An analytic-synthetic spiral in the history of English
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Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
Abstract
Drawing on techniques familiar from quantitative morphological typology (Greenberg 1960), this contribution marshals usage- and frequency-based, aggregative measures of grammatical analyticity and syntheticity to profile the history of grammatical marking in English between circa AD 1100 and AD 1900, tapping into the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English series. Results indicate that the post-Old English period is clearly not characterized by a linear drift towards more analyticity and less syntheticity. Instead, analyticity was on the rise until the end of the Early Modern English period, but declined subsequently; the reverse is true for syntheticity. In terms of typological analyticity-syntheticity coordinates, 20th century English texts are actually fairly similar to 12th and 13th century English texts. I suggest that this historical pattern can be interpreted in terms of a Gabelentz-type spiral.
Abstract
Drawing on techniques familiar from quantitative morphological typology (Greenberg 1960), this contribution marshals usage- and frequency-based, aggregative measures of grammatical analyticity and syntheticity to profile the history of grammatical marking in English between circa AD 1100 and AD 1900, tapping into the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English series. Results indicate that the post-Old English period is clearly not characterized by a linear drift towards more analyticity and less syntheticity. Instead, analyticity was on the rise until the end of the Early Modern English period, but declined subsequently; the reverse is true for syntheticity. In terms of typological analyticity-syntheticity coordinates, 20th century English texts are actually fairly similar to 12th and 13th century English texts. I suggest that this historical pattern can be interpreted in terms of a Gabelentz-type spiral.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
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Part I Characteristics of Cycles
- Cyclical change continued 3
- What cycles when and why 19
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Part II Macro-cycles
- Is radical analyticity normal 49
- An analytic-synthetic spiral in the history of English 93
- The interaction between the French subject and object cycles 113
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Part III The Negative Micro-Cycles
- The negative existential cycle viewed through the lens of comparative data 139
- Jespersen cycles in the Mayan, Quechuan and Maipurean languages* 189
- Mayan negation cycles 219
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Part IV Pronominal, Quantifier, and Modal Micro-cycles
- The diachrony of pronominal agreement 251
- The degree cycle 287
- Modality and gradation 319
- All you need is another ‘Need’ 351
- The grammaticalization of 要 Yao and the future cycle from Archaic Chinese to Modern Mandarin* 395
- Author Index 419
- Subject and Language Index 425
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
-
Part I Characteristics of Cycles
- Cyclical change continued 3
- What cycles when and why 19
-
Part II Macro-cycles
- Is radical analyticity normal 49
- An analytic-synthetic spiral in the history of English 93
- The interaction between the French subject and object cycles 113
-
Part III The Negative Micro-Cycles
- The negative existential cycle viewed through the lens of comparative data 139
- Jespersen cycles in the Mayan, Quechuan and Maipurean languages* 189
- Mayan negation cycles 219
-
Part IV Pronominal, Quantifier, and Modal Micro-cycles
- The diachrony of pronominal agreement 251
- The degree cycle 287
- Modality and gradation 319
- All you need is another ‘Need’ 351
- The grammaticalization of 要 Yao and the future cycle from Archaic Chinese to Modern Mandarin* 395
- Author Index 419
- Subject and Language Index 425
