A discourse analysis of left-dislocation in Old English
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Artur Bartnik
Abstract
This paper examines the correlation between the position of resumptive demonstratives and personal pronouns in left-dislocation and their functions in the discourse. It shows that these structures typically introduce new topics, hence two thirds show no antecedent and topic continuity. When antecedents are present, they are fairly common in percentage terms in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies I. They are non-nominative and linked with object demonstratives occurring high. By contrast, personal pronouns show a more general tendency to persist as topics both in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies I and in Cura Pastoralis. Moreover, their function does not seem to be directly linked with low position.
Abstract
This paper examines the correlation between the position of resumptive demonstratives and personal pronouns in left-dislocation and their functions in the discourse. It shows that these structures typically introduce new topics, hence two thirds show no antecedent and topic continuity. When antecedents are present, they are fairly common in percentage terms in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies I. They are non-nominative and linked with object demonstratives occurring high. By contrast, personal pronouns show a more general tendency to persist as topics both in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies I and in Cura Pastoralis. Moreover, their function does not seem to be directly linked with low position.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Resurrecting rhymes, reasons and (no) rhotics 5
- Diachronic phonology with Contrastive Hierarchy Theory 20
- The life cycle of phonological patterns explains drift in sound change 35
- The diachronic typology of retroflex vowels 50
- Diachronic shifts among sound ideophones 62
- The classification of the Plains Algonquian languages 79
- Modelling combined linguistic and non-linguistic evidence in language reconstruction 94
- Dissimilatory constraints discriminate between variants in analogical change 110
- Patterns of suppletion in inflection revisited 128
- Differential object marking in early Italo-Romance and old Sardinian 150
- Semantic factors in case loss 166
- Morphosyntactic borrowing in closely related varieties 184
- Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers 198
- The emergence of oblique subjects 215
- Grammaticalization of sentence adverbs and modal particles revisited 232
- A discourse analysis of left-dislocation in Old English 249
- The semantics of word borrowing in late medieval English 263
- Approximative adverbs in modern and pre-modern languages 279
- The history of numerals as a history of East African languages 294
- Language index 307
- Subject index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Resurrecting rhymes, reasons and (no) rhotics 5
- Diachronic phonology with Contrastive Hierarchy Theory 20
- The life cycle of phonological patterns explains drift in sound change 35
- The diachronic typology of retroflex vowels 50
- Diachronic shifts among sound ideophones 62
- The classification of the Plains Algonquian languages 79
- Modelling combined linguistic and non-linguistic evidence in language reconstruction 94
- Dissimilatory constraints discriminate between variants in analogical change 110
- Patterns of suppletion in inflection revisited 128
- Differential object marking in early Italo-Romance and old Sardinian 150
- Semantic factors in case loss 166
- Morphosyntactic borrowing in closely related varieties 184
- Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers 198
- The emergence of oblique subjects 215
- Grammaticalization of sentence adverbs and modal particles revisited 232
- A discourse analysis of left-dislocation in Old English 249
- The semantics of word borrowing in late medieval English 263
- Approximative adverbs in modern and pre-modern languages 279
- The history of numerals as a history of East African languages 294
- Language index 307
- Subject index 309
