length minimisation. While data-driven approaches entail a complex interpretation step, their holistic perspective goes beyond well-trodden envelopes of variation to more global language models.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  6. Chapter 1. Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law 15
  7. Chapter 2. The foot in the history of English 41
  8. Chapter 3. Ambiguity resolution and the evolution of homophones in English 61
  9. Chapter 4. The threshold of productivity and the ‘irregularization’ of verbs in Early Modern English 91
  10. Part II. Syntax
  11. Chapter 5. The reanalysis of VO in the history of English 115
  12. Chapter 6. The role of (the avoidance of) centre embedding in the change from OV to VO in English 137
  13. Chapter 7. Syntactic changes in verbal clauses and noun phrases from 1500 onwards 163
  14. Chapter 8. Prepositions in Early Modern English argument structure and beyond 201
  15. Chapter 9. Should with non-past reference 225
  16. Chapter 10. Shifting responsibility in passing information 245
  17. Part III. Semantics and pragmatics
  18. Chapter 11. Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain 263
  19. Chapter 12. Towards a companionate marriage in Late Modern England? 287
  20. Chapter 13. On the development of OE swā to ModE so and related changes in an atypical group of demonstratives 309
  21. Index 345
English Historical Linguistics
This chapter is in the book English Historical Linguistics
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.358.07sch

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  6. Chapter 1. Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law 15
  7. Chapter 2. The foot in the history of English 41
  8. Chapter 3. Ambiguity resolution and the evolution of homophones in English 61
  9. Chapter 4. The threshold of productivity and the ‘irregularization’ of verbs in Early Modern English 91
  10. Part II. Syntax
  11. Chapter 5. The reanalysis of VO in the history of English 115
  12. Chapter 6. The role of (the avoidance of) centre embedding in the change from OV to VO in English 137
  13. Chapter 7. Syntactic changes in verbal clauses and noun phrases from 1500 onwards 163
  14. Chapter 8. Prepositions in Early Modern English argument structure and beyond 201
  15. Chapter 9. Should with non-past reference 225
  16. Chapter 10. Shifting responsibility in passing information 245
  17. Part III. Semantics and pragmatics
  18. Chapter 11. Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain 263
  19. Chapter 12. Towards a companionate marriage in Late Modern England? 287
  20. Chapter 13. On the development of OE swā to ModE so and related changes in an atypical group of demonstratives 309
  21. Index 345
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