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Chapter 10. The rise and fall of the passive auxiliary weorðan in the history of English

  • Gertjan Postma
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Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact
This chapter is in the book Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact

Abstract

This paper gives a quantative analyisis of the dynamics of the passive auxiliary weorðan favouring passive BE in the history of English. Weorðan displays a rise-and-fall pattern rather than a decline pattern: it forms a peak, which is interpreted as a 'failed change'. This failed change turns out to be dynamically connected to another failed change: the rise-and-fall of strict V2 in Old English. The connection between strict V2 and the need of weorðan (and its counterparts) is considered: (1) language-internally in Dutch (dialects), (2) cross-linguistically in Romance and Germanic, (3) diachronically for Old and Middle-English. By using a Giorgi/Pianesi-style syntactic projection of Reichenbachian S,E,R-events, we provide a model that includes V2 and the passive diathesis, which predicts this correlation.

Abstract

This paper gives a quantative analyisis of the dynamics of the passive auxiliary weorðan favouring passive BE in the history of English. Weorðan displays a rise-and-fall pattern rather than a decline pattern: it forms a peak, which is interpreted as a 'failed change'. This failed change turns out to be dynamically connected to another failed change: the rise-and-fall of strict V2 in Old English. The connection between strict V2 and the need of weorðan (and its counterparts) is considered: (1) language-internally in Dutch (dialects), (2) cross-linguistically in Romance and Germanic, (3) diachronically for Old and Middle-English. By using a Giorgi/Pianesi-style syntactic projection of Reichenbachian S,E,R-events, we provide a model that includes V2 and the passive diathesis, which predicts this correlation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammar change and information structure
  6. Chapter 2. From OV to VO in English 9
  7. Chapter 3. Word order and verb movement in Norwegian wh-questions 35
  8. Chapter 4. Conditional inversion and types of parametric change 57
  9. Chapter 5. Optional V2 in modern Afrikaans 79
  10. Part II. The first position in a Verb-Second language
  11. Chapter 6. The information status of late subjects in passive main clauses in Old English 103
  12. Chapter 7. Position-related subject properties change in English 127
  13. Chapter 8. Split coordination in Early English 155
  14. Part III. Verb-Second effects
  15. Chapter 9. Beowulf and Old English metre 187
  16. Chapter 10. The rise and fall of the passive auxiliary weorðan in the history of English 213
  17. Chapter 11. What comes second 241
  18. Part IV. Particles in diachrony
  19. Chapter 12. Verb particle combinations and word order change in Dutch-lexifier creole languages 265
  20. Chapter 13. Parts and particles 291
  21. Chapter 14. Exploring the role of information structure in the word order variation of Old English verb-particle combinations 311
  22. Part V. Contrasting V2 and Non-V2 information structure
  23. Chapter 15. The EFL teacher's nightmare 337
  24. Chapter 16. Common framework, local context, local anchors 353
  25. Index 371
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.243.10pos

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammar change and information structure
  6. Chapter 2. From OV to VO in English 9
  7. Chapter 3. Word order and verb movement in Norwegian wh-questions 35
  8. Chapter 4. Conditional inversion and types of parametric change 57
  9. Chapter 5. Optional V2 in modern Afrikaans 79
  10. Part II. The first position in a Verb-Second language
  11. Chapter 6. The information status of late subjects in passive main clauses in Old English 103
  12. Chapter 7. Position-related subject properties change in English 127
  13. Chapter 8. Split coordination in Early English 155
  14. Part III. Verb-Second effects
  15. Chapter 9. Beowulf and Old English metre 187
  16. Chapter 10. The rise and fall of the passive auxiliary weorðan in the history of English 213
  17. Chapter 11. What comes second 241
  18. Part IV. Particles in diachrony
  19. Chapter 12. Verb particle combinations and word order change in Dutch-lexifier creole languages 265
  20. Chapter 13. Parts and particles 291
  21. Chapter 14. Exploring the role of information structure in the word order variation of Old English verb-particle combinations 311
  22. Part V. Contrasting V2 and Non-V2 information structure
  23. Chapter 15. The EFL teacher's nightmare 337
  24. Chapter 16. Common framework, local context, local anchors 353
  25. Index 371
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