The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English

It is well known that the position of constituents in a clause is influenced by information structure: the cross-linguistic generalization is that given information frequently comes early in the clause and new information is placed towards the end. In this article we investigate the relation between...

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Autores principales:	Ann Taylor, Susan Pintzuk
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	CA EN
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2011
Materias:	Old English Icelandic information structure/status syntactic change quantitative models Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/698f788a661a4d0aba698c684a204e78
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:698f788a661a4d0aba698c684a204e782021-11-27T10:47:26ZThe interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English10.5565/rev/catjl.611695-68852014-9719https://doaj.org/article/698f788a661a4d0aba698c684a204e782011-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/catJL/article/view/61https://doaj.org/toc/1695-6885https://doaj.org/toc/2014-9719It is well known that the position of constituents in a clause is influenced by information structure: the cross-linguistic generalization is that given information frequently comes early in the clause and new information is placed towards the end. In this article we investigate the relation between syntactic change and information status on alternations in Old English and Early Middle English verb-object order, OV vs. VO. Our main hypothesis is that syntactic change and the constraints of information status are independent. The analysis we present is based on 1500 AuxV and VAux clauses from seven Old English texts and three Middle English texts. We consider three independent variables that influence the position of objects within the clause: text, information status and syntactic complexity. We build a quantitative model with syntactic change over time proceeding independently of synchronic syntactic variation due to information status and syntactic complexity; we then test the model against the Old and Middle English data and also against Icelandic historical data exhibiting the same types of variation. We show that the patterns predicted by our model show up clearly in both English and Icelandic, strongly confirming our hypotheses.Ann TaylorSusan PintzukUniversitat Autònoma de BarcelonaarticleOld EnglishIcelandicinformation structure/statussyntactic changequantitative modelsPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091CAENCatalan Journal of Linguistics, Vol 10 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	CA EN
topic	Old English Icelandic information structure/status syntactic change quantitative models Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
spellingShingle	Old English Icelandic information structure/status syntactic change quantitative models Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Ann Taylor Susan Pintzuk The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
description	It is well known that the position of constituents in a clause is influenced by information structure: the cross-linguistic generalization is that given information frequently comes early in the clause and new information is placed towards the end. In this article we investigate the relation between syntactic change and information status on alternations in Old English and Early Middle English verb-object order, OV vs. VO. Our main hypothesis is that syntactic change and the constraints of information status are independent. The analysis we present is based on 1500 AuxV and VAux clauses from seven Old English texts and three Middle English texts. We consider three independent variables that influence the position of objects within the clause: text, information status and syntactic complexity. We build a quantitative model with syntactic change over time proceeding independently of synchronic syntactic variation due to information status and syntactic complexity; we then test the model against the Old and Middle English data and also against Icelandic historical data exhibiting the same types of variation. We show that the patterns predicted by our model show up clearly in both English and Icelandic, strongly confirming our hypotheses.
format	article
author	Ann Taylor Susan Pintzuk
author_facet	Ann Taylor Susan Pintzuk
author_sort	Ann Taylor
title	The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
title_short	The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
title_full	The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
title_fullStr	The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
title_full_unstemmed	The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English
title_sort	interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from ov to vo in english
publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/698f788a661a4d0aba698c684a204e78
work_keys_str_mv	AT anntaylor theinteractionofsyntacticchangeandinformationstatuseffectsinthechangefromovtovoinenglish AT susanpintzuk theinteractionofsyntacticchangeandinformationstatuseffectsinthechangefromovtovoinenglish AT anntaylor interactionofsyntacticchangeandinformationstatuseffectsinthechangefromovtovoinenglish AT susanpintzuk interactionofsyntacticchangeandinformationstatuseffectsinthechangefromovtovoinenglish
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The interaction of syntactic change and information status effects in the change from OV to VO in English

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