Historical Linguistics 1987: Papers from the 8th International Conference on Historical Linguistics Lille, August 31-September 4, 1987

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS 1987

AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E.F. KONRAD KOERNER (University of Ottawa)

Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY

Advisory Editorial Board Henning Andersen (Los Angeles); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles) Thomas V. Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin) J. Peter Maher (Chicago); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.) E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)

Volume 66

Henning Andersen and Konrad Koerner (eds) Historical Linguistics 1987: Papers from the 8th International Conference on Historical Linguistics

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS 1987 PAPERS FROM THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS (8. ICHL) (Lille, 31 August - 4 September 1987)

Edited by

HENNING ANDERSEN State University of New York at Buffalo and KONRAD KOERNER University of Ottawa

JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA 1990

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International Conference on Historical Linguistics (8th : 1987 : Lille, France) Historical linguistics, 1987 : papers from the 8th International Conference on Histori­ cal Linguistics (8. ICHL) : Lille, 31 August-4 September 1987 / edited by Henning Andersen and Konrad Koerner. p. cm. - (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763; v. 66) English and French. Organized by Thomas Fraser. 1. Historical linguistics ~ Congresses. 2. Indo-European languages - History - Congres­ ses. I. Andersen, Henning, 1934. II. Koerner, E. F. K. III. Fraser, Thomas (Thomas K. H.) IV. Title. V. Series. P140.I5 1987 417'.7-dc20 89-26711 ISBN 90 272 3563 5 (alk. paper) CIP © Copyright 1990 - John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

FOREWORD

The 8th International Conference on Historical Linguistics was held in Lille, France from 31 August to 4 September 1987 under the auspices of the Université de Lille III. The conference was organized by Professor Thomas Fraser, President of the International Society for Historical Linguistics for the term 1985-1987. It was a highly successful meeting, both in academic terms and by the spirit of conviviality that reigned from its official opening by Monsieur Alain Lottin, President of the Université de Lille III, till the festive banquet which marked its end. As Secretary of the Society, I am pleased to have this opportunity to record here the gratitude of the participants in the confer­ ence to our hosts in Lille, Thomas Fraser, his colleagues, and the staff and students who made the meeting so enjoyable for all. Due to unforeseen circumstances the preparation of this volume was held up for over a year after the conference. In November 1988 I volun­ teered to edit the conference proceedings. Unfortunately, additional delays occurred and I would hardly have succeeded in concluding this task at this date if Konrad Koerner had not offered his assistance. Konrad Koerner assumed responsibility for the French-language papers, while I edited the papers in English. We owe thanks to our assistants, Nancy Allessandra Remondi, who keyboarded most of the French papers, and Betty Brown, who helped me. Buffalo, New York, July 1989

Henning Andersen

Contents Foreword

ν

Henning Andersen The structure of drift

1

Kristjan Amason Conflicting teleologies: drift and normalization in the history of Icelandic phonology

21

Bernard H. Bichakjian Language change: cyclical or linear? The case of the Romance future

37

Lyle Campbell Syntactic reconstruction and Finno-Ugric

51

Jan Terje Faarlund Case assignment and NP movement in the history of Scandinavian 95 Jacek Fisiak Domesday Book and Late Old English dialects

107

Pascal Gallez Bilinguisme et interférences: le cas de l'anglais sud-africain

129

Erica . García Reanalysing actualization, and actualizing reanalysis

141

Marinei Gerritsen The rise of  in Middle Dutch infinitive constructions

161

Anna Giacalone Ramat Discourse functions and syntactic change

175

Louis Goossens Framing the linguistic communication scene: ask vs. acsian and biddan

191

VIII

CONTENTS

Marie-Line Groussier La polysémie de of en vieil anglais et la métaphore spatialisante

211

Catherine Holm Le cadre des changements phonétiques dans les langues romanes: mot et 'syntagme phonétique'

231

Bernard Jacquinod Le rôle du système dans l'évolution d'un verbe en grec ancien

245

Dieter Kastovsky Whatever happened to the ablaut nouns in English — and why did it not happen in German?

253

Douglas A. Kibbee Sources negligees dans l'histoire du vocabulaire: les dictionnaires bilingues du seizième siècle

265

Merja Kytö Shall or will? Choice of the variant form in Early Modern English, British and American

275

Jean-Marcel heard Le développement de ce que en français et l'évolution du relatifinterrogatif-exclamatif

289

H. Le ourdéliés L'enfer de brumes et marais dans la tradition germano-celtique. Un problème mythologique et linguistique indo-européen

303

Silvia Luraghi The structure and development of possessive noun phrases in Hittite

309

Maria Manoliu-Manea The ghost of the agent in Romance

327

Jean-Pierre Y. Montreuil Non-adjacency in geminate structure: an historical perspective

339

Stephen J. Nagle Modes of inference and the gradual/rapid issue: suggestions from the English modal

353

CONTENTS

ix

Birgit Anette Olsen A case of Proto-Indo-European allomorphy: the instrument noun suffix *-tlom and its variants

363

Jacqueline Picoche Ouir, entendre, comprendre: une vue psychoméchanique sur le renouvellement du lexique

375

Michel Pierrard Neutralisation sémantique et marquage fonctionnel: à propos de l'évolution de certains emplois de celui et de ce en français

387

Rebecca Posner Romance comparative grammar and linguistic change

399

Amanda V. Pounder Local and global change in word formation

411

Jens Elmegård Rasmussen Germanic Verschärfung: tying up loose ends

425

André Rousseau Mécanismes et nature du changement syntaxique: le cas de la phrase complexe en indo-européen

443

Thomas F. Shannon The unaccusative hypothesis and the history of the perfect auxil­ iary in Germanic and Romance

461

Dieter Stein Functional differentiation in the emerging English standard lan­ guage: the evolution of a morphological discourse and style marker

489

Robert P. Stockwell & Donka Minkova Verb phrase conjunction in Old English

499

Henriette Walter Evolution droite ou sinueuse: les palatales du français

517

Brita Wårvik On the history of grounding markers in English narrative: style or typology?

531

CONTENTS

χ

Margaret E. Winters Cognitive Grammar and Kurylowicz's laws of analogy

543

Roger Wright Semantic change in Romance words for "cut"

553

Index of Names compiled by Hans Boon

563

Index of Languages compiled by Hans Boon

573

THE STRUCTURE O F D R I F T HENNING ANDERSEN State University of New York at Buffalo

0.

Introduction.

Since the beginnings of modern historical linguistics - since the times of Rask and Grimm - it has been recognized that in language histories one can observe not only individual changes, which run their course within the lifetimes of at most a few generations of speakers, but also long-term developments, often comprising numerous distinct changes which share a common direction and apparently have the same degree of mutual coherence and the same unity of rationale as individual changes, but are played out over considerable spans of time - centuries, sometimes even millennia. Such apparent long-term developments are epistemologically difficult, and linguists have had very different attitudes toward them. Some have accepted them as genuine observations of linguistic reality, awaiting a general explanation, ultimately, in an adequate theory of linguistic change. Others have looked on them with skepticism, wary that such observations might arise spontaneously from the hindsight available to the historical linguist and so possibly have no basis in objective reality. Still others have denied them any status other than as the linguist's generalizations about groups of individual changes and have viewed their apparent, or putative, internal coherence as nothing but a chimera. It is often the case, when a certain sort of phenomenon evokes different attitudes in different observers, that some of these attitudes are more fruitful, more productive of understanding and insight, and others less so. In the case at hand, as in many other cases, there is no doubt that the optimists have contributed more than the skeptics or the pessimists; and no wonder: the optimists have after all accepted at face value observations that are in need of explanation and thus represent an intellectual challenge. In this paper I side with the optimists, for I want to draw attention to aspects of long-term developments which, although occasionally noted in the literature, do not seem to be sufficiently appreciated. They deserve to be thematicized, inasmuch as:

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HENNING ANDERSEN

(a) they strengthen the case for long-term developments really being what they seem, that is, internally coherent, causally unitary historical events of a greater order of magnitude than individual changes; (b) they provide support for the structuralist explanations of drift, first put forward in the 1920s and 1930s by such scholars as Sapir and Hjelmslev, and more recently elaborated by Coserai; and (c) they seem to have a basis in cognitive psychology such that we may finally be able to identify the 'mechanisms' in individual psychology which make generations of speakers of a language perform innumerable, unconscious selections among existing and emerging variants in their language with such uniformity that these selections are cumulative, over the long run, in a specific direction. 0.1. The present paper is in essence a sequel to my contribution to the 1985 Pavia workshop on the historical development of auxiliaries (Andersen 1987). In that paper I did two things. I presented a survey of the main parts of a long-term development in Polish, in which original inflectional forms of the auxiliary verb "to be" have become verbal desinences - a development which began perhaps 700 years ago, and which is far from completed. Secondly, I offered an interpretation of this development in terms of the theory of drift, which - apart from helping to explicate long-term develoments as such - is well suited to make sense of apparent inconsistencies in their actuation, as well as to reconcile apparent internal contradictions in language states observed in the middle of such a long-term development. There was a third thing I intended to do, but which I had to delay until now. I wanted to offer an explication of a number of details in the actuation of this long-term development, facts about the chronology of parts of it which I did mention in the 1987 paper but had neither time nor space to pull together and discuss. They are the data that this paper is primarily about. 0.2. I shall begin with an outline of my interpretation of the Polish development (Section 1). I do not aim to retell the entire story that is contained in Andersen (1987), but will try to provide just enough information for the reader who is not familiar with that paper to appreciate the interplay of theory and data. The theme of this section will be the fact that, as Sapir put it, "the linguistic drift has direction" (1921:155).

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

3

In the following section (Section 2) I then take up the chronological details which I could not treat in the earlier paper, but which demand an explanation. Here I shall have to mention more aspects of the Polish development within a brief compass than I can possibly present in a coherent way. The presentation will be deliberately fragmented and non-chronological, but replete with references. Its purpose will be to demonstrate, as one might put it, that the linguistic drift has structure. Section 3 will suggest that both the observed aspects of drift - direction and structure - are projections in diachrony of synchronic properties of languages, both of them rooted in the human mind. 1. The direction of drift. 1.1. The Polish story. First view. My chosen example of drift is a development of original inflectional forms of the auxiliary verb "to be" from sentence clitics, regularly placed in clause-second position, to verbal desinences marking person and number. The development, which may have begun some time around 1300, comprises three parts that have been actuated in different tempi. (a) A new present tense paradigm of the verb "to be" was formed around 1600 as the enclitic participant markers shifted out of clause-second position to be concatenated with the originally orthotonic third-person forms of "to be" (cf. (1) below; Andersen 1987:36f., 40f.). (b) In the preterite - which in Old Polish was composed of an enclitic participant marker and an (originally resultative) participle in -/- of the lexical verb in question - the participant markers appear to be gaining some freedom of placement at about the time our attestation begins. As time goes by, they gradually shift toward the right in clauses, though never further to the right than the last I- form. Throughout the documented period, the frequency with which participant markers are concatenated with I- forms increases steadily - to the point where nowadays tmesis (the separation of I- form and participant marker) by many Poles is evaluated as bookish or archaic. Cf. Table 1, the paradigm in (1) and Andersen (1987:29f.). Note that the figures in Table 1 map into a nice approximation of the central portion of a regular S-curve. (c) In the conditional - in Old Polish formed from an enclitic form of the conditional "to be" and an I- participle of the lexical verb - the participant markers early replaced the original desinences of the enclitic auxiliary through analogical leveling (cf. Andersen 1987:34f.). Since the 1500s, the enclitic strings composed of conditional and participant marker have begun to gravitate out of clause-second position and toward concatenation with I- forms. Cf.

HENNING ANDERSEN

4

1300s-1400s 10%

1500s

1600s

1700s

1800s

1900s

Exp.pr.

22%

50%

69%

72%

85%

92%

Table 1. Proportion of participant markers concatenated with 1- forms in the Polish preterite. Thefiguresfor the 1900s separate artistic prose from expository prose. Cf. Rittel (1975:91f.). Table 2 and the paradigm in (1). The figures in Table 2 map into an approximation of the initial portion of a regular S-curve. 1500s

1600s

1700s

1800s

1900s

7%

12%

17%

30%

37%

Table 2. Proportion of conditional plus participant-marker strings concatenated with 1- forms in the Polish conditional. Cf. Rittel (1975:149f.). 1.2. Quantity into quality? It is easy to see from the preceding presentation that there is a tendency in this language for participant markers to change from sentence clitics into desinences. But it is hard to pinpoint these changes in time. Everyone would agree, probably, that the case of the present tense of "to be" (item (a) in Section 1.1) can be considered closed. But how does one decide whether the participant markers in the preterite or the conditional are still sentence clitics or have definitively become desinences? How often does a clitic have to be attached to a given class of hosts before it becomes a desinence? Is there a sort of frequency threshold at which quantity is transformed into quality? Answers to these questions will be implicit in the presentation below, but let us first consider another aspect of the drift. Developments like this often include processes of univerbation by which concatenations of the formerly separate entities are welded together. In the case at hand one can speak of prosodie and of segmental (morphophonemic) univerbation. The prosodic univerbation is the formation of new domains for the application of the Polish penultimate stress rule. The paradigms in (1) show how the penultimate stress rule applies in the present tense of "to be" and in the preterite and conditional of "to speak", which exemplifies verbs with polysyllabic I- forms; 'separable desinences' are indicated with a =; the examples here and below are in phonemic notation. It looks as if the rule

5

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

(1)

Present of "to be"

Preterite "spoke"

Conditional "would speak"

considers some participant markers part of the prosodic word, but others not (the latter are in italics), even though all of them are still free to occur unconcatenated with the 1- form ; cf. Andersen (1987:31 ff., 36). The contrast between the prosodic univerbation in forms like muv' üem, muv'ües in (1), and the apparent absence of univerbation in the corresponding plural forms probably dates from the 1700s. Innovative stresses like muvil 'iśmy, muv'il 'iśće are gaining in frequency in Modern Polish. They suggest that the plural forms are currently undergoing univerbation. Segmental univerbation includes several phenomena, the most interesting one of them being the redistribution in one class of verbs (obstruent stems) of the inherited alternants in the preterite. The inherited alternation in (2a) has (2)

(a) masculine

feminine

(b) masculine

feminine

been preserved in some dialects of Polish, but in others - including those on which the standard language is based - the masculine singular free form occurring before the first and second person singular markers (note its characteristic vocalism and word final devoicing) has been replaced by the bound stem occurring in the feminine and the plural, as in (2b). This morphophonemic univerbation took place in some varieties of Polish before the 1500s - at a time when the drift toward concatenation had barely gotten under way (cf. Andersen 1987:39, 46). Some might expect that concatenation would have to be overwhelmingly the rule before univerbation could take place. The evidence shows that in this

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HENNING ANDERSEN

instance of drift there is no such temporal relationship between the tendency toward more frequent concatenation and morphophonemic or prosodic univerbation. This is perhaps a useful hint. For the mutual independence of these two kinds of process would make good sense if each of them was conditioned or determined by some more basic property of the language. 1.3. The Polish story. Second v i e w . Looking around for some linguistic change in Early Polish which might be equally relevant to the drift toward concatenation and the processes of univerbation, I noted that traditionally Polish linguists have spoken of the participant markers as 'auxiliaries' - with reference to all periods of the history of the language, even Contemporary Polish. This made me wonder when these entities actually ceased to be verb forms and became what they are now, mere markers of person and number. The answer to this question comes out of an analysis of the major reorganization of the Polish tense system which took place, at least in some parts of Poland, before 1300 (Andersen 1987:23-26). The pre-Polish tense system comprised three simple tenses (present, aorist and imperfect) and corresponding compound tenses (called perfect, pluperfect I and pluperfect II) composed of a simple tense form of "to be" plus a resultative participle of the lexical verb in question. In the 1200s, the aorist and imperfect fell into disuse, being replaced by the perfect; and with the aorist and imperfect, also the two pluperfects went out of use. This development left the language with only two of the inherited tenses, the present and the original perfect (which we now term the preterite). The recasting of the tense system had consequences for both the original auxiliary and the original participles. With the demise of the simple past tenses, the original present tense forms of "to be" were no longer opposed to any past tense forms with person marking. Furthermore, they occurred as parts of compound preterite forms. Herewith the background was given for two reinterpretations. The original present tense forms of "to be" could be reinterpreted as mere person and number markers. And the original resultative participles could be reinterpreted as finite non-present forms, the -7- in particular as the preterite ('distal tense') marker. The moment these reinterpretations of the CONTENT of the 7- forms and the participant markers occurred, there would be grounds (a) for revaluating their SYNTACTIC status and (b) for adjusting their EXPRESSION accordingly. As for the syntactic status of the participant markers, let me confess at once that the whole discussion of the drift toward concatenation above (Section 1.1), by following the tradition, was badly out of focus. Superficially it looks

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

7

as if the participant markers have undergone a significant change from sentence clitics to desinences, and this is the way the development has always been understood. In fact, however, the participant markers have always been dependent on having a host at their left margin - they have always been suffixes. The crucial syntactic innovation concerned the l- forms. In Andersen (1987) I proposed that the entire drift toward concatenation of 1- forms and participant markers was powered by the consistent valuation by learners of the language - ever since the reorganization of the pre-Polish tense system - of l- forms as finite verb stems. In accordance with the morphotactics of the language, they were consequently construed as bound forms which require the attachment at their right margin of an affix marking person and number. This hypothesis explains the various moves toward univerbation which have occurred in the past and are taking place now. It explains the ever so gradual drift toward concatenation as resulting from a centuries-long tension between two forces: the force of tradition, codified in the norms of the language, and the drive toward internal conformity between the type of the language and its system, and between the system and the norms. This hypothesis, finally, agrees with the feeling of native speakers of Polish that the participant markers are part and parcel of the verb forms, even though they remain mobile. 1.4. The direction of drift. Here then is the Polish story explicated in terms of the theory of drift, that part of the theory of language change which specifically concerns internally motivated long-term developments. By its type, Polish is and - as far back as we can go - has been predominantly agglutinative (with some fusion and symbolism). Specifically, its finite verb forms (present tense, imperative) comprise a bound stem followed by markers of person and number. Once the pre-Polish tense system had been reinterpreted, thefinitepreterite forms would - given these typological premisses - more often than not be construed as bound stems and the participant markers as their desinences. This understanding of the system has made speakers - at any time since the 1300s produce usage containing a higher proportion of concatenated forms than was sanctioned by the norms of the language at the given time. Of course the norms of each generation have had to be abduced from the usage of their predecessors - hence the slow, gradual increase in the frequency of concatenated forms. The same understanding of the system has made the speakers produce morphophonemic innovations, such as the use of bound rather than free allomorphs of 1- forms in concatenated preterites, illustrated in

8

HENNING ANDERSEN

(2), an innovation that was early codified by the norms. And it has made them produce innovations in stress placement, giving overt expression to the morphosyntactic status of the concatenated forms as morphological - and hence, ideally, prosodic - words. The conservatism of the norms and the tension between the norms and the system-motivated innovative usage is fairly well documented. In some respects the power of the norms has been remarkable. For instance, grammarians issue thefirstwarnings against penultimate stress in the italicized forms of (1) around 1800. Penultimate stress may be gaining in currency now, two hundred years later (Topolińska 1961:48), but it is still not accepted by the Orthoepie norms. On the other hand, the growth in the frequency of concatenation has been imperceptible, unremitting and ineluctable. The development is a perfect example of the theory of drift elaborated by Coseriu (1962, 1971, 1975) and integrated with the theory of evolutive change of Andersen (1973; cf. also 1978, 1980). It corresponds well to what Sapir understood by drift, and it will serve as a neat demonstration of how the "groundplan" or "structural genius" of a language provides that "deep controlling impulse to form that dominates [its] drift" (Sapir 1921:144, 170). And it agrees as well with Hjelmslev's conception of the language type as an optimum, which the given linguistic system, ceteris paribus, will tend to approach through its changes (Hjelmslev 1934/1972:148). But whether one accepts this theory or not, there is no denying that "the linguistic drift has direction". 2. The structure of drift. 2.0. The structure of drift. In the preceding bird's-eye view of the Polish drift toward an inflected preterite I mentioned only a few of the changes that directly form part of this development. And since the focus in that section was on the direction of the drift, I deliberately emphasized the very smooth, gradual actuation of the main portions of the development, which - as I mentioned - map neatly into S-curves. In this section I shall touch on a few more aspects of this long-term development with the specific aim of reporting on a number of observations, recorded in the relevant literature, which concern its step-by-step actuation (Sections 2.1-2.2). As I mentioned in the introduction (Section 0.1), the presentation here will be deliberately fragmented and non-chronological. This will enable me to give a more concise exposition of the observations I want to mention.

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

9

There is a remarkable regularity among these observations, which will be evident from Table 3, and which calls for an explanation. I shall offer some discussion in Section 2.3, but let us first look at the data. I begin with the main development, which is familiar from the presentation in Section 1. 2.1. Concatenation. Section 1.1 surveyed the drift toward concatenation in the present tense of "to be", in the preterite, and in the conditional mood. It was noted that the drift was actuated at very different rates in these three morphological contexts. POINT NO. 1. Concatenation occurred earlier in the present tense (of "to be") than in the preterite (of "to be" or other verbs). POINT NO. 2. Concatenation occurred earlier in the indicative mood (the present and preterite tenses) than in the conditional. It is evident that these observations can be rephrased in terms of markedness: concatenation occurred earlier in the unmarked than in the marked tense, and earlier in the unmarked than in the marked mood. I will return to this topic in Section 2.3. The observations mentioned here and below are summarized in Table 3 below. 2.1.1. The following observations concern specifically the development of the preterite. POINT NO. 3. The singular participant markers were concatenated earlier than the plural ones (Decaux 1955:28). This is a matter of textual attestation. Note that this fact about concatenation is distinct from the language internal evidence of prosodic univerbation (cf. Section 1.2), but is consistent with it. It is also consistent with the fact that, in Modern Polish, the plural participant markers occur more frequently in tmesis than the singular ones (Rittel 1975:86). POINT NO. 4. In the singular, the first person marker was concatenated earlier than the second person marker (Topolińska 1961:47). In describing the development of the participant markers in Old Polish it is important to distinguish their 'emancipation' from clause-second position from their concatenation with finite verb stems. POINT NO. 5. Deviations from clause-second position became common earlier in main clauses than in subordinate clauses (Rittel 1975:88). POINT NO. 6. Deviations from clause-second position became common earlier in asyndetic clauses than in clauses introduced by a conjunction.

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HENNING ANDERSEN

POINT NO. 7. Clauses beginning with a full noun phrase more commonly deviated from the clause-second rule than clauses beginning with a pronoun (Rittel 1975:88). POINT NO. 8. Concatenation with l- fonns became common earlier in main clauses than in subordinate clauses (Rittel 1975:88). POINT NO. 9. Century by century, both deviations from the clause-second rule and concatenation with l- forms are reflected more widely in prose than in poetry (Rittel 1975:9 If.). POINT NO. 10. In the modern period, concatenation is more frequent in expository than in artistic prose (cf. Table 1; Rittel 1975:92). POINT NO. 11. In Modern Standard Polish, concatenation is more consistent in speech than in writing. POINT NO. 12. Similarly, concatenation is more consistent in casual than in formal speech. Of these observations, points 1-4 refer to morphological categories; points 5-8 refer to features of information structure which are evidently correlated with grounding distinctions (in the sense of Hopper & Thompson 1980); points 9-10 refer to genre categories, point 11 to a difference between media, and point 12 to a stylistic difference (cf. Table 3).

Morphological categories

Grounding distinctions Genre categories

Media Styles

More compatible with innovation

Less compatible with innovation

Point no.

present tense indicative mood singular number plural number third person first person main clauses asyndetic clauses initial lexical noun prose expository prose secular content spoken casual

preterite conditional plural dual other persons second person subordinate clauses syndetic clauses initial pronoun poetry artistic prose religious content written formal

1 2 3, 15 16 17 4 5, 8, 13 6, 14 7 9 10 19 11, 18 12

Table 3.

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

11

2 . 1 . 2 . Regarding the development of the conditional, Rittel makes a couple of observations (1975:120). POINT NO. 13. Deviations from clause-second placement of the conditional clitic string are more numerous in main clauses than in subordinate clauses. POINT NO. 14. Deviations are strongly disfavored in clauses introduced by a conjunction. 2.2. The participant markers. In the development of the preterite (Section 1.1), the auxiliary was regularly omitted in the third persons (singular, plural and dual), already before the attested period (cf. Andersen 1987:25, 27ff.). This is why the third person forms in (1) have a zero participant marker. But side by side with the enclitic participant markers discussed in Section 1.1, Old Polish maintained the original orthotonic forms in emphatic function until they were superseded by other expressive means (word order, sentence stress and intonation). The emphatic third person forms went out of use in the 1400s-1600s, first jest "3rd sg.", then sa "3rd pl.", finally jesta "3rd du." (Decaux l955:127ff.). POINT NO. 15. New means of expression for the emphatic preterite facilitate the omission of the (originally emphatic) third person predicator earlier in the singular than in the plural. POINT NO. 16. Similarly, the (originally emphatic) third person predicator is omitted earlier in the plural than in the dual. The orthotonic first and second person forms went out of use in the 1500s, being at first supplanted by combinations of the respective participant marker plus an emphatic predicator, sa "pi.", jest "sg. or sg/pl." (Andersen 1987:28). POINT NO. 17. New means of expression for the emphatic preterite developed earlier in the third person than in the other persons. POINT NO. 18. The demise of the orthotonic forms is attested earlier in texts that reflect speech (e.g. depositions) than in texts composed in writing. POINT NO. 19. The orthotonic forms disappear from usage earlier in secular texts than in religious texts. 2.3. I have included in Table 3 all the observations regarding the process of actuation that were enumerated in Sections 2.1-2.2. At this point, before we consider the implications of these observations, we should perhaps note that they were made by different investigators, without any pre-existing explanatory theory in mind, and published by their authors solely with the aim of describing as fully as possible what is plain to see.

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There is no guarantee, consequently, that the variables mentioned in Table 3 are particularly germane to the phenomena they are intended to describe, or that they describe them fully; nor that they will be particularly amenable to any explanatory hypothesis. On the other hand, haphazard and imprecise though the observations may be, the fact that they were made without any ulterior motive speaks in favor of their reliability as impartial testimony, and they may reasonably be taken at face value. 2 . 3 . 1 . The observations summarized in Table 3 document that the complex of changes which this development comprised was actuated with intermediate steps defined with reference to a variety of grammatical, pragmatic and (broadly speaking) stylistic categories. As the table shows, several of these are relevant to more than one part of the development. It is easy to imagine that this is in fact the case with more of them than was noted by the several investigators, and one could wish for a systematic investigation that would determine to what extent this is so. For the time being, however, we must be content with the data we have. But even with their limitations, these data document internal coherence, in this one development, so pervasive that it cannot be set aside as coincidental, but must be accepted as part of the factual material the historical linguist's account has to describe and explicate. Let us note the remarkable similarity of the variables in Table 3. True, they are easily sorted into different categories. But every one of them can be immediately recognized as forming a contrast or opposition in markedness. And they are all identically aligned, with the unmarked term of each pair in the left-hand column and the marked term to the right. The table, in short, attests to a strong correlation, in this development, between the markedness of different conceptual, grammatical and textual contexts, and their compatibility with innovation. 2 . 3 . 2 . What this means on a general level is that there is more to be understood about long-term developments than the fact that drift has direction. The gross statistical data on a long-term development, such as the figures cited in Section 1.1, may translate into a smooth curve. But the moment the development is examined with a bit of attention to a few linguistic categories, such as those in Table 3, it becomes apparent that the smooth curves capture only a very small part of the total picture - the most superficial view. An attempt to grasp the whole picture is rewarded with the discovery that in reality, the superficially smooth transition in discourse between the initial stage

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

13

and the final stage of a long-term development is generated by a multiplicity of variables, largely binary (or so regarded), which are inherent to the grammar of the language or to the wider communicative codes that govern its use at every stage during the development. What one discovers, when one looks beyond the statistical curves, is that drift has structure. 3. From synchrony to diachrony. 3.0. The fact that drift has direction is generally recognized (at least among the optimists who consider long-term developments real), and it is well understood (by those who accept the theory of drift). The structure of drift the apparent correlation between markedness values in diverse linguistic categories and their relative compatibility with innovations - is less well established, and it is not fully understood by anyone yet. In this section I want to supplement and compare the findings reported in Section 2 with some additional observations, and I want to show how, in fact, certain elements of the theory of drift make it understandable why markedness relations in language would structure the actuation of linguistic change. We must begin with a closer look at the theory of drift. 3.1. Why drift has direction. The chief ingredients in the theory of drift - whether we consider Sapir's or Hjelmslev's early sketches or Coseriu's more explicit version - are three hypotheses: (a) that a grammar is organized into several levels of abstraction (norms, system and type); (b) that there may be unconformities between adjacent levels of organization; and (c) that in the normal course of events, such unconformities are eliminated, the system being brought into conformity with the type, the norms into conformity with the system. 3.1.1. If we inquire why drift has direction, the answer must mention the fact that language is transmitted from generation to generation - or, rather, that grammars are acquired by one generation after another. And the answer must make explicit the following hypothetical view of the relative importance of type, system and norms in language acquisition. In the acquisition of a grammar, typological properties of it (aspects of the 'groundplan', alias 'parameter settings') are inferred concurrently with the system and may form part of the premisses that enter into the learner's inference of the system. As a consequence, elements of a system may be construed not so much on the basis of the evidence of usage available to the learner (abductively), but rather by the imposition of preconceived solutions

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(deductively; cf. Andersen 1987:42, 48 and the example in Section 1.4 above). The system is inferred concurrently with the norms and forms the basis for the individual's definition of the norms - both in those respects where the norms codify usage that is derivable by productive rules of the system and where the usage codified by the norms is motivated only by tradition. The usage of the individual speaker will to a large extent correspond to the norms (as he perceives them), but whenever a speaker goes beyond his linguistic experience, his usage will usually reflect the productive rules that form the core of his competence. Community usage will consequently always contain deviations from the norms, deductive innovations, which in some measure will strengthen the norms, in some measure weaken them. The innovations will strengthen, respectively weaken the norms in the sense that for subsequent learners usage will appear more uniform in the respects in which the norms conform to the system, but variable in those respects in which the norms are at variance with it. 3.1.2. But in this account the real reason why drift has direction has nothing essential to do with the dimension of time. Rather, the directedness of drift is a consequence of the assumed rank relations among the three levels of organization. The two hypotheses (a) that grammar is organized in this way and (b) that there may be unconformities between different levels of organization (cf. Section 3.1) are needed independently of the phenomenon of drift. (Cf., specifically regarding the system vs. norm distinction, Sapir 1921:148f., 156f., 164f.; Hjelmslev 1934/1972:27-34; Coserai 1962, 1975.) Among other things, we need these hypotheses in order to understand such internally inconsistent language states as the Polish one that was briefly touched on in Sections 1.1-1.2. Without these or similar hypotheses there is no escape from the nominalist murk in which the Polish participant markers are recognized as desinences when they are attached to an ƒ- form and as enclitics elsewhere. But with this understanding of the differentiated organization of grammar we can see, beyond the brute facts of usage, that in the system of this language these are desinences (as we would expect from its type), which the conservative norms allow to occur detached from their stems with specific stylistic values, but which are more naturally concatenated with their stems. 3.1.3. The real source of the direction of drift, then, is the relations between type and system and between system and norms.

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

15

To understand these relations it would be useful to be able to compare the three-level organization of grammar to other cognitive structures. Now, the type-system-norms tripartition has been proposed for language as suigenerìs, solely in order to account for facts of linguistic synchrony and diachrony. But it seems reasonable to assume that also other aspects of human behavior are dependent on similarly structured competences - with socially valued routines on one level, productive rules or schemas of action on another, and principles of rule formation or planning on a third. In fact, despite the vast differences, it is possible to compare the putative organization of linguistic knowledge to taxonomic structures. It exhibits a similar kind of relation between adjacent levels to those of a taxonomy in that the functional relationship is one of similarity. Obviously, it differs radically from taxonomies by allowing for the existence of unconformities. But these are clearly non-optimal elements. The relationships, on the level of the norms, between systemically motivated and unmotivated patterns are markedness relations - which is why unmotivated patterns are exposed to elimination. Similarly, on the level of the system, typologically incongruent patterns are marked in relation to the congruent ones, which is why, as Hjelmslev put it, the system - as it changes - will approach the optimum of the type. These synchronic markedness relations, then, are part of the explanation for the direction of drift. They are central, as well, to an explanation of the structure of drift. 3.2. Why drift has structure. A correlation between markedness values, as in the variables listed in Table 3, and relative compatibility with innovations was first noted, with reference to phonology, in Andersen (1972) and was subsequently explored in historical syntax by Timberlake (1977). Timberlake examined several syntactic changes (in Finnish and Russian) and found that each of the changes was "actualized earlier in contexts that are unmarked ... and later in contexts that are marked ... ", adding the proviso that the markedness values of the respective contexts be defined in relation to a superordinate semantic or conceptual feature relevant to the change in question (1977:162). Thus, for instance, in the gradual replacement of the genitive of negation with the accusative in Russian, the category terms in the left-hand column in Table 4, which favor the innovation, are unmarked, and those in the right-hand column marked, in relation to the general notion of "individuation', which is directly relevant to the difference in grammatical meaning between the two cases involved in change. Although Timberlake's paper has been widely cited, it seems that its theoretical claim regarding the role of markedness in the actuation of syntactic

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HENNING ANDERSEN

More compatible with innovation

Less compatible with innovation

proper noun human animate concrete singular definite

common noun non-human inanimate abstract plural indefinite Table 4.

change has been largely passed over. Perhaps the widespread skepticism regarding the utility of the notion of markedness has played a role here. But I suspect that the chief reason is the apparent success with which Timberlake was able to explain the gradual actuation of the changes he examined, as 'naturar in terms of the governing semantic or conceptual features. This success may have made his appeal to markedness seem an inessential and dispensible part of his theory of reanalysis and actualization, even though he in fact made this a central part of his presentation. In the case of the Polish drift towards verbal inflection it is less easy to disregard the markedness values in its actuation. For one thing, the variables in Table 3 have nothing in common other than this very general relational character. Of course, it is possible to extend the notion of grounding, reflected in some of the syntactic variables, to some of the morphological categories in the table. But by the time one has extended this notion to cover all the variables attested in the drift, all one will be left with is the general relational character of markedness. For another thing, there is no way in which the step-wise actuation of this development can be explained by reference to semantic features. The development from non-concatenation to concatenation is as purely syntactic a change as one can imagine. The comparison with Timberlake's examples of syntactic change is useful indeed. It shows that markedness values may be defined in relation to a context (contiguous or concurrent) or absolutely (cf. Andersen 1972:45). But once allowance is made for this distinction, Timberlake's examples and the Polish drift are on a par and demand, with equal urgency, an explanation of the apparently greater compatibility of unmarked contexts with innovation. 3.2.1. In the illustration of the direction of the Polish drift in Section 1.4 (cf. also Section 3.11), it was shown how - once /- froms and participant

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

17

markers were defined as stems and desinences in the system of the language successive generations of speakers would unwittingly allow the relative frequency of concatenated forms to increase. This account of drift is adequate to explain such gross statistical data as the figures in Tables 1 and 2. But it seems to imply that the general drift toward concatenation was unordered which it was not. The orderly actuation of the Polish development is evidence that the attested usage was produced by (the natural language equivalent of) variable rules. A systematic investigation of the textual record may allow us to track the emergence of some of these rules (when the innovation begins to occur and gain in frequency in unmarked contexts), their development to categorical form, and their decline (as the innovation becomes as frequent in the corresponding marked contexts). But more likely, the picture will remain fairly fragmentary, for the textual attestation reflects not a representative sample, but a haphazard collection of voices with geographical and generational differences we cannot control for. In any case, the relatively abundant documentation of this long-term development indicates that during its entire course, the system-motivated concatenations of preterite stems and desinences have been eased into usage - imperceptibly and ineluctably through a complex of variable rules whose entirety remains to be determined. The rules raise more questions than I can answer, but there is no harm in trying. 3 . 2 . 2 . One wonders how these variable rules arose, what sort of usage they may have been abduced from. In the case of the changes discussed by Timberlake (1977), one can imagine how the semantic affinities between, say, one of the two alternative cases and one type of context would produce a sufficiently skewed distribution in usage that it would serve as a basis for the abduction of a variable rule. This is in fact the spirit of Timberlake's account. In the case of the Polish drift, where the two variants have never differed in meaning, this seems quite unlikely. Most probably, the variable rules attested in this development have to be understood as spontaneous innovations (in the sense of Andersen Forthcoming b), that is, as regularizations - initially tentative and individual of mere fluctuation in usage, only secondarily giving rise to discernible distributional regularities. Of course, we cannot really know. But as part of the answer to the question why drift has structure, it has to be noted that such structure may result when speakers of a language impose order where previously there was none.

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One wonders why the variation was defined in terms of precisely the variables listed in Table 3. The absence of any indications of sociolinguistic variation is interesting, though perhaps not significant. One might guess that in a society where there is no particular use for sociolinguistic indexes, variation rules simply make reference to more central linguistic categories. The absence of any semantic value attached to the pairs of variants (concatenated and not) may be a relevant consideration, too. But on the whole, here is a question that is best approached after contrastive material has been collected from other long-term developments. What motivated the correlation between innovation and unmarked contexts? I think it takes several steps to answer this question. In the first place, it seems, we must determine the markedness value of the innovated forms we have discussed. In accordance with the remarks at the end of Section 3.13, the (innovated) concatenated forms, being in accordance with the speakers' understanding of the system, may be considered unmarked in relation to the non-concatenated forms. This means that the correlation we wish to understand is between the markedness values of the two variants of the inflected forms and the equivalent markedness values of a variety of contexts in which they are distributed. The second step is to motivate this correlation of unmarked with unmarked and marked with marked. I can do no better, at this point, than suggest the relevance of a generalization I have presented elsewhere (Andersen Forthcoming a) regarding a number of different types of rule-governed behavior. In ritual, in grammatical parallelism, in the structure of narratives, as in phonetics, morphophonemics and the variable rules of syntax, it seems to be the case that the opposite terms of any feature or variable which is not being exploited for communicative purposes, will be distributed in the most orderly fashion possible, which is, in such a way as to maximize homogeneous syntagmatic combinations. On the background of this generalization, one would expect precisely that the unmarked Polish preterite forms would occur in unmarked contexts and the marked ones in marked contexts - if such a variable rule were to be stabilized as part of a synchronic grammar. Given the stable internal pressure in favor of the concatenated forms, the usage of the language has reflected the diachronic counterpart of such a variation, the gradual ascendancy of the new forms, first in unmarked contexts and then in the corresponding marked ones. But there is a third unknown behind this answer. To understand why concatenated and unconcatenated forms of the Polish preterite would be aligned

THE STRUCTURE OF DRIFT

19

with different categories of person and tense, different kinds of clauses, different genres and styles of discourse, one must envisage a vast network of association that readily relates unmarked with unmarked and marked with marked, in part irrespective of the substantive character of the categories, in part precisely respecting this substantive content. It is this structure that is reflected, however selectively, in the linguistic drift. 3.3. Conclusion. In the last few pages I have tried to show that both the direction of drift and the structure of drift reflect aspects of language structure. This is in complete accord with the approach of Edward Sapir, whose inspired, but sketchy account of drift I have tried to develop in various directions. I think now that it is possible to substantiate the claim, first formulated by Sapir, that "the drift of a language is constituted by the unconscious selection on the part of its speakers of those individual variations that are cumulative in a special direction" (1921:155). As long as one looks only at the surface of the current of change in a language - changes in relative frequency such as those cited in Section 1 - the claim that the speakers unconsciously control the direction of change may seem far-fetched, and it is perhaps understandable that many would think twice about holding the poor unconscious speakers accountable. But when the linguistic dimensions of a drift are brought to light, and it is shown that the drift reflects the gradual modification of variable rules, it becomes difficult to abstract from the speakers. When one considers the possible origins of such regularities, it becomes impossible. Sapir saw that "we shall not advance seriously until we study the intuitional bases of speech". He asked rhetorically - and I take the liberty of generalizing his question by omitting the reference to phonetics - "How can we understand the nature of the drift that frays and reforms ... patterns when we have never thought of studying ... patterning as such and the 'weights' and psychic relations of the single elements ... in these patterns?" (p. 183) By opening up the question of the structure of drift and looking at the weights and psychic relations of the elements involved, I hope to have contributed to our advance.

REFERENCES Andersen, Henning. 1972. "Diphthongization". Language 48.11-50.

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Andersen, Henning. 1973. "Abductive and deductive change". Language 49.567-595. Andersen, Henning. 1978. "Vocalic and consonantal languages". Studia Linguistica Α. V. Lssatschenko ab Collegis et Amicis oblata ed. by L. Durovič etai., 1-12. Lisse: de Ridder Press. Andersen, Henning. 1980. "Morphological change: towards a typology". Recent Developments in Historical Morphology ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 150. The Hague: Mouton. Andersen, Henning. 1987. "From auxiliary to desinence". The Historical Development of Auxiliaries ed. by Martin Harris & Paolo Ramat, 21-51. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Andersen, Henning. Forthcoming a. "On the projection of equivalence relations into syntagms". New Vistas in Grammar: Invariance and Variation ed. by Stephen Rudy. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Andersen, Henning. Forthcoming b. "Understanding linguistic innovations". Language Change: Do We Know Its Causes Yet Papers from a Sympo­ sium ed. by Leiv Erik Breivik & Ernst Håkon Jahr. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Coseriu, Eugenio. 1962. "Sistema, norma y habla". Teoria del lenguaje y lingüistica general. Cinco estudios, 11-113. Madrid: Gredos. Coseriu, Eugenio. 1971. "Synchronie, Diachronie und Typologie". Sprache, Strukturen und Funktionen. XII Aufsätze zur allgemeinen und romanischen Sprachwissenschaft ed. by Uwe Petersen, 91-108. Tübingen: Narr. Coseriu, Eugenio. 1975. "System, Norm und Rede". Sprachtheorie und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. 5 Studien translated by Uwe Petersen, 11-101. Munich: Fink. Decaux, Etienne. 1955. Morphologie des enclitiques polonais. Paris: Institut d'Etudes Slaves. Hjelmslev, Louis. 1972. Sprogsystem og sprogforandring. (= Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 15.) Copenhagen: Nordisk Sprogog Kulturforlag. Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. "Transitivity in grammar and discourse". Language 56.251-299. Rittel, Teodozja. 1975. Szyk, członów w obrębie form czasu przeszłego i trybu przypuszczającego. Wrodaw, Warsaw, Kraków: Ossolineum. Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language. An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. Timberlake, Alan. 1977. "Reanalysis and actualization in syntactic change". Mechanisms of Syntactic Change ed. by Charles N. Li, 141-180. Austin: University of Texas Press. Topoliriska, Zuzanna. 1961. Z historii akcentu polskiego od wieku XVI do dziś. (= Prace Językoznawcze, 27.) Wrocław: Ossolineum.

CONFLICTING TELEOLOGIES: DRIFT AND NORMALIZATION IN THE HISTORY OF ICELANDIC PHONOLOGY KRISTJÁN ÁRNASON University of Iceland

1.

Teleology and sound change.

As a background for the following discussion I want to keep in mind a distinction between two approaches to the study of linguistic change in general and phonological change in particular. On one hand there is the structuralistic point of view in the broad sense, including classical structuralism and generative phonology. The view is that linguistic change should be studied in terms of the system it affects and produces, and changes are classified according to the systematic effects they have: phonological merger, split, rule addition, rule inversion, change in rule order, etc. Typical examples are Kiparskyb suggestion (1968) that changes in the form and order of rules can be explained in terms of the formal relations between the rules at the stage before the change, and Hreinn Benediktsson's (1959) thesis that the development of the Icelandic vowel system was determined by the hierarchical relations between phonological features before or at the time of the changes. As has been pointed out by, e.g., Jakobson (1931), a logical extension of this way of thinking is that change may be "purposeful" or teleological in a broad sense. Systematic relations may call for amendatory rearrangements, or changes may occur according to a plan, latent in, but insufficiently carried out by the preexistent corpus. Lass (1974) sees several changes affecting the length of vowels in the history of English as a "historical conspiracy" which aims at a simplification of the system of vocalic length. I myself (1980) have made tentative suggestions in a similar vein concerning the development of quantity and length in Scandinavian. In spite of its somewhat insecure status on the list of reputable terms in historical linguistics, it is clear that the structuralist way of thinking entails the

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KRISTJÁN ÁRNASON

concept of historical conspiracy and teleology, as long as we do not reduce it to the absurd idea that languages somehow police their own changes by some mystical will that they have (cf., for example, Vincent 1978). This is so because the idea that structure lies behind actual linguistic data opens up the possibility of thinking of structure which, given the complexities of real life, still does not quite match any actual language data. Thus the concept of historical conspiracy seems to be perfectly legitimate, once you adopt the, some might say, mystical concept of linguistic structure. Closely related to this way of thinking is Sapifs idea of drift. According to Sapir (1921:155) drift "is constituted by the unconscious selection on the parts of speakers of those individual variations that are cumulative in some special direction", this direction presumably being defined by some abstract structure. The other approach to historical change that I would like to refer to briefly at the outset is the sociolinguistic one. Linguists like William Labov, Peter Trudgill and many others have shown that social factors will have an effect on linguistic evolution. Social pressure can affect speech and influence speakers in their choice of variable speech forms, and linguistic variables correlate with social variables. This in turn will affect the fate of these linguistic features in incidence and historical development. I have shown (Árnason 1987) that speakers' awareness of linguistic variants may have an effect on the fate of dialect features, and that official language policy may also play a role, even though the direction or nature of the effect is not predictable. Here again teleology, appropriately understood, enters the discussion, since it would seem fair to say that, e.g., those speakers that drop their nonprestige variants and pick up other ones in order to conform to some norm, do so on purpose. This purpose may be nonetheless real for the fact that speakers may not be aware of the phonetic details of the variants that they manipulate. What is essential for this sort of change is that there be created a system of variables defining the correlation between social values and linguistic features. I will discuss here what I shall call two metarules, to borrow a term coined, I think, by Roger Lass. I will show how these metarules are treated differently by the social forces that interfere with the structural teleology. 2.

The conspiracy for a stop in the rhyme.

The first three of these belong to something which I would call in broader, perhaps somewhat more controversial terms, 4The conspiracy for a stop in the rhyme'.

CONFLICTING TELEOLOGIES IN ICELANDIC PHONOLOGY

23

2 . 1 . F r i c a t i v e s after s o n o r a n t s . As can be seen from Table I, all the Germanic languages show signs of a change from a voiced fricative to a stop after sonorants (cf. Moulton 1954), but it is just as evident that each dialect has its own way of realizing this in detail. The capitalized forms are those where a stop has developed according to Moulton {op.cit).

Table 1. Old High German is not relevant here, since all voiced fricatives have become stops regardless of position. The tendency to form a stop after sonorants can be described with the help of a metarule:

This metarule can then be used to refer to the overall drift, and all the individual changes that occur and conform to the rule can be said to conspire towards reaching the goal of making it complete.

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KRISTJÁN ÁRNASON

To describe the Old Icelandic situation, we have to write something like this:

This is a fairly complex rule, but the situation is in fact even more complicated, since when the Proto-Nordic syncope created new clusters of sonorant + voiced obstruent, as in hvild (< ) "rest", talöa (< * t a l i õ õ ) "considered", reynda (< *rauniöõ ) "tried" (from reyna (< *raunijan ) "try"), the new clusters developed stops in more than one step. In the earliest records of Old Icelandic, stops had developed only after heavy stems. Thus forms like hçîõr "man", talöa "counted" and vanda "trained" still have fricatives in Old Icelandic of the 12th and 13th centuries and did not develop stops until the 14th century (cf. Celander 1906:57). 2.2. Historical changes. I will discuss here four changes that have occurred in the history of Icelandic to alter the situation described in Table 1. These are summarized in (3). (3) a. ry, 1γ > rg, lg: borg, volg (general), b. Ö > d after 1, η in light stems, and noncoronals in heavy stems: talöa > taldi, vanva > vandi', démva > dæmdi (general). c. rν > rb, lv > lb: orf> orb, tol f > tólb (dialectal). d. rÖ> rd, (γ∂> yd> vö >vd): haröur >hardur (dialectal). First, contrary to Old Icelandic, Modem Icelandic has a velar (or palatal) stop after /r/ and N: borg [bore], varg [vart], volg [volt] "warm", gálgi [gauljl]. This is uniform throughout the modern dialect area. Secondly, the dental fricative becomes a stop after l and n in newly developed light stems, and some environments in newly developed heavy stems. The forms talöa, hçî∂r, dem∂n, etc., developed a d? to conform to the other forms: talöa > taldi, hçî∂r > höldur, and dém∂a > dæmdi. This happened in the 14th century (Celander 1906). Thirdly, a change rv, lv > rb, lb is usually dated to the 14th century or so (cf. Björn K. pórólfsson 1925:XXVI, Asgeir Bl. Magnusson 1959:18). Thus orf > orb "hoe", kálfr > kálbr "calf. According to Björn K. pórólfsson, this was a widespread dialect feature during the 15th, 16th and

CONFLICTING TELEOLOGIES IN ICELANDIC PHONOLOGY

25

17th centuries and, according to Asgeir Bl. Magnusson (loc.cit. ) the change originated in the West and from there spread to the North, only to recede again. There are some scanty records of this as late as the 19th century (cf. Asgeir Bl. Magnusson 1959:23). The variable representing this change was commented on by Eggert Ólafsson, an 18th century reformist, who says in his book of spellings: " vita allir a∂ pessi frambur∂ur me∂ b kallast nú bogumæli almúgans" ("Everyone knows that this pronunciation with b is now considered as the deformed speech of the common people") (cf. Ami Bö∂tvarsson 1951:171). The last variable in (3) involves more than adherence to Metarule I, since it involves the development of a stop not only after a sonorant/i/, but also after a fricative. We will see later that as a socially determined variable, hai∂'ur > bardur is grouped with a change of the dental fricative to a stop after the labial and the velar fricative: haf∂'i > hafdi, sagô'i > sagdi. In a careful study, Asgeir Bl. Magnusson (1959) has shown that the changes harô'ur > hardur, haf&i > havdi and sagô'i > sagdi , which usually are called a dialect feature of Vestfiidir (the Western Fjords), must have spread over a considerable part of the language area, from Myrasysla in the West to Fljótsdalshéraö in the East, only to disappear again. There is scattered, but conclusive, evidence to show that this feature survived down to this century in places other than the Western Fjords, where it existed the longest, but is now just about extinct (cf. Halldór Årmann Sigui∂sson 1982). 2 . 3 . Fricatives before sonorants. Besides developing stops out of fricatives when followed by sonorants, Icelandic also shows a tendency to develop stops before sonorants. This general tendency can be described with the help of a metarule like:

But as can be seen from Table 2, there are notable exceptions from this. The dental fricative has not been affected, and no change has occurred in front of /r/. The usual assumption is that in Old Icelandic all of these clusters had fricatives as their first members, the forms with stops having developed in the history of Icelandic. The changes vl >  and vn > bn are usually dated to the 14th or 15th centuries. According to pórólfsson (1925:XXVII) this pronunciation had

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reached all geographical locations around 1600. The changes yl > gl and yn > gn may have occurred somewhat later. There is no dialect difference in the modern language connected with this metarule. The features may all have escaped from social effects. Eggert Ólafsson, the above-mentioned 18th-century scholar, is well aware of the change vi >  (he does not mention the others), but it seems to have reached all dialects in his time, and he does not make any judgements of its value. 2 . 4 . Fricative clusters. We have seen that clusters of two voiced fricatives have also been affected by the tendency to develop stops in postvocalic consonantism. It is generally assumed that already in Common Germanic stops had developed out of geminate voiced obstruents, but clusters of dissimilar voiced obstruents are usually assumed to have been fricatives. The changes in Icelandic either involved a change of the first or the second member of the cluster into a stop. Table 3 summarizes the results as reflected in Modern Icelandic. As can be seen, the conspiracy has not yet been completely successful.

CONFLICTING TELEOLOGIES IN ICELANDIC PHONOLOGY

Proto-Germanic Cluster

27

Modern Icelandic

The following changes have affected clusters of fricatives in the history of Icelandic: (5) a. b

.

(

3

d

)

)

c.

Let us start by looking at the change of the first member of the cluster into a stop, as pictured in (5a). This was a change of a fricative + fricative to stop + fricative: . "said" > The date of this change is uncertain, but it has been suggested that it occurred in the 14th or 15th century, about the same time as some of the other changes that we have been looking at. As we shall see in Section 3, the pronunciation [b∂] and [g∂] is rapidly on the decline. It is fairly common among older speakers, especially in the northern and to some extent the western parts of Iceland, but very rare among the younger generation. But as shown by Sigriffur póröardóttir (1977:32-33), this feature must have been much more widespread in the 19th century. Her evidence indicates that even in this century it was known throughout most of the country, except for the East and Southeast. Secondly, a fricative + fricative may become a fricative + stop:

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As already mentioned (Section 2.2), the pronunciation [vd], [yd] (and [rd]) is now just about extinct (cf. Halldór Armann Sigur∂sson 1982), but was earlier to be found in several areas. According to Ásgeir Blöndal Magnusson (1959), the change responsible for this dialect feature started in the 14th or 15th century and gained ground in some areas in the West, the North and the East, only to be driven back again, presumably as a stigmatized variant. The formal similarity between the changes in (5a) and (5b) makes them compete for the same input. If they were both allowed to apply, that would lead to the development of clusters of two stops: bd and gd. And indeed, there are, albeit rare, records of such variants to be found. Both of the stop variants (5a) and (5b) have been stigmatized. As late as in 1954, a committee appointed by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Iceland suggested that the pronunciation [bv] and [gv] should be avoided (Halldórsson 1971:90). People using the pronunciation [vd] and [yd] are known to have been the object of ridicule. The third change (listed in (5c)), that of velar stop after a labial or a dental fricative, has spread throughout the country. There are no signs of stigmatization. The net result for Modern Standard Icelandic is that only cluster final g has become a stop in all environments. 2.5 The socio-historical effect. From the point of view of dialectological incidence and success in the history of Icelandic, the processes involving the development of stops after sonorants and fricatives can be grouped as in (6):

(6)

But a classification like the one in (7) would be more natural from the structural point of view:

(7)

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29

Thus the socially defined variables are by no means predictable on linguistic or structural grounds. Even though the actual clustering into variables is, of course, not totally arbitrary, there is no apparent reason why the subrules of the conspiracy should not cluster as in (7), which in fact is formally simpler. Indeed, a host of other ways of clustering of the subrules into variables can be thought of. For example, formally Iv > rd, as in harõur > hardur "hard" could easily be collapsed with lv > lb (tolf > tólb "twelve"), rv> rb (orf> orb "hoe") and ry >rg (sorg "sorrow") under metarule (1) describing the development of stops after sonorants. This would have filled all the empty slots in Table 1. But the fact is that rö/rd was grouped with yd/yd and vυ/vd, where the preceding consonant is a fricative. Also, on purely phonological grounds νv' > vd and yv' >yd could just as easily have been grouped with vy > vg and d'y > Òg, which spread throughout the dialect area. A similar arbitrariness may be noted in the grouping of linguistic features into sociolinguistic variables in a stigmatized syntactic variable in Modern Icelandic. The so-called 'pkgufallssyld' 'dative sickness' refers to ' improper ' use of the dative case instead of the accusative in certain syntactic environments. But for some speakers at least the term is applied to two syntactically different things. On one hand, it refers to an analogical change affecting non-nominative 'subjects' of verbs like langa "want" and vanta "need". Thus the 'proper' Mig (ace.) langar "I want" becomes Mér (dat.) langar, presumably on the analogy of Mér synist "I think, it seems to me". But the term 'dative sickness' is also applied by some speakers (myself as a youngster among them) to the 'improper' use of the dative in the object of the verb pora "dare". Égpon  (.) "I dare it" is the appropriate usage as opposed to the improper Égporípví (dat.). Here two formally different things form in the mind of the speaker a single socially defined variable. From the formal linguistic point of view the classification is quite arbitrary. What counts is the social aspect. True, there has to be a structural feature by which the variable is identified. In the case of dative sickness this is the relation accusative-dative. In the case of, for example, the rd, fd, d variables, the common denominator is v/d. But the basic point is that the choice of the feature defining the variable is not uniquely determined on structural grounds. 3.

Loss of stop after nasal.

The other conspiracy that I would like to talk about in this paper is the one accounting for the deletion of stop after nasal in Icelandic. The situation in Modern Icelandic is approximately the one given below:

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(a) Regular deletion of all stops before stops: hrìngdiang" kembdi "combed" (b) Optional deletion of all consonants before /s/: lambsins [lamslns] / [lamtøslns] "the lamb (gen.def.)" landsins [landslns] / [lanslns] "the land" hringsins "the ring" (c) Optional deletion of velar before nasal: kambnum [kamljnYm] "the comb (dat.)" sendnir "sandy (nom.pl.masc)" vs. "swollen (nom.pl. m.)" (d) Dialectal deletion of velar, otherwise no deletion, before/V: sumbla [sYmbla] "to drink" (all dialects) svindla [svindla] "cheat" (all dialects) krìngla [krirjla] "roll" (most areas) krìngla [krirjêla] "roll" (the ngl-area) (e) No deletion before /r/ gimbrar | "(female) lambs" hindra [hindra] "to hinder" angra "to annoy" Although the tendency is clear (call it Metarule II), accounting accurately for the Modern Icelandic situation requires extremely complicated statements, as in the case of Metarule I, and the situation is far from being structurally stable. But there is a clear difference between the two metarules from the sociolinguistic point of view. There have not been recorded, either in the history of Icelandic or in the present-day discussion of language policy, any observations or value judgements as to the social significance of any of the variables connected with the loss of stop after nasal, either the geographically limited one or the free ones. It is difficult to picture the exact situation in Old Icelandic, but there are no compelling reasons to assume that it was greatly different. Manuscript spellings do not seem to indicate any great vacillation in this area. In fact, since, for instance, no neutralization is associated with the loss of the stop after a velar nasal and the nature of the deleted stop can be reconstructed on the

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31

basis of the place of articulation of the preceding nasal, the loss is not likely to be reflected in the spelling. The same applies to metrical evidence: the loss of the stop did not involve any changes in the metrical value of linguistic fonns. The so-called 'ngl-pronunciation', as studied by Björn Guofinnsson (1946, 1964), is a feature of some northern areas in Iceland. Table 4 shows statistics from three villages in the North. The town of Húsavík, in the region of Suður-pingeyjarsysla in the eastern part of the North, showed the greatest incidence of this variable in Guðfinnsson's survey in the early 1940s. Here, 50% of school children from 11 to 13 years of age had this pronunciation regularly in their speech, whereas 10% had no traces of it. In other communities in the North, such as Sauðárkrókur in the region of Skagafjarðftarsysla, this feature was less common, as can be seen from Table 4.

Pure ngl Mixed Pure

nl

6.45 48.39 45.16

42.19 43.75 14.06

50.00 40.00 10.00

Table 4. Ngl-pronunciation in the 1940s. It is clear that both structurally and geographically the ngl-pronunciation was a minor feature in the 1940s. Consequently, in view of the general tendency for indigenous dialect features to give way to more standard ones, we might have expected it to recede rather fast in the time that has passed since. However, the opposite seems to be the case. In a recent survey carried out in 1980 (Árnason 1987, Höskuldur práinsson & Kristján Amason 1986), it turns out that the ngl-pronunciation is relatively stable compared to other indigenous dialect features in the area. This can be seen by comparing the results shown in Table 4 and Table 5. The comparison shows that in the communities of Sauðárkrókur, Dalvik and Húsavík the incidence of the ngl-variant has not decreased dramatically in comparison to some other indigenous dialect features (cf. Árnason 1987). In Dalvik, in fact, one might want to interpret the figures as showing a slight increase in its incidence.

KRISTJÁN ÁRNASON

32

Pure ngl Mixed Pure nj

Age 12-20 %

Total %

Age 12-20 %

Total %

Age 12-20 %

Total %

0.00 20.00 80.00

5.26 15.79 78.95

64.29 14.28 21.43

48.65 21.62 29.73

47.37 21.06 31.57

48.28 20.69 31.03

Table 5. Ngl-pronunciation in the 1980s (figures from Sigriður Sigurjónsdóttir 1985:15-16) The relative stability of the feature can further be illustrated with the help of Fig. 1, which shows the age distribution of the ngl-pronunciation in the region of Skagafjörður, including the town of Sauðarkrókur. As can be seen, it tums out that, unlike the other indigenous features, this one is least common among the older speakers.

Mean: 124.2

Fig. 1. Ngl-pronunciation in Skagafjörður. A typical indigenous feature is one that we have seen under Metarule I, namely the stop pronunciation habbði and saggði (cf. (5b) and (6d) in the same area) (cf. Árnason 1987, Höskuldurprainsson & Kristján Amason 1986).

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In the 1940s this was found in northern areas, from Hunavatnssysla to Norður-pingeyjarsysla. The center of this feature was Suður-pingeyjarsysla, but it was also quite common in SkagafjörÖur and Eyjafjarðarsysla, as can be seen from Table 6 (cf. Björn Guðffinnsson 1964:162-165).

/

Stop Mixed Fricative

13.93 28.36 57.71

22.30 28.85 48.85

34.17 38.33 27.50

Table 6. Stop pronunciation habðì and sagði in the 1940s. Fig. 2, giving data from Skagafjarðarsysla and Sauðárkrókur, shows clearly that this feature is rather dramatically on the decrease. It is virtually unknown among the youngest speakers. The only age groups that have this pronunciation to any considerable extent are the oldest ones.

Mean: 117.1

Fig. 2. Stop pronunciation in Skagafjördur in 1980.

KRISTJÁN ÁRNASON

34

4.

Conclusion.

I have described here a series of recurrent changes in Icelandic that can be said to follow metarules, in the sense that if successful, the results can be accounted for by structurally simple statements. But the changes are not carried out to the extent that the rules get to account for the resulting structure in their simplest forms. As far as I can understand the concepts of drift and conspiracy, if people are willing to speak in such terms, this is the sort of data that would fit them. But there is a difference between the rules belonging to the stop conspiracy and the loss of stop after nasal in more than one respect. The conspiracy for a stop in the rhyme seems to be more active or conspicuous, so to speak, and to have caused more instability. More changes seem to have occurred in the history of Icelandic that might be connected with this metarule than with Metarule II, the one of deletion after nasal. The other, probably related difference between the two is that Metarule I has been much more subject to social forces than Metarule II, and linguistic features that may be classified as belonging under Metarule I have even been the subject of overt judgements by language authorities. The changes according to the mie for deletion of stop after nasal, which is left undisturbed, seem to spread more slowly than changes according to Metarule I. This speaks against the otherwise somewhat attractive hypothesis that if left alone by sociolinguistic forces, metarules would do their job as soon as they could and have the changes over with. In fact, the force behind the loss of stop after nasal is not enough to make the change complete in spite of the fact that no disturbance seems to have occurred from social forces. One more question remains, namely: why should one metarule be more the subject of social marking than the other? How do linguistic features acquire social values? It is clear that social forces can act negatively to thwart, or positively to enhance, changes that have already started, but it is not particularly likely that the difference in the initial 'strength' of the metarule can be explained on social grounds. Nor can the social factors be held responsible for the success, or lack of it, of all metarules. It might be suggested that the difference in the extent to which the features have become subject to social forces lies in the difference mentioned above, that Metarule I typically involves a substitution of one phoneme, a stop, for another, a fricative, whereas in the case of Metarule II, no phonemic substitution occurs and the underlying stop is in many cases easily reconstructable from the place of articulation of the remaining nasal. This is the case since a nasal, not agreeing in place with its following consonant as, for example, in lengd [leirjcįL or with a marked value like velar or palatal, presupposes a floating stop responsible for the place features. This would then perhaps make the variation resulting from the deletion of stop after nasal

CONFLICTING TELEOLOGIES IN ICELANDIC PHONOLOGY

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less likely to be picked up by speakers as a variable. In other words, the structural difference between the processes could be responsible for the difference in the amount of interference from social forces. This can be related to what Nigel Vincent (1978:416-417) calls the "Principle of Speaker's Control", according to which a hierarchy of linguistic features may be set up with semantics at the top and phonetics at the bottom. The idea is that the further up the hierarchy the systemic difference lies between terms of variable forms, the more easily it comes under the control of speakers. But not all is told, since it is quite common for what would be called subphonemic phonological differences to be markers of dialect. Thus the difference between types of/r/, and the rules of its distribution, is one of the clearest markers or indices of English dialects. This shows that distinctive function is not a necessary condition for a systemic difference to become a dialect marker. But Vincent's principle is only a cline, and it does not exclude this sort of thing. Further research is needed in order to clarify this, but the simple fact that a difference can be detected and a choice can be made makes any variability in expression a potential candidate for a sociolinguistic marker. The semiotic connection between the linguistic marker and its social value may be clarified by lexicalizing it, that is to say by associating it with some lexical material. This seems to have been the case in the famous test-word used by the Geladites to identify the Ephraimites: shibboleth (with an alveolar or a palatal sibilant). Although it may be that the Geladites made a phonemic distinction that the Ephraimites did not, it is easy to imagine speakers coining such test-words to identify subphonemic dialect variants. But it may still be true that, other things being equal, it is more likely that phonemic differences are picked up as dialect features than subphonemic ones.

REFERENCES Árnason, Kristján. 1980. Quantity in Historical Phonology: The Case of Icelandic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Árnason, Kristján. 1987. "Icelandic dialects forty years later: the (non)survival of some northern and south-eastern features". The Nordic Languages and Modem Linguistics 6 ed. by Pirkko Lilius & Mirja Saari, 79-92. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. Benediktsson, Hreinn. 1959. "The vowel system of Icelandic: a survey of its history". Word 15.282-312. Böðvarsson, Arni. 1951. "páttur um málfraðistorf Eggerts Ólafssonar". Skírnir 125.156-172. Celander, Hildig. 1906. Om ðvergangen ð > d i fornisländskan och fornnorskan. Lund: Berlingska Boktrykkeriet. GuÖfinnsson, Björn. 1946. Mállyzkur, I. Reykjavik: ísafoldarprentsmiðja.

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Guðfinnsson, Björn. 1964. Mállyzkur, II. Reykjavik: Heimspekideild Háskóla islands, Bókaútgáfa Menningaisjóðs. Jakobson, Roman. 1931. "Prinzipien der historischen Phonologie". TCLP 4.247-267. Kiparsky, Paul. 1968. "Linguistic universais and linguistic change". Universals in Linguistic Theory ed. by Emmon Bach & Robert T. Harms, 170-202. London, New York, Sydney & Toronto: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Lass, Roger. 1974. "Linguistic orthogenesis? Scots vowel quantity and the English length conspiracy". Historical Linguistics. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Edinburgh, 2- 7 September 1973, II ed. by John Anderson & Charles Jones, 311-352. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Magnusson, Asgeir Bl. 1959. "Um frambuiøinn rd, gd, fd". íslensk tunga Lingua Islandica. 1.7-25. Moulton, William G. 1954. "The stops and spirants of Early Germanic". Language 30.1-42. Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. Sigurösson, Halldór Armann. 1982. "Smasaga vestan af fjördum". íslenskt mal ogalmennmálfreedi 4.285-292. Sigurjónsdóttir, Sigríður. 1977. Athugun a [ngl]-framburÕiípremursyslum norðanlands. Ms. Reykjavik: University of Iceland. Vincent, Nigel. 1978. "Is sound change teleological?". Recent Developments in Historical Phonology ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 409-430. The Hague: Mouton, pórðardóttir, Sigrídur. 1977. "Um mismunandi framburda fð og gð í íslensku". Mímir: blað'studenta í íslenskum frædum 25.28-38. pórólfsson, Björn . 1925. Um íslenskar orðmyndir. Reykjavik: Fjelagsprentsmiðjan. práinsson, Höskuldur & Kristján Árnason. 1986. "Um skagfìrsku". Íslenskt mál og ålmenn málfiæði 8.31-62.

LANGUAGE CHANGE: CYCLICAL OR LINEAR? THE CASE OF THE ROMANCE FUTURE BERNARD H. BICHAKJIAN Catholic University, Nijmegen 1. Conflicting endeavors. Language change has drawn from historical linguists varied and often conflicting endeavors. Some have tried to explain it; others have sought to score points by poking fun at these explanations. This is not the place to discuss the theories of insightful thinkers such as Jespersen, Jakobson and Martinet, or to review the conclusions of perspicacious observers such as Meillet, Sapir, Weinreich or Labov. My objective here will be to show that language changes are neither exclusively cyclical nor exclusively linear. Both types exist, but, since lately the tendency has been to conclude from cases of recurrent changes that all linguistic changes are cyclical, I shall place emphasis on the linear changes and, using the development of the French future as an example, shall demonstrate that apparent cyclical changes should not block our view of the underlying linear processes. 2.

Cyclical changes.

Among the cyclical changes one may distinguish at least two types, the pendular type and the recursive one. In both cases a given linguistic feature appears periodically in a given language, but the two processes are different: the first is one of reversal, the second of substitution. 2.1. Pendular changes. Changes are pendular when B, issued from A, becomes A again. Such changes are not rare. Voiceless consonants, for instance, can become voiced and change back to voicelessness (cf. Lat. s, which became ζ in Old Spanish and later reverted to s). Diphthongs may be simplified, yielding a monophthongal reflex which later develops into a new diphthong (cf. Lat. ae, which became ε: in Late Latin and je in French, as in caelum > ciel "sky"). Syllable structure may also change back and forth. It

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was predominantly CVC in Vulgar Latin; it became CV in Old French, and it has been increasingly CVC since then (cf. Klausenburger (1970) for statistical data). The pendular nature of these processes becomes clearer when these changes are contrasted with irreversible ones. In an article on diachronic universais, Greenberg rightly observed that "ii is a possible source for i, but i is not a possible source for ΰ" (1966:516). Therefore, voicing is a pendular change, but the unrounding of y is not. 2.2. Recursive changes. In pendular changes the recurrence of the original is produced by the reversal of the initial process. But it is also possible for the apparently original item to derive from another source. Through a recursive process, A can become  and be endlessly replaced by new As whose outputs keep supplanting B. Through such a process, perfects slip into the role of preterites and are later unseated by subsequently-formed perfects. The Lat. feci "I have done" came to mean "I did", and later its French reflex je fis was replaced by j'ai fait, which originally had been formed to serve as a perfect, but which also had acquired preterital value. Another example of a recursive change is provided by the process whereby structures are often replaced with analytic ones as they become synthetic. The Lat. unde "whence" was originally a compound form made of pronominal and ablative morphemes, but when the identities of the two elements had become blurred, i.e. when unde had become a synthetic form, speakers began saying *de unde, an analytic form which in turn became synthetic (cf. Fr. dont). Today, when it is a relative, dont is generally replaced by d'où. In interrogative constructions, d'où is the only form possible. This recursive creation of analytic formations may be integrated into the broader quest for transparency (cf. Eng. I am going to, which is often preferred to I will, and in our own linguistic jargon such terms as 'insertion' and 'truncation' which are used instead of the less transparent 'epenthesis' and 'apocope'). The above examples of recursive changes yield a twofold observation. On one hand, the original item reappears periodically (the perfect tense or a synthetic form). On the other, the processes themselves are not reversible: preterites do not become perfects and synthetic forms do not become analytic. Therefore, what is cyclical in recursive changes is the periodic reoccurrence of a given item. In pendular changes the original item also reappears, but the process is also reversible.

LANGUAGE CHANGE: CYCLICAL OR LINEAR?

3.

39

Linear changes.

The history of languages also offers changes where neither the process reverses itself nor does the original item return through another natural change. I shall call these changes linear or evolutionary. In the Indo-European languages vowel quantity has been receding, while vowel quality is taking over the burden of providing phonological distinctions. A lopsided consonantal system made up almost exclusively of stops with secondary and tertiary articulations has evolved into systems with largely simple consonants evenly or nearly evenly divided among stops and fricatives, cf., for instance, the Indo-European and French sets of obstruents.

Declensions have given way to prepositions and articles; personal endings are replaced with subject pronouns; bound morphemes expressing causality, mood, voice, tense and the like have been supplanted by auxiliaries; aspect-dominated conjugational systems have turned into tense-dominated ones. In syntax subordination has developed and replaced many participial and infinitival constructions, cf., for instance, Lat. Credebas dormienti haec tibi confecturos déos? (Ter. Ad 693), which requires two subordinate clauses in English: "Did you think that the gods would take care of things for you while you slept?" Finally all grammatical structures have been shifting gradually from the left- to the right-branching type, e.g. Lat. [[[[mell]e] dulcjior]and the Fr. [plus [doux [que [le miel]]]] "sweeter than honey" (for a detailed study of the shift from left to right branching, cf. Bichakjian 1987). These processes have not worked at the same rate in all Indo-European languages, and occasional outside attempts to reverse these natural processes are not excluded. The Renaissance grammarians' efforts to reshape the languages of Europe after the Latin model is a telling example. But such interventions remain artificial, and languages inevitably resume their natural evolutionary course, be it at their own individual rates and in their own

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individual fashion (for a discussion of the ill-fated attempt to introduce vowel quantity in French, cf. Bichakjian 1986). The above examples of evolutionary changes and the attendant caveats belong admittedly to the Indo-European languages, but the processes involved do not conflict with those found in the Afro-Asian, Finno-Ugric, Altaic or Dravidian languages. In fact, they apply at least partially to them as well. There is no conflict either with the American Indian, African and Sumerian languages, but since these languages display structures that are somewhat different from those observed in the Indo-European ones other or additional evolutionary processes will probably be found in them (for an exploratory study, cf. Bichakjian, Forthcoming). Whatever the disparities it is interesting, for instance, to observe in Sumerian, a language spoken in Mesopotamia before ca. 1600 B.C., the occurrence of postposed relative clauses in ordinary style and of preposed ones "in poetischer oder gehobener Sprache" (Poebel 1923:100). This observation, along with other data, suggests that Sumerian had already started with the initial steps of a shift from left to right branching. But this is not the place to compare the features of non-Indo-European languages with those of the Indo-European family. It is sufficient that the above examples of linear changes may be said either to apply to the non-IndoEuropean languages or at least not to conflict with them. In the absence of data conflicting with the linear nature of the processes given in this section - future research may of course reveal the need to amend certain statements - the analysis of spontaneous changes can be summarized as such. Either (a) the input of a change returns through a reversal of the process or comes from another source (cf. respectively, the alternate voicing and devoicing of Latin s in Spanish and the successive creation of new perfects to replace former ones that have become preterites), or (b) the input disappears from the language (cf., for instance, the elimination of declensions). The evidence permits us, therefore, to conclude that languages undergo not only cyclical changes but also linear ones. By the very nature of their linearity these changes embody the evolution of languages. 4.

The evolution of the French future.

The foregoing was not a detailed discussion of spontaneous changes, but I hope sufficient data were presented to show the existence of both cyclical and linear changes. In the remaining sections of this paper I shall focus on the French future and argue that a series of superficial cyclical changes should not obscure our view of the linear process that underlies the origin and development of this tense.

LANGUAGE CHANGE: CYCLICAL OR LINEAR?

41

4 . 1 . The superficial view. If one considers the forais Lat. cantãbõ (< canta + a cognate form of Eng. I be), Fr. je chanterai (< cantare habeõ) and je vais chanter, all meaning "I shall sing" or "I am going to sing", one may be tempted to conclude that language change is cyclical and support this view with the recursive creation of analytic sequences to replace previous forms that were or have become synthetic. As already mentioned in Section 2.2, the periodic replacement of synthetic forms with analytic ones is an empirical matter and, as such, cannot be disputed. However, there is more to the evolution of the future than the above cycle. 4 . 2 . A less superficial view. To understand the evolution of the French future one must start at its source, which is shrouded in the haze and mist of the dawn of Latin. Indo-European had no future tense. Indeed only one temporal distinction was made in the protolanguage, that between the present and the past. This distinction, moreover, was possible only in the imperfective aspect of the indicative. In contrast with this poorly developed temporal system, Indo-European, in addition to the indicative and the imperative, had two moods: the subjunctive and the optative. The former indicated "un procès qu'on compte voir se réaliser, soit qu'on le veuille ... soit qu'on l'attende simplement", while the latter served to express "une chose possible ... [ou] souhaitée" (Meillet 1964:224-226; emphasis omitted). 4 . 2 . 1 . The temporalization of the future. Latin initiated in the above-described part of grammar a double change. On one hand, it reduced the two subjective moods to one, creating a new subjunctive, parts of whose suppletive morphology can be traced back to the thematic markers of the IndoEuropean optative (cf. the subjunctives velim "I want" and edim "I eat"). On the other hand and in a related change, Latin converted the ancestral subjunctive into a future tense whose forms, except for the first person singular and for the first two conjugations, are those of the Indo-European subjunctive (cf. the Lat. ferëtis "you (pl.) will bear" and the cognate Greek and Vedic subjunctives phérëte and bháratha respectively; these and the preceding examples are from Meillet & Vendryès 1979:294 and 291). This reorganization of the Indo-European verbal system clearly indicates that Latin replaced a modal distinction with a temporal one. This is not to say that the Latin future could not have a modal value at times. Meillet & Vendryès give examples showing that it could also express inner deliberation, probability, mild commands and general truths (1979:290), and such nuances can also be conveyed by the Modern French future (cf. Grevisse 1961:641642 for comparable examples and also Fleischman 1982:129-133). Yet, none

BERNARD H. BICHAKJIAN

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of these peripheral values can take away the fact that the primary function of the French and Latin futures is to indicate "la simple postériorité d'un fait par rapport au moment où I'on parle" (Grevisse 1961:641). For that reason they are tenses which, moreover, are well integrated into the temporal system of their respective languages. Thus the first step in the development of the future was a shift from a modal to a temporal distinction. Such a shift is not cyclical, but belongs to the linear evolution of languages. In an otherwise solid piece of scholarship, Suzanne Fleischman has: envisaged ... a continuous three-stage process

[based on her interpretation of] the simple Romance futures (Fr. chanterai, Sp. cantaré, Ptg. cantarei)( 1982:108).

She argues that: as they evolve progressively into markers of primary modality, their tense function comes to be taken over by analytic go-futures, which have begun to fuse in certain Hispanic dialects, thereby initiating a new phase of the cycle, as it were {ibid).

First of all, the fusing of voy a dormir "I am going to sleep" into yo vadormir approximately "I gonna sleep" is irrelevant for the discussion of the alleged cyclical alternation of modality and tense. The periodic replacement of synthetic forms by analytic ones is not disputed, of course, but it is another matter; and purely morphological changes should not be confused with the evolution of grammatical distinctions. Grammatical values may change while their markers remain the same (cf., for instance, the Indo-European sub­ junctive which in part became a future in Latin while the corresponding marker, -è-, remained the same, at least in the root verbs; and conversely cantare habeõ, which supplanted cantãbõ without there being a change in the temporal system of the language). Second, French, for one, lends scarce empirical evidence for saying that "as they [i.e. the Romance simple futures] evolve progressively into markers of primary modality, their function comes to be taken over by analytic futures" (Müller 1975:82). A change is indeed taking place: je vais chanter is in the process of replacing je chanterai, but although it is receding in frequency je chanterai has by no means lost its temporal value.

LANGUAGE CHANGE: CYCLICAL OR LINEAR?

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Discriminating speakers may perceive a difference between the two futures, but the difference is aspectual. To Sauvageot "il semble bien qu'une distinction soit sentie ... la construction périphrastique indiquerait une sorte de futur de certitude .... En d'autres termes ... un futur perfectif" (1962:96). Imbs presents a concurring analysis. In elle se manera Van prochain "she will marry next year", "le tour est... neutre", but in elle va se maner l'an prochain "she is going to marry next year" aller builds "un pont entre le présent et l'avenir" (1960:56). Thereby a future is produced which mirrors the present perfect - a parallel which is also observed by Fleischman (1982:98-99). It is clear from both analyses that if there is a difference between the two futures the distinction is not made by the synthetic form being marked for modality, but by the analytic one being marked for aspect. And as this aspectual feature is lost (for the positive markedness of the perfective future, cf. Comrie 1976:119), the analytic form replaces the synthetic one. The replacement of je chanterai by je vais chanter can be analysed as the temporalization of the latter, but not as the modalization of the former. Moreover, there is no indication that the French synthetic future is becoming a "marker... of primary modality" in idiolects or registers where the future tense takes only the analytic form. In such grammars, the modalities that could be conveyed by the future tense are expressed either with the analytic form itself or, when that is not possible, with a specific modal auxiliary, an adverb, or simply with the present tense. Therefore, instead of Vous prendrez bien une tasse de thé avec moi? "You'll have a cup of tea with me, won't you?" exclusive users of the analytic form will say Vous allez bien prendre... "You are going to have ..." instead of Il aura oublié notre rendez-vous. "He probably forgot our appointment." either Il a dû oublier... "He must have forgotten ..." or, as in English,

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II a sans doute oublié... "He has probably forgotten ..." and, finally, instead of A regard des voleurs, on ne sera jamais assez prudent "When it comes to thieves, one can never be too careful" something like Contre les voleurs, on (ne) prendjamais assez de précautions. "Against thieves, you're never too careful." (The examples of synthetic futures and their glosses are from Fleischman 1982:129-132.) Whatever the alternatives, the French data lend no empirical support to the idea that the synthetic forms of the future tense are becoming those of a mood, and thereby raise serious doubts about the basis of the alleged mood-tensemood cycle. Instead, the empirical evidence shows that modality conveyed once by grammatical moods and later as overtones of a tense is now more and more expressed by the corresponding adverb or auxiliary. This series of changes suggests that the main process is not cyclical but linear. As I stated above, the evolution of the grammatical system and that of the morphological items that represent it should be clearly distinguished. The mood-and-aspect-dominated verbal system of the protolanguage developed into an increasingly more tense-dominated system, starting in Latin and continuing to this day. At one time in the prehistory of Latin, this process produced a future tense - with possible ' modal applications' - but from the earliest Latin texts to the French of today there has always been a future tense. The markers have been renewed, and each time the new periphrastic constructions became devoid of their original values, but the grammatical value of the future tense has remained primarily that of a tense. Perhaps an example from American political life can help make my point. Every four or eight years a new president takes office. The new chief executive may have served previously as senator or governor, but no one would claim that the American presidency alternates periodically with the offices of senator or governor. The office holders come and go, but the office remains essentially the same. In the case of the future, the forms go on succeeding each other, bringing about the periodic return of analytic forms, but the grammatical function (tense + attendant 'modal applications') has remained the same since it emerged.

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Until someonefindsa language that had first a verbal system with a future tense and no subjunctive mood, and through a natural evolutionary process has shifted to a system without a future tense but with a subjunctive mood in its stead, the temporalization of the future can rightly be considered a linear process. 4.2.2. The change of auxiliary from BE to HAVE. Behind the cyclical return of analytic forms, the morphology of the future has also undergone linear changes. As mentioned above, the root verbs, i.e. those of the third and fourth conjugations, used for their futures the thematic vowel of the ancestral subjunctive, i.e. e, for all but the first person singular, and for the latter the thematic vowel of an Italic subjunctive, i.e. a. But in the absence of a suitable etymological vowel for the first and second conjugations, Latin had recourse to a periphrastic construction in which the nominal form of the verb was combined with the subjunctive aorist of the Latin cognate of to be, hence cantābõ and monebõ. While these forms are normally glossed as "I shall sing" and "I shall warn", respectively, it should be borne in mind that with the auxiliary being in the subjunctive aorist these periphrases originally must have had a perfective value (cf. for their Modern French equivalents Sauvageot and Imbs quoted above in Section 4.2.1). Attempts to level the -ë-/-bo allomorphy and to reshape the future of the fourth conjugation on the model of the first two were, of course, to be expected. Not only was the -bō future more transparent, or at least more substantial, but the verbs of these conjugations were morphologically more popular (cf. cantōre for  "to sing" and Late Latin or Romance endere for cndere). Forms such as audîbo are indeed attested throughout the history of Latin, but the analogical future "a été évité par les écrivains classiques" (Meillet & Vendryès 1979:291). The elegant way of eliminating the allomorphy and solving the phonological problems that developed in the later years was to replace the two futures (the one in-e-and the one in -bõ) with a new periphrasis, hence cantare habès and audîre habës instead of the allomorphic cantnbis and audiës. Doing away with infelicitous allomorphy and introducing by the same token a more transparent construction are common and indeed cyclical phenomena (cf. the Humboldt universal which stresses the naturalness of the one-form-one-meaning correspondences and also Fleischman 1982:103-108 for a discussion of the synthetic-analytic cycles). But it should be observed that along with these cyclical phenomena there occurred another change which deserves special consideration: the auxiliary is no longer BE but HAVE.

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The observed change in auxiliaries is not a cyclical one. BE and HAVE do not alternate periodically in this function; instead there is a unidirectional shift from BE to HAVE (cf. Vendryès 1937 for a broad selection of examples). The shift from BE to HA VE, which is also visible in the formation of Romance perfect tenses, belongs to a very profound change in the conception of grammar. As auxiliary or lexical item, HAVE is a latecomer in languages. IndoEuropean did not have such a verb and indicated possession through the wellknown construction illustrated by the Lat. mihi est liber "to me is a book" or in modern phraseology "I have a book". To understand this lexical lacuna and the attendant syntactic idiosyncrasy one must recall that the protolanguage made a distinction between active and middle verbs. Active verbs denoted an activity outside the subject, while the middle indicated that the subject was the seat of the action (cf. Benveniste 1966:172). Like live, go, eat, etc., BE was an active verb, hence the possibility of having mihi est liber. But apparently HAVE could not be integrated into such a system since it was neither active (cf. the present day impossibility of saying *a book is had by me ) nor middle. Indeed, extant languages that make a grammatical distinction between subjectexterior and subject-interior types of action have no verba habendi (Klimov 1977:315). The ancestral active-vs.-middle diathesis was at first preserved in Latin (cf. on one hand the active vivō "I live", i.e. "I exercise the activity of living" and on the other the deponent  "I die", i.e. "I undergo death"). This was a cognitive distinction, but Latin gradually moved away from such distinctions and developed purely grammatical functions, e.g. subject and object instead of agent and seat of action, and active and passive voices instead of an active-vs.-middle diathesis. These developments undermined the existence of deponent verbs and made a verbum habendi possible. Hence the Lat. habeõ, meaning formally "to hold" (see also Bichakjian 1988a:95-107). Moreover the ancestral aspectual system, based on a hie et nunc apprehension of the cognitive data, gave way to a more reasoned system, one organized around temporal distinctions (cf. Bichakjian 1988b for a discussion of the development of Latin and Romance verbal systems). This change brought along a shift from BE, a characteristic feature of aspectual systems, to HAVE, the auxiliary of languages with predominantly temporal distinctions. The creation of a true passive, the receding course of deponents, the appearance of a verbum habendi, the rise of temporal distinctions and the replacement of the auxiliary BE with HAVE do not just coincide by chance. These developments are all related to the gradual shift from cognitive to grammatical distinctions. Therefore, behind the cyclical return of an analytic

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47

form one must not fail to see in cantare habeõ the linear change of the auxiliary from BE to HAVE, including the underlying processes. 4.2.3. From left to right branching. After a future tense evolved out of a modal ancestor and in a subsequent change HA VE came to be used instead of BE, a new process began to operate: je vais chanter is now replacing je chanterai. The psycholinguistic advantage is manifest: Dans la conversation familière et dans le langage soutenu, le rôle des temps périphrastiques (futur ... du type: il va venir) est peut-être un moyen d'esquiver la difficulté des conjugaisons, et non exclusivement une façon de s'opposer aux temps simples correspondants, par une valeur spécifique (Désirat & Horde 1976:142).

(Cf. also Section 4.2.1 above and mutatis mutandis Section 4.2.2.) Hereby an analytic form is again supplanting a synthetic one. The cyclical nature of this process is of course obvious and thereby undeniable. But it should also be noted that the receding item is the former cantare habeõ, where the auxiliary followed the infinitive, and the advancing one je vais chanter, where the auxiliary precedes. The discussion concerning the order of syntactic and, to the extent they are included, of morphological elements has often been conducted in terms of the relative position of Subject and Object in reference to the Verb, a mode of patterning clearly inspired by Greenberg (1963). There can be no doubt that Greenberg's typological data and the corollary implicational universais are extremely useful, but they are data and as such require careful interpretation. Such a carefully thought-out interpretation of Greenberg's data was offered by Chomsky (for an acknowledgement of his debt, cf. Chomsky 1986:21). Chomsky, who had briefly observed the dichotomy between leftand right-branching structures (1965:12-14), went on, after the X-Bar Theory had formalized the notions of 'head' and 'modifier' (or 'complément'), to posit in his modular conception of grammar the existence of a "head-complement parameter", which "languages may ... set... in one way or another" (1981:7 and cf. also 1986:88). In other words, languages are either left or right branching (i.e. modifier-head or head-modifier). In reality, this generalization is extreme: there are left- and right-branching structures, and individual languages include a more or less overwhelming majority of one or the other. Nevertheless, the true distinction is indeed between left and right branching. When one applies the branching dichotomy to the analysis of the historical data, it becomes apparent that grammatical structures have been steadily shifting from left to right branching (for a discussion of this process in the Indo-European languages, cf. Bichakjian 1987 and 1988a: 141-147, and fora

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detailed study of this process in Latin and French, cf. Bauer 1987). And as je vais chanter, where the auxiliary is the head and the infinitive the modifier, is replacing the former cantare habeö, another left-branching structure is making room for aright-branchingone. This is an example, therefore, not just of an analytic form replacing a synthetic one but also rather of a head-first structure supplanting the more archaic type. By so doing, the language is moving one step further in the evolutionary course that goes from left to right branching. This process is not cyclical, but linear. 5.

Cyclical changes and evolutionary processes.

After arguing that "linguistic drift has direction", Sapir poignantly added: "We feel rather that our language is practically a fixed system and that what slight changes are destined to take place in it are as likely to move in one direction as another. The feeling is fallacious" (1949:155). The history of the Latin and French futures lends mutatis mutandis full support to both the positive and negative parts of Sapins conclusion. On one hand, the periodic replacement of a synthetic form with an analytic one may lead an observer to assume that all linguistic changes are cyclical, but the assumption is "fallacious". On the other hand, the temporalization of a mood, the change of auxiliary from BE to HAVE, and the shift from left-branching to right-branching structures, all of which are linear processes, support the view that language evolution "has direction" (for a discussion of how this direction can be described and of what could explain the process, cf. Bichakjian 1988a).

REFERENCES Bauer, Brigitte. 1987. "L'évolution des structures morphologiques et syntaxiques du latin au français". Travaux de Linguistique 14-15:95107. Benveniste, Emile. 1966. "Actif et moyen dans le verbe". Problèmes de linguistique générale, vol. I, 168-175. Paris: Gallimard. Bichakjian, Bernard H. 1986. "When do lengthened vowels become long? Evidence from Latin and French, and a paedomorphic explanation". Studies in Compensatory Lengthening ed. by W. Leo Wetzeis & Engin Sezer, 11-36. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris. Bichakjian, Bernard H. 1987. "The evolution of word order: a paedomorphic explanation". Papers from the Vllth International Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by Anna Giacalone Ramat, Onofrio Carruba & Giuliano Bernini, 87-107. (= Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 48.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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Bichakjian, Bernard H. 1988a. Evolution in Language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma. Bichakjian, Bernard H. 1988b. "*J'ai tombé pour je suis tombé: L'aboutissement d'une longue évolution". Aspects de linguistique française. Hommage à Q.I.M. Mok ed. by Ronald Landheer, 31-48. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Bichakjian, Bernard H. Forthcoming. "From family tree to phylogeny". Paper presented at the XlVth International Conference of Linguists. Berlin, DDR, 1987. Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris. Chomsky, Noam. 1986. Knowledge of Language. Its Nature, Orìgin and Use. New York: Praeger. Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Désirât, Claude & Tristan Horde. 1976. La langue française au XXe siècle. Paris: Bordas. Fleischman, Suzanne. 1982. The Future in Thought and Language: Diachronic Evidence from Romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Greenberg, Joseph H., ed. 1963. Universais of Language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966. "Synchronic and diachronic universais in phonology". Language 42:508-517. Grevisse, Maurice. 1961. Le bon usage. 7th éd. Gembloux, Belgium: Duculot. Imbs, Paul. 1960. L'emploi des temps verbaux. Paris: Klincksieck. Klausenburger, Jürgen. 1970. French Prosodies and Phonotactics. (= Beihefte zur ZRPh, 124). Klimov, Georgij A. 1977. Tipologija jazykov aktivnogo stroja. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo "Nauka". Meillet, Antoine. 1964. Introduction à l'étude comparative des langues indo­ européennes. University, AL: Alabama University Press. Meillet, Antoine & Joseph Vendryès. 1979. Traité de grammaire comparée des langues classiques. 5thed. Paris: Champion. Müller, Bodo. 1975. Das Französische der Gegenwart. Varietäten, Strukturen, Tendenzen. Heidelberg: Winter. Poebel, Arno. 1923. Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik. (= Rostocker Orientalische Studien, vol. I.) Sapir, Edward. 1949. Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. Sauvageot, Aurélien. 1962. Français écrit, Français parlé. Paris: Larousse. Vendryès, Joseph. 1937. "Sur remploi de l'auxiliaire avoir pour marquer le passé". Mélanges ... van Ginneken ed. by J. Wils, 85-92. Paris: Klincksieck.

SYNTACTIC RECONSTRUCTION AND FINNO-UGRIC LYLE CAMPBELL State University of New York at Albany 0.

Introduction.

Throughout the history of comparative linguistics a prevalent opinion has been that syntactic reconstruction is difficult (if not impossible) and often that it is fundamentally different from phonological and morphological recon­ struction, e.g., as stated by Jucquois (1976:232, 251): La reconstruction syntactique n'est généralement pas bordée dans les travaux comparatifs. Elle diffère fondamentalement de la comparaison phonologique et de la comparaison morpho-lexicale et ne permet pas d'aboutir au même type de résultats. En résumé, la comparaison syntactique n'est possible que dans certains cas.

Watkins (1969:17) assessed the history of Indo-European comparative syntax equally pessimistically. Wir dürfen uns darüber keine Illusionen machen: Nach 150-jähriger Entwicklung und Verbesserung der vergleichenden Methode und Herstellung des Urindogermani schen sind wir heute nicht fähig, auch nur einen einzigen wohlgeformten Satz von trivialster Verwickeltheit in dieser Sprache zu rekonstruieren.

The abundant recent attention to the topic has not improved the situation much. Winter (1985:623), for example, favors one extreme: there cannot be a reconstructional comparative syntax except for the marginal area of strings transmitted with the intent that they be learned as such.

Hock (1985:49) falls at the other extreme: the claimed fundamental difference between phonological and syntactic reconstruction is spurious. In addition, the general conclusion, that syntactic reconstruction is impossible, will be shown to be unacceptable.

Recent attitudes toward syntactic reconstruction range from favorable (e.g., Dressier 1971; Harris 1985, 1986; Hock 1985; Vincent 1980; Watkins

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1963, 1964) to extremely pessimistic (Lightfoot 1979:154-166, Winter 1984; cf. also Campbell & Mithun 1981, Jeffers 1976, and Norman & Campbell 1978). From all sides, however, there is considerable agreement concerning the difficulty of reconstructing grammar. My purposes in this paper are: (a) to examine the claimed obstacles to syntactic reconstruction via the comparative method; (b) to assess the potentials for circumventing the troubles they occasion; and (c) ultimately to determine how bright the prospects for successful syntactic reconstruction are. I will illustrate the difficulties and proposed solutions to them with comparative grammatical material from the Balto-Finnic and related Finno-Ugric languages. 1.

Obstacles.

Syntactic reconstruction is understandably made difficult by the factors that typically complicate the comparative method in general, e.g., ANALOGICAL CHANGE (OR RESTRUCTURING), BORROWING, ACCIDENTAL SIMILARITY, AND PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT IN ACCORD WITH TYPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND LINGUISTIC

In addition, as many affirm, syntactic change lacks a direct analogue to the REGULARITY and DIRECTIONALITY of sound change, which are so useful in phonological reconstruction (cf. Campbell & Mithun 1981, Harris 1985, Hock 1985, Jeffers 1976, Lightfoot 1979, Miranda 1976). In addition, it has been claimed (e.g.,Lightfoot 1979, 1981; Warner 1983) that syntactic reconstruction in principle is not possible, since grammars are created anew by each subsequent generation, i.e. there is no continuity between grammars of different generations. This potentially serious obstacle is also addressed. In this paper I will be concerned mainly with the complicating factors, but will also consider things claimed as positive aids to the reconstruction of grammar, viz. morphological reconstruction, relics and archaisms, and pattern regularities. The final objective is to assess the prospects for successful syntactic reconstruction. Some issues often presumed to be serious obstacles to syntactic reconstruction I do not take up here. For example, some cite limitations on available data (e.g., lack of earlier attested stages or gaps in the corpus of available texts for dead languages) as a serious problem (e.g., Lightfoot 1979:5-7). The quality of the available information is an important consideration in all historical enterprises and has no special status in historical syntax; one does the best one can with the extant material. In the many instances where one compares the grammars of living languages, serious gaps in the data should not be a serious problem, since they could be filled in through additional investigation. The same comment holds for the lament

UNIVERSALS.

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about the lack of native-speaker intuitions for dead languages; one has to work with what is available. With living languages, one can be on firmer ground; with texts one has to employ careful philological techniques. Another oftheralded problem is the current lack of an adequate synchronic theory of syntax. This is unfortunate, but it can hardly be the case that in the absence of a definitive formal theory we cannot talk about grammatical developments in the languages we study. With both traditional grammar and the modern theories there is enough clear terminology and common concepts for us to be able to talk reasonably well about how grammars work, how their pieces fit together, and how they might change. Lack of complete success at framing an adequate formal theory of language in no way means that we cannot describe and compare aspects of grammars for the purposes of postulating earlier stages in clear, respectable and replicable ways. The current attention to linguistic typology is a case in point; it reveals much about the interaction of grammatical elements without the benefits of a formal theory. Surely our historical comparative interests are no worse off for the lack of an adequate synchronic theory of syntax than these cross-linguistic typological comparisons. 2.

Balto-Finnic and related languages.

The data against which the obstacles to and prospects for comparative reconstruction of syntax will be judged are primarily from the Balto-Finnic subgroup of the Uralic family, of which the Finno-Ugric branch is best known. The relationship among these languages is shown in Table 1, the Uralic family tree. Uralic scholars have been very successful in reconstructing the grammar of this family and its subgroups. Some general features postulated for ProtoUralic (PU) and for Proto-Balto-Finnic (PBF) are mentioned here as a prelude to the assessment of how well this syntactic reconstruction holds up against the obstacles to reconstruction that must be dealt with. Some general features of Proto-Uralic grammar are the following. Dual (*-(-)) contrasted with plural (*-t and *-j) and singular (ø). There were three so-called grammatical cases and three relational (locative) cases. The accusative was the ordinary case of the object, but the object of a finite verb in the imperative mood had no accusative marker. Case marking and definiteness were linked; the genitive and accusative cases implied definiteness; indefinite nouns took no marking (called 'absolutive', equivalent to nominative). In its syntactic functions, the genitive case, called an 'attribute', served to signal the adjunction of possessed noun with possessor and of an adjective attribute

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Group A. Finno-Ugric Division 1. Balto-Finnic group Finnish Estonian Karelian Veps Votie Livonian 2. Lapp* 3. Volga Balto-Finnic group Mordvin Cheremis (or Mari) 4. Permic group Zyrian (or Komi) Votyak (or Udmurt) 5. Ob-Ugric group Ostyak (or Khanty) Vogul (or Mansi) 6. Hungarian B. Samoyedic Division 1. Nenets (or Yurak) 2. Enets (or Yenesey Samoyed) 3. Ngansan (or Tavgi) 4. Selkup (or Ostyak Samoyed)

Population

5,000,000 1,000,000 138,000 16,000 a few dozen 300 36,000 1,200,000 622,000 478,000 714,000 21,000 7,600 14,000,000 25,000 400 1,000 4,300

♦Lapp and BF together called BF-Lapp. Table 1. The Uralic family (after Korhonen 1984). before its head noun. It has been hypothesized that a separate objective conjugation existed which refers to the definite object of a transitive verb; it was formed through the substitution of the possessive suffixes of the nominal declension for the ordinary verbal personal endings for the 'actors' (agents?). Proto-Uralic had the tenses: *-j "past", *- "past (perfect)", *-pA "present", *-śA "past". Imperative forms and the tenses were formed on verbal noun bases. The 2nd person singular was otherwise unmarked and hence had *-k, equivalent to the derivation of verbal nouns with *-k. There was a negative (auxiliary) verb, *e-. A sentence minimally consisted of a nominal subject + a verbal or nominal predicate; the subject could be signaled by use of the 'personal conjugation', i.e. with personal suffixes on the predicate (noun or verb). The predicate agreed with its subject; no other agreement existed. In

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embedded clauses, the predicate was expressed as a verbal noun without the personal conjugation (i.e. the usual personal suffixes of the verb), but rather by use of personal possessive suffixes to signal its subject. The role of the embedded clause in the matrix sentence was shown by the appropriate case marking on the verbal noun (nominalization) of the subordinate form. No conjunctions nor relative pronouns existed; embedded verbal noun (nominalization) constructions were the only means of showing subordination. Finally, word order was SOV. (Cf. Hakulinen 1968; Janhunen 1982; Korhonen 1981a, 1981b, 1984; Laanest 1982.) The Balto-Finnic subfamily has been fairly innovative syntactically. Some general characteristics are the following. It has roughly three times as many cases as Proto-Finno-Ugric had, and most case functions have changed, at least in part. The dual has been lost, in verb conjugations all but the first and second person singular present are of secondary development. Of the imperative forms, only the second person singular goes beyond early ProtoBalto-Finnic. The negative verb in part has lost its tense and aspect markers. Of the verbal nominalization forms, only the so-called third and fourth infinitives go back beyond early Proto-Balto-Finnic. The first and second infinitives and both participle markers have developed their modern functions only in early Proto-Balto-Finnic times or later. The most notable syntactic departures of Balto-Finnic from general Finno-Ugric, which will be the topic of discussion in this paper, are: (a) Copula: Balto-Finnic and Lapp have a copula (the verb olla "to be" or its cognates) with nominal predicates. Other Finno-Ugric languages have no copula except where it is needed to bear tense, mood or person. (b) Agreement: adjectives agree with their heads in case and number in Balto-Finnic, but not in other languages. (c) Word order: Balto-Finnic and Lapp have SVO basic word order; other members of the family typically are SOV. (d) Complex sentences: coordination and subordination are by conjunctions in Balto-Finnic and Lapp; many other Finno-Ugric languages have asyndetic adjunction rules, and subordination is uniquely or mainly through the nominalization of verbs. In a few of the other languages the use of conjunctions has only in the very latest times begun to increase, under Russian influence.

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(e) Partitive: Balto-Finnic languages have created a partitive case; object marking has been split, differing conditions requiring either nominative, accusative or partitive case marking; grammatical conditions for subjects may require nominative, partitive or genitive, depending on the construction. (Cf. Korhonen 1981b, 1984). 3.

Obstacles.

Assumed obstacles to syntactic reconstruction are: lack of regularity in syntactic change, no analogue of directionality in grammatical changes, the difficulty of recovering prior states after analogical change (reanalysis, restructuring) and complications occasioned by borrowing. I take these up in turn. 3 . 1 . R e g u l a r i t y . A frequent opinion is that the application of the comparative method to syntax is severely limited because syntactic change has no analogue to the regularity of phonological changes. Thus, a single sound is learned conventionally in combinations with other sounds and in association with the meanings as it recurs in different morphemes. The sound, a type, has multiple tokens in its repeated occurrences in the morphemes that contain it. Regularity means that the same sound (type) under equivalent conditions changes in the same way in its various occurrences (tokens) in the different morphemes. It has been claimed that syntactic patterns or rules are different; they are not acquired embedded in some broader conventional context individual sentences are not learned, but generated by the rules of grammar. The rule is the type and has but a single token, the rule itself, learned without phonological substance, hence without broader associations of the kind that make it possible to view phonological change as regular (cf. Campbell & Mithun 1981, Norman & Campbell 1978). Antiila's (1976:11) characteri­ zation is very apt: syntax is iconic and as such does not have "enough symbolic meat to get your teeth into". Jeff ers (1976:4) states it this way: In syntax, only patterns can be compared, and patterns, in general, do not 'evolve' the way sounds do. There is no series of one to one correspondences between the syntactic patterns of a language and the syntactic patterns of that language at some earlier point in its history, as there are between the sounds of a language between any two stages in its history. A straightforward transfer of the principles of the comparative method to the reconstruction of syntax seems totally inappropriate ... The history of syntactic systems is a history of pattern replacement and reanalysis. In phonological reconstruction, when sounds do not reflect the continuous tradition which results from the operation of sound changes ... CM [the comparative method j collapses.

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Winter's (1985:616) view is that: reconstructional comparative linguistics as practiced in the fields of phonology and morphology ... is a discipline concerned with both substance and form (with substance taking precedence), while comparative syntax à la Lehmann is limited to a comparison of form. Or, to use a different terminology, comparative phonology and morphology are interested in tokens and, through them, in types, whereas the domain of comparative syntax as practiced in recent years is exclusively that of types.

He continues (pp. 622-623): Reconstructional comparative linguistics is concerned with what is 'inherited' ... acquired through a learning process ... For sentences ... acquisition by learning is most unusual ... Sentences are formed, not learned; morphemes and simple lexemes are learned, not formed ... Syntax deals almost exclusively with entities not learned, but constructed - or generated.

(Cf. also Campbell & Mithun 1981, Ivanov 1965 [quoted in Birnbaum 1977:33], Jeffers 1976, Jucquois 1976:243-244, Lightfoot 1979:9.) While the problem of syntactic change lacking a direct analogue of the regularity principle is serious, there are at least two partial compensations which weaken the devastation this criticism is thought to bring with it for syntactic reconstruction. The first involves the parts of grammar that are grounded in phonological substance. The second involves grammatical patterns embedded in the context of broader syntactic environments where the syntactic form can legitimately be seen to recur in multiple situations. Relics and archaisms, to be taken up below, might be considered a third, since they are learned conventionally (and hence have 'substance'), unlike sentences which are generated by the normal workings of a grammar. 3.1.1. Morphological reconstruction. There is typically a continuum in grammars from more concrete, phonologically endowed elements to more abstract ones (without phonological correlates). Morphology and syntax cannot reasonably be separated, thus to the extent that morphology can be reconstructed by the comparative method, many aspects of a protosyntax will become clear. That is, the normal techniques of lexical reconstruction, based on the sequence of recurring sound correspondences in cognate words, can be used to reconstruct polymorphemic words. Morphological analysis of these reconstructed protowords provides the morphology free, as it were, so long as the cognate morphemes have not undergone substantial functional or positional shifts. In the history of IndoEuropean studies, this kind of morphological reconstruction was often taken to

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be the major part of 'comparative grammar', where the reconstruction of morphological (and grammatical) paradigms attracted the most attention (cf. Allen 1953, Birnbaum 1977:25-30, Jeffers 1976:3-4, Jucquois 1976:233-234; for some typical examples, cf. Brugmann 1904, Krahe 1972, Watkins 1969). For example, the following reconstructions, which will play a role in subsequent discussions, illustrate this technique. Table 2 establishes the case distinctions in Balto-Finnic which signal the grammatical roles of nominal arguments, "nominative", "genitive" and "partitive", using the 1st person singular pronoun ("I"):

Nominative Genitive Partitive Table 2. Given well-established sound changes (e.g., vowel apocope, vowel syncope and loss of final - in Estonian, Livonian and Votic [with compensatory lengthening in the latter], loss of intervocalic -t-, seen here in Finnish and Votic), the reconstruction of these grammatically salient cases is clearly established via the normal procedures of lexical reconstruction. (Note that in Estonian orthography, b, d, g are roughly simple voiceless stops, while p, t, k are longer voiceless stops.) Table 3 illustrates syntactically important aspects of verb morphology, illustrated with the verb "to read". Again, the reconstruction of this morphology follows directly from the lexical reconstruction by the comparative method, given the sound changes mentioned above. (Note that γ in the reconstructions represents the weak grade of *k in closed syllables.) The only real complications stem from: (a) the Finnish present passive which has changed by analogy to look more like the first infinitive {-ta in many verb classes); also, Votic ss < As ; the last a of both Finnish and Votic is from the assimilation of e to the preceding a ; and (b) Estonian first person indicative past, lugesin ; the past originally was *-i, but was lost in the endingless 3rd person due to apocope; a large class of verbs with t changed this to s before the past i (cf. Finnish vastata "to answer", vastas-i "he answered"); the 5 of these verbs was extended by analogy to others that had formerly had no t in the root to signal past tense in

SYNTACTIC RECONSTRUCTION AND FIΝΝΟ-UGRIC

ProtoFinnish 1st sg. ind. luen 1st ind. past luin 1st ind. perf. olen lukenut pres. pass. luetaan past pass. luettiin 1st inf. lukea 3rd inf. lukemaan pres. part. lukeva past part. lukenut pr. pass. part. luettava past pass. part. luettu (Laanest 1982:250-271.)

Votic

Estonian

Balto-Finnic

lugen lud'in elenlukennu lukeassa lugetti: lukea lukema: lukeva lukennu lugettava lugettu

loen lugesin olenlugenud loetakse loeti lugeda lugema lugev lugenud loetav loetud

*luye-n *luy-i-n *ole-n luke-nut *luye-tta-k-sen *luye-ttiin *luke-ta(X) *luke-ma-han *luke-vaX *luke-nut *luye-tta-vaX *luye-ttu

59

Table 3. compensation for the lost -i, the former past tense. This morphological reconstruction gives us a good beginning on the syntax; for example, from these forms it is clear that Proto-Balto-Finnic had a passive construction and both indicative and passive participles (both with present and perfect versions), involved in subordinate clauses (complex sentences) (see below). Morphological reconstruction via the comparative method thus can provide much syntactic information about the protolanguage. 3.1.2. Constructions embedded in broader syntactic patterns. Harris (1986:4) has argued that regularity can be observed in syntactic correspondences if regularity is taken to mean not 'exceptionless', but 'rulegoverned and non-random'. She notes a regular shift in case alignment in a variety of sentence types that distinguish Standard Laz and the Maxo dialect which results in a regular correspondence between them. Given that case marking serves to signal grammatical roles and is employed in a variety of different grammatical contexts (e.g., both transitive and intransitive sentences with different verb classes), it can be said to illustrate a recurring regularity akin to that so useful in phonological reconstruction, where the case change is embedded in the broader pattern of case usage in different syntactic constructions. To make this more concrete, the following example should help. In Standard Finnish verbs of obligation take genitive subjects (with fully affected direct objects, if present, in the nominative case), e.g.:

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(1) minu-n täyty-y sanoa se I-Gen must-3rd:Pres torsay it:Nom "I have to say it" This includes a sizable number of lexemes (tulee "must", tulisi "should", pitää "must", pitäisi "should", täytyy "must", on verb + pres.pass.prt "must", on pakko "it is necessary that", etc.). In Western Finnish dialects, however, these verbs of obligation have shifted to the pattern of other nonobligation verbs, no longer taking genitive subjects (and nominative objects, where appropriate), but rather nominative subjects with which the verb agrees (and accusative objects when fully affected), e.g.: (2) (I:Norn) must-I tordo "I must do (it)" (Cf. Saukkonen 1984:184.)

(youiNom) must-You to:go "you must go"

It can be said that the Western Finnish grammatical change is regular in the sense of phonological regularity in that it did not change randomly in only one or a few of the obligation forms, but rather it regularly changed the entire pattern, shifting from former genitive marking for subjects to the nominative case with verb-agreement in each of the verbs and compound constructions involving obligation, and with all persons ("you", "he/she/it", etc.). Here it is the recurrence of the same grammatical element in the multiple forms of a particular grammatical pattern that renders it possible for the change to be considered regular. I am suggesting here that patterned (i.e. paradigmatic) syntactic phenomena can be compared and changes in them seen as regular since they 76can, in effect, recur in the broader context of patterns, but that this is only partial compensation for the lack of regularity in syntagmatic syntactic constructions. Others have held similar opinions, though sometimes arguing against any other kind of syntactic comparison, e.g., Hock (1985:57): "it is syntactic patterns, rather than individual sentences, which form the basis for syntactic reconstruction". Collinge (1960:86) expressed the pattern principle this way: The external corroboration needed in this study will be the demonstration that the supposedly equivalent grammatical elements do in fact operate in several different structures in each of the compared languages, and that all those structures are respectively related to similar contextual situations in similar fashion as between languages. This will be a kind of 'compared' or 'collective' syntax which will be an essential part of comparative syntax ... the items compared will remain

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individual items, merely implying the existence of systems, in individually appreciated structures.

Ivanov (1965, quoted from Birnbaum 1977:33) seems to have had roughly the same opinion as expressed here: [syntactic] reconstruction could be achieved with relatively most success in those instances where the syntactic phenomena were closely intertwined with phenomena of other, 'lower' strata of linguistic structure: the phonological level ..., the morphological level ..., and the lexical level.

I hasten to add that not all syntactic change is regular, even when a more encompassing pattern surrounds it. For example, Standard Finnish grammar requires the so-called 'third infinitive' in the illative ("into") case with main verbs of motion, the first infinitive otherwise (for historical details, see below), e.g.: (3) tulee puhu-ma-an comes speak-3rd.Inf-Illative "come to speak" (4) haluaa puhu-a wants speak-lst.Inf "wants to speak" There is also a sizable number of verbs with no clear meaning of motion, but which nevertheless govern 'third infinitives', e.g.: (5) rupeaa puhu-maan "begins to speak" pyrkii puhu-maan "strives to speak" pystyy puhu-maan "is able to speak" In Vermland and Häme dialects some of these have shifted to govern 'first infinitives', based on analogy with other verbs of similar meaning already in that pattern, e.g.: rupeaa puhu-a (cf. alkaa puhu-a "begins to speak"), pyrkii puhu-a (ef. ynttää puhu-a "tries to speak"), while others have remained with 'third infinitive' complements (Saukkonen 1984:182-183). The pattern is clear, but the change is sporadic. This should not, however, occasion much speculation about the inapplicability of the comparative method in syntax, since this example is quite parallel to the analogical changes which otherwise complicate phonological reconstruction (see below). At this point in the discussion Winter's (1985:618) opinion should be added. He holds that, "If 'historical syntax' ... proposes to compare patterns

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and not realizations of patterns, it cannot be considered part of 'normal' reconstructional-comparative linguistics". This view in its requirement for phonological substance is perhaps too strong, but in spirit agrees with the claims I make: the more grounded in phonological substance or other recurrent patterns (a kind of 'realization of patterns'?), the better for comparison and reconstruction. Finally, it should be noted that Hock (1985:52) has praised the lack of regularity in syntactic change as valuable to reconstruction: "the fact that analogy and syntactic change are not as regular as sound change may actually be a help in reconstruction, since relics of an earlier stage may be preserved". This claim is considered below (Section 4) in conjunction with the value of archaisms in syntactic reconstruction, the context in which Hock intended it. I hasten to add that I do not subscribe to this view. 3.2. Directionality. The predictable direction of many sound changes is helpful to phonological reconstruction. For example, the change of ρ to b between vowels is natural and recurs independently in many lan­ guages, while the reverse (b > p / V V) is rare indeed. Knowing this helps reconstruction in a case where one language has VpV and a related language VbV; all else being equal, the typical direction of this change requires us to postulate *p, with the change to b intervocalically in the latter language. Lightfoot (1979:10) has taken a dim view of the value of implicational universais in establishing directionality for syntactic change (cf. also Jeffers 1976, Winter 1985:616); Campbell & Mithun (1981) were optimistic, but noted that not many such universais had yet been established (see also Dressier 1971). Miranda (1976:14) made the point about the value of directionality for syntactic reconstruction, alluding to cases where something of the direction of grammatical change is known, i.e. of postpositions to case suffixes, of modal auxiliary verbs to modal suffixes, and of passive constructions to ergativity, but not in the opposite direction. Hock (1985:52-53) asserts that there is more directionality to syntactic change and less to phonological change than commonly believed, making them not so distinct, after all. Today, the prospects for understanding the direction of many kinds of grammatical changes seem much brighter, and progress on implicational universais and typological interconnections is helping to establish this directionality information useful for syntactic reconstruction. This is illustrated in the following example. 3.2.1. Postpositions and cases. It is now generally taken as established that postpositions and cases evolve directionally following the

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scheme: Head Noun > Postposition > Clitic > Case (cf. Comrie 1980; Givón 1971, 1984; Langacker 1977; see Miranda 1976:14 for a similar point about directionality of syntactic change involving postpositions in one language, cognate with case suffixes in another; this is included in Vincent's (1980:58) claim that the 'grammaticalization' of lexical items is generally irreversible). New postpositions in Balto-Finnic have developed from former noun roots, e.g., in Finn, koda-n taka- [hut-Gen back-in] "behind the hut", venee-n luo-ta [boat-Gen presence-from] "from the boat". The postposition developed from a constituent containing a noun 'head' (usually in the genitive case) with a noun modifier or attribute (often bearing locative case endings) used adverbially, e.g., Finn, talo-η ede-ssä [house-Gen front-in] "in front of the house". Postpositions developed out of the relationship between the main word and its nominal attribute, as seen in the still ambiguous Finnish example: lapse-η rínna-lla [child-Gen chest-on], meaning either "on the chest of the child", the literal reading with "child-Gen" as an attribute to the head noun "chest-on", or "beside the child/side by side with the child" (cf. Eng. abreast of), where "chest-on" has been reinterpreted as a locative postposition governing genitive case, with "child-Gen" as the object of this postposition. One frequent avenue for the development of new cases has been from postpositions (the other means is by combination of already existent case suffixes). Cases develop from postpositions when the postposition is felt to be so closely connected to its attribute noun that together they are reinterpreted as one word; semantic and morphophonemic changes (e.g., vowel harmony) often take place which conceal the word boundary and change the status of the elements, resulting in new case suffixes. In Balto-Finnic the fusion in several instances is so late that corresponding postpositions are still found alongside cases, e.g., Est. poja-ga [boy-with], Finn, poja-η kanssa [boy-Gen with] "with the boy". In fact, Finnish dialects illustrate an intermediate step in this development. Standard Finnish has the postposition kanssa "with" (with dialect shapes of kans, ka:s, kah, etc.), e.g., lapse-η kanssa [child-Gen with] "with the child". In several Upper Satakunta and Savo dialects, however, this has developed into a 'comitative/instrumental' clitic or case, -ka(h), -ka:n, e.g., isänka "with father" (isä "father"), koiranka:n "with the dog" (koira "dog") (Kettunen 1930:29, Oinas 1961). The history of Estonian attests the gradual development of the ka postposition into a case suffix. In the earliest period of Northern Estonian literature (16th and 17th centuries), there appeared the postpositions kas, kaes, kaas, kaass, kahs (cognate with Finn.kanssa), which governed the genitive case. These forms were in use until the third quarter of the 17th

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century. At the same time that kaas, etc., were used in the Northern Estonian literary language, forms with -n - kaen, käen, kahn, gan - were employed in the Southern Estonian literary language. The -n forms were mostly confined to the 17th century. In the Northern Estonian literature, forms ending in a vowel (kaa, ka} kah) appeared somewhat later. (Laanest 1982:174-175, Oinas 1961). The development from postposition to case suffix is aided by the fact that main stress falls on the first syllable of a word or phrase, meaning that the first syllable of the main noun (object of the postposition) takes primary stress, while the postposition receives only secondary stress, allowing it to cliticize to the noun attribute. Balto-Finnic languages provide abundant examples of this process. The Finnish postposition päin "toward" is cognate with the Veps elative and ablative case suffix which developed from this postposition: -pai/-pai, -pä: /-pa:, e.g., Veps seinha-pä: "to the wall", Finn.seinä-(h)än päin [wallinto towards] "towards the wall". Another example is *lo:-na "at, in the presence of', e.g., Veps ikna-lon "by the window"; cf. Finn, ikkuna-n luo-na "by the window". (The suffix status is assured by the fact that several of these suffixes undergo vowel harmony). Many Hungarian case suffixes arose through agglutination in this way, where their development in historical times is easily traceable in written records. One intricate example involves the development of three cases. The Hungarian 'incessive' -ban/-ben (e.g., ház-ban "in the house", kéz-ben "in the hand") arose from the postposition benn ; today it appears in a non-case form only in adverbial usage with possessive suffixes (e.g., bennem "in me", benned "in you"). In the oldest Hungarian literature, a monument from the 13th century, it appeared only in front-vowel form, -ben, with no vowel harmony, representing an intermediate stage between postposition and case suffix. The elative case -ból /-bòi (e.g., báz-ból "out of the house", kéz-ból "from the hand") developed from the postposition belaiy as older literary records indicate. The illative case -ba/-be (e.g., ház-ba "into the house", kés-be "into the hand") occurs in dialects and in Old Hungarian in the form bele, where it represents an earlier stage of the ending (cf. adverbial belém "into me", beléd "into you"). The above postpositions from which these locative cases evolved, benn, belōl and bele, are originally from the single noun bel "inside(s), intestines, entrails, core" in three different case forms. (Laanest 1982:172-175; Oinas 1961). Knowing that the direction of change is generally from Noun > Postposition > Clitic > Case, we have an analogue to the directionality of sound change which can stand us in good stead in syntactic reconstruction

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when compared languages involve correspondences between postpositions and cases. For example, confronted with the following Balto-Finnic correspondences and given the known direction of such changes, it is incumbent upon us to reconstruct the postposition (postp. 'postposition', com. 'comitative case'): Standard Finnish Karelian

Veps

Esto­ nian

kanssa postp.

-ka com.

-ga com.

kanssa postp.

Votic kaisa postp. -ka: com.

Livonian

ProtoBalto-Finnic

ka:zu postp. -ka/ -k/-ks com.

*kans(s)aX "with" postp.

Table 4.

Note that cognates both inside and outside Balto-Finnic show that the postposition is derived ultimately from the noun root *kansa "people" (Oinas 1961). 3.2.2. Partitive case. The second example of directionality in grammatical change involves the development of the partitive case in BaltoFinnic. In general, constructions for signaling objects only partially affected by the action of the verb develop from locatives (with the meaning of roughly "from") or genitives ("of"). For example, in the French partitive construction, as in j'ai mangé du poisson "I ate (some) fish", the partitive marker du is from de "from" + an article. The Baltic languages use the genitive for partitive objects, as does Russian, where Indo-European ablative and genitive merged. English has a partitive sense in the somewhat archaic sounding, e.g., eat of my food and drink of my wine. First I will consider the historical development of the Balto-Finnic partitive case, then apply it to the issue of directionality in syntactic reconstruction. Most Uralic languages have no such case for partial objects. Originally, the *-m "singular accusative" indicated that the object was animate or specific, while inanimate and/or non-specific objects were in the nominative case, that is, they had zero case marking. This is still the case in some other Uralic languages. There was no such distinction with plural objects, and hence both nominative plural and accusative plural were signaled by *-t, as they are still today in Finnish and some other Balto-Finnic languages. The partitive object case is an innovation in Balto-Finnic and close relatives from a former ablative

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case ending. In Mordvin there is a small number of verbs (e.g., "eat", "drink") which employ the ablative case for objects, as in: (6) Moksha Mordvin: aru vet'-ta sima-n pure water-Abl drink-I "I drink pure water" cf. Finnish: juo-n puhdas-ta vet-tä drink-I pure-Part water-Part (7) Eiza Mordvin: vergizes vergiz-de a suski wolf:Nom wolf-Abl Neg bite "a wolf does not bite (any) wolf' (Laanest 1982:298). This shows the beginnings in the Volga Balto-Finnic period of the development of the syntactically and functionally complicated partitive case from the ablative case to one that expresses a partial object. The Mordvin ablative can be used as a 'restricting' object case, for instance where "to eat oi7from bread" develops the meaning "eat some (of the) bread", from which the grammatical function of the partitive case developed, used at first only with certain irresultative acts: "to seek, to ask for, to follow, to hope for, to long for", etc. Lapp has only one object case, called accusative', but only because the accusative and partitive uses have been realigned. Lapp's accusative plural corresponds to the Balto-Finnic partitive historically (e.g., Proto-Lapp *ko:dijde: "huts", from Proto-Balto-Finnic-Lapp *kota-j-ta [hut-Pi-Part], cf. Finn, kotia "plural partitive" (Korhonen 1981a:214-215). Remnants of the former partitive are preserved in Eastern Lapp in the comparative construction, in conjunction with numbers larger than "six", and with certain postpositions (Korhonen 1981a:216). The Balto-Finnic partitive and the Mordvin ablative (as well as the Baltic genitive) are comparable in sharing the same use in the situations involving: unspecified object of "to eat" and "to drink" (secondarily "to burn", "to smoke [tobacco]" and with a few other verbs [rarer in Mordvin]); and the objects of "to fear", "to be happy". In Finnish it occurs in: (a) the object of negative verbs (e.g., mies ei osta-nut talo-a [man:Nom Neg buy-Past house-:Part] "the man did not buy the house"); and (b) nouns after numbers (e.g., kuusi mies-tä [six man-Part.Sg] "six men"). Finnish has relics of the partitive's former 'ablative' functions. The modern 'separation' cases are -stA "from within" and -ItA "from without",

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the result of fusion of the old ablative *-ta and locatives *-s and *-l. However, relics of *-ta are found in some pronouns and postpositions, even in combination with nouns and adjectives which bear the new separation cases. For example (note *t is lost intervocalically after a short unstressed vowel, giving the allomorphs -ta and -a, -tä and ä): (8) sii-tä talo-sta [it-from house-from] "from that house" talo-η taka-a [house-Gen back-from] "from behind the house" isä-n luo-ta [father-Gen presence-from] "from father's presence" This former ablative value is also seen in certain other constructions, e.g.: (9) a. mies on suur-ta suku-a man is big-Part family-Part "the man is from an important family" b. veitsi on teräs-tä knife is steel-Part "the knife is (made) out of steel"  mi-tä mieh-i-ä te ole-tte? what-Part man-Pi-Part you are-You? "what kind of men are you?" d. kärsiä nälkä-ä to:suffer hunger-Part "to suffer from hunger" e. ontua jalka-a to:limp foot-Part "to limp due to one's foot" (Hakulinen 1968:437; Laanest 1982:299). One of the Finnish comparative constructions employs the partitive case as a holdover from a former ablative sense, as seen in, e.g.: (10) Jussi on sinu-a vanhe-mpi Jussi:Nom is you-Part old-Comparison "Jussi is older than you (are)" Given the distribution of partitive and ablative cases in the Finno-Ugric languages and the knowledge that partitive cases may develop from restricting case markings (e.g., ablatives), but not vice versa, we can reconstruct BaltoFinnic object marking (Part 'partitive'; Acc 'accusative'; Spec 'specified'; Abl 'ablative'; Loc 'locative'):

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Table 5. 3.2.3. Word order changes and directionality. Balto-Finnic (together with Lapp, for the most part) has the basic word order SVO, while the rest of the Uralic languages reflect SOV. While reconstruction via supposed consistency among different word-order patterns has been heavily criticized (cf. Campbell & Mithun 1981, Hawkins 1983), there are some aspects of the tendency for different orders to cluster which are useful in the reconstruction of Proto-Uralic basic word order and in explaining the BaltoFinnic changes. Finnish, for example, exhibits the word-order patterns: S-V-O Adjective-Noun Genitive-Noun Noun-Postposition Auxiliary-Main Verb Adverb-Adjective Relative clause-Head/Head-Relative clause Adjective-Marker-Standard/Standard+Part-Adjective While SVO languages show much greater variation across these patterns than do, for example, SOV or VSO languages, these data, nevertheless, can prove useful in reconstruction. In effect, only SOV languages can naturally have Relative clause-Head (preposed relative clauses). That is, verb-initial languages tend to have Head-Relative clause in harmony with their typical Head-Modifier orders within the NP. SOV languages may have Relative clause-Head in accord with the tendency towards Modifier-Head orders. Nevertheless, the 'heaviness principle' is also involved, that heavier constituents tend to be placed to the right of their heads to avoid the perceptual difficulty of processing the roles of nominal arguments (Hawkins 1983:90). In effect, then, only some SOV languages naturally contain Relative clauseHead in harmony with their preferred Modifier-Head orders, while many

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others conform to the heaviness principle with relative clauses shifted after their head Nouns. This being the case, only in an SOV language could Relative clause-Head arise naturally. Comparing Finno-Ugric, we find that the SOV languages have preposed relative clauses (though a few have also developed postposed relatives under foreign influence). Moreover, as in many SOV languages, these preposed relative clauses do not contain finite verb forms, but rather are made of nominalized or participial constructions which bear case markings and contain no relative pronouns (Keenan 1985). While Balto-Finnic also has postposed relative clauses (consistent with its SVO order and with the heaviness principle), the presence of its preposed relative clauses strongly suggests former SOV structure, since only in SOV languages is Relative clause-Head natural. These two relative-clause orders are illustrated in the following Finnish examples: Relative clause-Head: (11) huomas-i-n kova-lla ääne-llä puhu-va-n miehe-n notice-Past-I hard-by voice-by speak-Pres.Part-Acc man-Ace "I heard the man who speaks with a loud voice" (12) nä-i-n joke-en aja-nee-n miehe-n see-Past-I river-into drive-Past.Part-Acc man-Acc 'T saw the man who drove/has driven into the river" Head-Relative clause: (11) huomas-i-n miehe-n joka puhu-u kova-lla notice-Past-I man-Ace Rel.Pron:Nom speak-3rd:Pres hard-by ääne-llä voice-by (same meaning as ( 11)) (12') nä-i-n miehe-n joka ajo-i joke-en see-Past-I man-c Rel.Pron:Nom drive-Past river-into (same meaning as (12)) Secondly, the order Standard-Marker-Adjective in constructions of comparison is very much like preposed relative clauses, essentially occurring only in SOV languages, while Adjective-Marker-Standard order is most common in other word-order types. The fact that Balto-Finnic has both, but would not have acquired Standard-Marker-Adjective without an SOV background, argues for its former SOV status. Some examples from Finnish are: Standard-Marker-Adjective:

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(13) hän on sinu-a nopea-mpi he:Nom is you-Part fast-er "he is faster than you (are)" (14) hän juokse-e sinu-a hitaa-mmi-n he:Nom run:3rd:Pres you-Part slow-er-Adv "he runs slower than you (do)" Adjective-Marker-Standard: (13') hän on nopea-mpi kuin sina he:Nom is fast-er than you:Nom (same meaning as (13)) (14') hän juokse-e hitaa-mmi-n kuin sina he:Nom run-3rd:Pres slow-er-Adv than you:Nom (same meaning as (14)) Finally, while postpositions are sometimes found in other word orders, they are most consistent with SOV. Given these restrictions, that Relative clause-Head and Standard-MarkerAdjective can co-occur with SVO order, but that they do not develop in nonSOV orders, it seems clear that the reconstruction of SOV with Relative clauseHead, Standard-Marker-Adjective, and Postpositions is on safe ground. For syntactic reconstruction, then, given the correspondences: Finnic Head-Relative clause/Relative clause-Head Standard-Marker-Adjective/AdjectiveMarker-Standard Postpositions SVO

Others Relative clause-Head Standard-MarkerAdjective Postpositions SOV

the direction of change away from Relative clause-Head and Standard-MarkerAdjective in non-SOV languages, which has given Balto-Finnic the dual orders, supports the reconstruction of SOV with Relative clause-Head and Standard-Marker-Adjective in the protolanguage. These examples illustrate how the known direction of certain syntactic changes proves useful for syntactic reconstruction. 3.2.4. Analogy and reanalysis. Analogical changes in grammar have been considered particularly devastating to attempts at syntactic reconstruction. As Lightfoot (1979:164) puts it:

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syntactic change is in large measure analogical, based on a re-analysis or 'regrammatization' of old surface structure patterns, levelling former distinctions or creating new ones. That is, existing strings are given a new structural analysis, which eventually supplants the former analysis, presumably by some kind of analogical function ... Such analogical processes will cause as much interference for the usual methods of reconstruction as they do in phonology and other areas og grammar; BUT IN SYNTAX SUCH CHANGES ARE THE NORMAL TYPE AND THEREFORE THE METHODS WILL BE PARTICULARLY LIMITED (emphasis added, L.C.).

(Cf. Jeffers 1976:4.) Again, it is possible to admit the serious effects of analogy in syntactic change and still remain optimistic about reconstruction. That is, analogical change may obscure phonological correspondences, making reconstruction of phonology more difficult, but the weight of the conforming daughter languages often supersedes these effects, allowing for successful reconstruction. For example, given the cognate set: English adder

German natter

Gothic nadr-

Old Norse nadra

"adder"

English is clearly deviant and the testimony of the other languages would lead us to postulate an initial *n- in the protolanguage, while seeking an explanation for the English deviation. Knowing the article pattern in English of a #C-, an #V-, we would postulate an analogical reinterpretation of a #nadder as an #adder virtually on the strength of the correspondences in this cognate set alone. However, there is abundant evidence in English of this sort of reanalysis in other cases, e.g., in changes attested in documents (as in the case with adder), and in parallel forms, e.g., napkin/apron, etc. The effects of the analogical change are not devastating to reconstruction in this case, and it is the application of the comparative method which helps determine that such a change has in fact taken place. Analogical change is also recoverable in syntactic reconstruction in many cases. For a stimulating example of the reconstruction of aspects of Indo-European sentence structure, recovering the effects of a series of boundary reanalyses, surface reinterpretati ons and levelings in Old Irish, through comparison with Hittite, Vedic Sanskrit, etc., see Watkins (1963, 1964). In Finnish, for example, the negative imperfect and perfect constructions illustrate this point. Balto-Finnic and Lapp have a complex perfect with a copular auxiliary verb; the other languages use zero copula where possible (see below). Thus where formerly Balto-Finnic would have had, for example, koivu vihreä [birch green] "the birch is green", the copula was adopted and now the form is koivu on vihreä [birch is green].

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The copula was extended automatically to the perfect: i.e. formerly the form was, e.g., koivu kaatu-nut [birch fall-Past.Prt, literally "birch fallen"] "the birch has fallen"; after the adoption of the copula it was koivu on kaatu-nut [birch is fall-Past.Prt]. This development, however, complicated the negative paradigm which is based on negative verbs in Uralic. Before the adoption of the copula, forms illustrated in the following were employed: Positive Present

Preterite

Perfect

mina tule-n I come-I "I come" isä tule-e father come-3rd:Pres "father comes" mina tul-i-n I come-Past-I "I came" isä tul-i father come-Past "father came" mina tul-lut I come-Past.Prt "I have come" isä tul-lut father come-Past.Prt

Negative minä en tule I Neg:I come "I don't come/am not coming" isä ei tule father Neg: 3rd come "father doesn't come/isn't coming" minä esin tule I Neg:Past:I come "I didn't come" isä esi tule father Neg:Past :3rd come "father didn't come" mina en tul-lut I Neg:I come-Past.Prt "I have not come" isä ei tul-lut father Neg:Past:3rd come-Past.Prt

After the introduction of the copula, the negative perfect also came to be formed with the copula (e.g., isä ei ole tul-lut [father Neg:3rd Copula comePast.Prt] "father has not come"), corresponding to the positive (e.g., isä on tullut "father has come"), leaving the former copulaless negative perfect (isä ei tullut "father has come") in competition with the original negative 'preterites', e.g., isä esi tule, for the marker of negative preterite, as in: Preterite minä tul-i-n I come-Past-I "I came" isä tul-i father come-Past "father came"

minä esin tule I Neg:Past:I come "I didn't come isä esi tule father Neg:Past:3rd come "father didn't come" minä en tul-lut I Neg:I come-Past.Prt "I didn't come" isä ei tul-lut father Neg:3rd come-Past.Prt

SYNTACTIC RECONSTRUCTION AND FINNO-UGRIC

Perfect minä ole-η tul-lut minä I be-I come-Past.Prt "I have come" isä on tul-lut father is come-Past.Prt "father has come"

73

en ole tul-lut I Neg:I be come-Past.Prt "I have not come" isä ei ole tul-lut father NegrPast:3rd is come-Past.Prt "father hasn't come"

The competition was sorted out; some Balto-Finnic-Lapp languages (among them Finnish, Estonian dialects, Norwegian Lapp, Southern Lapp) eliminated the past negative verb constructions (those with esi, esin ) entirely, leaving the mina en tullut form as the only past negative; others (e.g., Livonian, some Estonian dialects [Kodavaere], Swedish Lapp) eliminated these former copulaless perfect forms, retaining the past negative verbs (the minii esin tule forms) for the past negatives. When we consider the corresponding forms in other Finno-Ugric languages, the reanalysis of the former copulaless negative perfect (ei tullut ) to the negative preterite is clear, e.g.: (a) Kodavaere Estonian (Balto-Finnic): ma essin annà "I didn't give" sa essiD annà "you didn't give" ta es annà "he didn't give" (b) Livonian (Balto-Finnic): ma iz UD "I wasn't" sa ist ùo "you weren't" ta iz ùo "he wasn't" (c) ErzaMordvin (Volga group): eźiri pala(k) "I didn't kiss" eźit pala(k) "you didn't kiss" es pala(k) "he/she didn't kiss" (d) Cheremis (Volga group) : sam bit [Neg:Past:I tie] "I didn't tie" (e) Zyrian (Permic group): eg mun [Neg:Past:I go] "I didn't go" (Korhonen 1981a:305-306, Laanest 1982:244.) Given the correspondence in the past (or preterite) forms of the negative verb in these languages, with representatives both within the Balto-Finnic branch and beyond, it seems clear that the 'negative preterite' must be reconstructed

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with a negative verb conjugated for person plus a personless main-verb stem. Given this clear situation, the Finnish negative preterite with a verb form corresponding to the past participle which is used with the 'perfect' in other instances is odd and these data call for an explanation. With the knowledge of the later addition of copulas to the complex tenses, it is not hard to understand the shift in the negative paradigm, and in the negative preterite form in particular. It presents no great obstacle to reconstruction in this case, given the weight of evidence from the other languages. An example with more complex syntax involves reanalysis of Finnish participial constructions (an example often cited, cf. Anttila 1972, Breckridge & Hakulinen 1976, Hakulinen & Leino 1985, Ikola 1959, Svensson 1983, Timberlake 1977, etc.). Finnish has four participles which play roles in complex sentences: (15)puhu-va [present active] "speaking" puhu-nut [past active] "spoken" puhu-tta-va [present passive] "is spoken" puhu-ttu [past passive] "has been spoken". These occur principally in two types of construction. In one, the participle functions as the object of the main verb (from the class of 'perceiving and saying' verbs), with the participle's subject in the genitive case, e.g.: (16) a. näe-n miehe-n tule-va-n see-I man-Ace.Sg come-Pres.Prt-Suf "I see the man comings see that the man is coming" b. kuul-i-n häne-n puhu-nee-n sii-tä hear-Past-I he-Gen.Sg speak-Past.Prt-Suf it-from "I heard that he had spoken about it" The other type has an intransitive main verb of the 'seem, appear, feel' class; the logical subject of the participle is simultaneously subject of the main verb, e.g.: (17) hän näky-y asu-va-n sie-llä he:Nom.Sg appear-3rd:Pres live-Pres.Prt-Suf there-at "he seems to live there" (18) te kuulu-tte asu-nee-n sie-llä you:Nom.Sg are:heard-2nd.Pl live-Past.Prt-Suf there-at "if s said/one hears that you have lived there"

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Originally, the subject of the participle was the object of the main verb in the first type: (19)*näe-n miehe-m tuleva-m see:I man-Acc.Sg come-Acc.Sg "I see the man coming/that is coming" The participle was more in the order of an adjectival modifier of the noun, agreeing in case. In the second type, the subject of the participle was at the same time subject of the main verb: (20) mies näky-y tule-va man:Nom.Sg appear-3rd:Pres come-Pres.Prt:Nom "the man seems to be coming" Here, the participle was a complement of the intransitive verb while modifying the noun. In Balto-Finnic final *-m changed to -n, making the accusative singular and the genitive singular homophonous, both -. This syncretism of case endings led to a reanalysis in the first type, where the participle was taken to be the object of the transitive verb, with the NP as its genitive modifer, representing its role as subject of the participle. This reinterpretation is particularly clear from plural nouns, where the accusative and genitive were not homophonous. Thus Old Finnish had examples such as: (21) nä-i-n venee-t purjehti-va-n see-Past-I boat-Acc.Pl sail-Pres.Prt-Acc.Sg. "I saw the boats sailing/I saw that the boats sail" This is in Modern Finnish: (21) nä-i-n vene-i-den purjehti-va-n see-Past-I boat-Pi-Gen The participle itself became petrified in the accusative form (ending in -), which then spread analogically to the second type which historically received no accusative -n, since intransitive verbs were involved. Compare Old Finnish (22) with Modern (22'): (22) mies näky-y tule-va man:Nom.Sg appear-3rd:Pres come-Pres.Prt:Nom "the man seems to be coming/it seems that the man is coming"

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(220 mies näky-y tule-va-n man:Nom.Sg appear-3rd:Pres come-Pres.Prt-Suf same meaning as (22)) Related languages retain clear evidence of the former state, where NPs of the participial clause are still treated as objects of the main verb rather than as genitive subjects of the participle. Thus, while Finnish has undergone rather wide-reaching reanalyses in these constructions, reconstruction is not greatly hampered, since the other languages provide abundant evidence to establish the original pattern and to indicate that Finnish has departed from it. Compare, for example, the following:1 (a)

Estonian (Raun & Saareste 1965:33): näg-i-n te-da tule-va-t see-Past-I he-Part:Acc come-Pres.Prt-Acc "I saw him coming/that he comes" cf. Finnish: nä-i-n häne-n tule-va-n see-Past-I he-Gen.Sg come-Pres.Prt-Suf

ln Estonian and Votic, and formerly in Old Finnish, the partitive case marks pronoun object where one would expect the accusative. The reason for this has to do with the same change of *-m to -n. Formerly distinct pronouns, e.g. minu-m [I-Acc.Sg] and *minu-n [IGen.Sg] ("my"), were left homophonous after the change, both as minu-η. The partitive case already functioned to signal objects in many instances, e.g. partial (not totally affected) objects, objects of negative verbs, etc. Since humans whom the pronominal forms represent are not normally acted upon in parts or pieces, either objective case, partitive or accusative, would signal a full proniminal object. Thus, the partitive took the place of the accusative in pronouns in order to prevent misunderstanding with the genitive case, identical in shape with the accusative, which was lost for pronouns. Old Finnish has examples both of pronominal objects in the partitive case and in the ambiguous genitive-like accusative. However, in time Finnish stabilized with an alternative solution; namely, it promoted the plural accusative ending (-r ) to signal the singular accusative of pronouns. Thus today Finnish pronouns bear the following endings, as illustrated for "I"­ mina Nom. minu-t Acc. (cf. miehe-t [man-Pl.Acc] "men") minu-a Part. minu-η Gen. Note that this use of partitive case in place of the accusative for pronouns in some BaltoFinnic languages is an additional instance of restructuring which can be recovered via the comparative method, since none of the other related languages shares such a development. In Zyrian, Votyak and Ostyak, corresponding pronouns are in the (original) accusative case. In comparisons, then, the accusative correspondences win for reconstruction; in seeking an explanation for the deviance in these languages we soon turn up the shift that took place in order to create an unambiguous pronominal object form. (Hakulinen 1968; Ikola 1968.)

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(b)

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Votie (examples from Ariste 1986): näin me:ssä tuLe-va: te:tä mö I:saw man:Acc come-Pres.Prt (:Acc) street:Part along "I saw a man coming/that comes along the street" cf. Finnish: nä-i-n miehe-n tule-va-n tie-tä pitkin I:saw man-Acc.Sg come-Pres.Prt-Suf road-Part along

That Votic treats the NP as a direct object of the main verb and not as a genitive-bearing subject of the embedded participle is clearer with negative verbs, which in Bal to-Finnic require the object to be in the partitive case: en tä: täta eLe-va: ... Neg:I know he:Part be-Pres.Prt(:Nom/Acc) "I don't know that he is ... " cf. Finnish: en tiedä häne-n ole-va-n Neg:I know he-Gen be-Pres.Prt-Acc (c)

Lapp (Korhonen 1981:300): son oia'dna boc'cu-i-d vuol'-ga-m he see reindeer-Pl-Acc leave-Past.Prt-Perf "he sees that the reindeer have left" cf. Finnish: hän näke-e poro-j-en lähte-nee-n he see-3rd:Pres reindeer-Pi-Gen leave-Past.Prt-Acc

From the comparison of these structures in Balto-Finnic-Lapp languages, it is clear that the normal correspondence is with an NP as object of the main verb, bearing an object case, not a genitive as in Finnish. Moreover, given the deviance of the construction in Finnish, we are impelled to seek an explanation. Knowing that a sound change left the accusative and genitive singulars identical in shape, we have little trouble identifying the reanalysis in Finnish grammar which produced its difference in this grammatical correspondence set. We reconstruct the pattern represented by the majority of the languages, and we recover the analogical change in Finnish, just as we do in cases where analogical changes produce departures from phonological correspondences. (Should there be any doubt, in this instance we are fortunate enough to have rich documents which attest the earlier stage in Old Finnish, cf. Ikola 1959, Svensson 1983). 3 . 2 . 5 . Discontinuity o f grammar acquisition. In reality I have already answered in the last section the claim (cf. Lightfoot 1979, 1980, 1981,

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Warner 1983:189) that syntactic reconstruction is in principle impossible due to radical reanalyses: [g]rammars are not transmitted historically, but must be created afresh by each new language learner[, and] [e]ach child hypothesizes or 'abduces' a grammar; this enterprise is quite independent of what his parents hypothesized ... one generation earlier." (Lightfoot 1980:37.)

As Lightfoot (1980) puts it: The problem is that the kinds of re-analyses [i.e. radical] that I have mentioned constitute cut-offs to historical recapitulation, (p. 33) ... a different view has emerged, that one can use changes between a reconstructed system and the daughter languages as a 'data-base' for investigating the nature of change ... I wish to show here that this view ... has no merit, (p. 33) One can deduce very little about the form of a proto-grammar merely through an examination of the formal properties of the daughter grammars, (p. 37) If there are no formal constraints on possible reanalyses, imposed by a theory of change, then we cannot use such things as a basis for claiming historical reality for our reconstructions; nor is the mapping of one grammar into another of any interest in itself as a method of illuminating possible changes, (p. 40) ... it is not an appropriate goal for work on syntactic change to try ... to reconstruct a proto-syntax. Rather, it is productive to examine historical reanalayses and to show how the point at which they occur might follow from a reeasonable theory of grammar, (p. 41 )

To begin with, such reanalyses (which may not be as frequent as Lightfoot's emphasis seems to suggest) are in Lightfoot's view detectible only by comparison of different grammars for distinct stages of a language (Lightfoot 1980:41). The same evidence, however, is presumably available to the comparativist who has an even greater vantage point, given that the reanalyses can also be seen to have happened against the backdrop of the related languages he or she compares which did not undergo the reanalyses, as illustrated in the discussion of analogy above. Thus, unraveling analogy (see above) can overcome Lightfoot's assumed generational obstacle. Rather than discontinuities of grammar acquisition thwarting syntactic reconstruction, it is the application of the comparative method which can help to identify when such discontinuities have taken place, and what the grammars lying behind them in time were like. 3.2.6. Borrowing. It is to be presumed that grammatical borrowing may complicate reconstruction of syntax just as it does the reconstruction of phonology, morphology and the lexicon. It should follow that the same

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techniques for dealing with complications occasioned by borrowing in these areas should also be helpful in syntactic reconstruction (cf. also Birnbaum 1977, 1985). For example, we find cognates across the Finno-Ugric languages reflecting *ema "mother", but Finnish aiti "mother" clearly does not fit this set. Its very lack of fit leads us to suspect possible borrowing, and seeking a source, we find it in Germanic (cf. Goth, aipei, OHG eidi "mother"). Similarly, syntactic deviations in some daughter language from an otherwise common pattern shared by the other daughters of a family suggest possible borrowing and urge us to investigate further for possible sources. To take one example, Western Finnish has changed the pattern with verbs of obligation from original subjects in the genitive case (e.g., minu-η täyty-y menna [I-Gen must-3rd:Pres to:go] "I have to go") to conjugated verbs with nominative subjects and verbs in agreement (e.g., minä täydy-n mennä [LNorn must-I to:go] "I have to go"; see above). Scholars of Finnish have generally attributed this change to Swedish influence (cf. Saukkonen 1984:184); Swedish has been strong in Western Finland, and many other examples of the impact of Swedish on local Finnish exist. When this borrowed Western Finnish pattern (with nominative subjects) is compared with that of the many other Finnish dialects which have the genitive-subject pattern, it is clear that Western Finnish is out of sympathy in the correspondence set, e.g.: (a)

Western Finnish: mä pidä-n mennä "I must go"

(b)

Standard Finnish: minu-η pitää mennä

(c)

Eurajoki: se-η täyty ols semmosta ku sano-ttin it-Gen.Sg must be that:kind as say-Past.Pass "it has to be some such thing as was said" cf. Standard Finnish: se-η täyty-y olla(s) semmoista kuin sano-ttiin

(d)

Veimland: niij-en ois pitän-nä kagata oamuśe-lla these-Pl.Gen would must-Past.Prt to:slaughter morning-on "they should have (were supposed to) slaughter in the morning" cf. Standard Finnish: nii-den ol-isi pitä-nyt lahdata aamu-lla these-Pl.Gen be-Cond must-Past.Prt slaughter morning-on

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(e)

Pieksämäki: häe-m pit ruvetal lapikkaan-tekko-o' he-Gen.Sg mustrPast start leather.boot-deed-into "he had (was supposed to) begin the leather-boot making" cf: Standard Finnish: häne-n pit-i ruvetaØ) lapikkaa-n-teko-on he-Gen.Sg must-Past

(0

Parikkalæ miu-m pitää marja-t poimiiv vasemma-la käi-lä I-Gen. Sg must berry-Acc.Pl pick left-with hand-with "I have to pick the berries with my left hand" cf. Standard Finnish: minu-η pitää marja-t poimia(v) vasemma-lla käde-llä I-Gen.Sg must berry-PLAcc pick

(g)

Inkeri (Koprina): sulhase-n pit' antaa kolme rupla-a bridegroom-Gen. Sg must:Past give three rubles-Part. Sg poj-i-1 viina-raha-a boy-Pi-to wine-money-Part. Sg "The bridegroom had (was supposed) to give three rubles to the boys to buy liquor" cf. Standard Finnish: sulhase-n pit-i antaa kolme rupla-a poj-i-lle bridegroom-Gen.Sg must-Past ... viina-raha-a (Examples from Virtaranta & Soutkari 1964.)

These dialects extend from Sweden (Vermland) to the present-day Soviet Union (Inkeri). It is clear from this widespread correspondence that the genitive-subject pattern is to be reconstructed for Finnish, and that Western Finnish has departed from the original state of affairs. Swedish influence is the very probable explanation for the change. Given the weight of the correspondences in the daughter dialects (and the natural tendency to change from marked genitive subjects to unmarked nominative subjects), borrowing presents no great obstacle to reconstruction in this case.2 2

While Finnish scholars agree in attributing the change to Swedish influence, it is not difficult to imagine that the weight of the nominative-subject pattern of the non-obligation verbs has exerted pressure for these to conform to the larger class as well. For example, Estonian and Votic also have 'personal' verbs (with nominative-subjects) in this case, normally attributed to Germanic influence. In any event, for the purposes of reconstruction it is ultimately of no real consequence whether the Western Finnish (and the Estonian and Votic) personal pattern (with nominative subjects) is borrowed or due to internal reanalysis,

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Not surprisingly, many of the special features of Balto-Finnic languages which represent innovations from Proto-Uralic or Proto-Finno-Ugric have occasionally been attributed to foreign influence. The development of the partitive case, adjective agreement, copula, various subordinate structures and the change from SOV to SVO are often said to be due to influence from IndoEuropean languages. These constructions are considered below with respect to the reconstruction of Finno-Ugric. It should be noted that the success of the Proto-Uralic or Proto-FinnoUgric reconstruction in these cases does not rest on whether or not it is possible to show these reconstructions conclusively to have been borrowed in Balto-Finnic. The reconstruction is secure, based on the sheer weight of the distribution of corresponding structures through the other subgroups of the family and on the directionality of change that can be brought to bear in explaining these innovations. 4.

Archaisms.

Archaisms are held by many scholars to be perhaps the single most useful source of evidence for syntactic reconstruction. Hock (1985:33) states this in strong terms: the traditional approach with its emphasis on aberrant, archaic patterns can be applied without circularity and ... it yields more satisfactory results than an approach which focuses on the synchronically most regular patterns.

This is Meillet's famous dictum that we reconstruct on exceptions, not on rules (Watkins 1976:312). The kind of data intended in these claims are frozen compounds, poetic collocations and legal language (Winter 1985:621), and proverbs, of which Watkins (1976:317) offers: It is the nature of proverbs and proverb-like utterances to preserve frozen syntax, that is, to preserve syntactic constructions that may have been given up in ordinary discourse ... For this reason they are particularly valuable evidence for reconstruction exactly as frozen, anomalous, or non-productive morphology is.

since in either case these are seen to deviate from the pattern of the other cognate dialects (and languages, where earlier states are attested in documents), leading us to base our reconstruction on the clear, widespread correspondence, not on the one deviation from it, which otherwise has very plausible explanations for how and why it changed.

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That is, certain types of language tend to preserve relic forms best, e.g., legal documents and traditional literary forms, such as epic poetry, popular ballads and folk narratives (Hock 1985:54). While there is probably little dispute in general about the value of true relics or archaisms for reconstruction, in practice there is the problem of how they are to be identified and how one can be certain that a relic is at stake rather than some peculiar innovation. Thus, for example, Lightfoot (1979:160) criticizes rightfully an inappropriate application of this technique where English compounds such as coathanger were taken as evidence of English's former OV structure, while old forms suggesting VO were simply ignored, e.g., breakfast (first attested in 1413). The lesson I would draw from this case is not that it is wrong to use relics, but that it may frequently be difficult, and that one needs fairly compelling evidence of the 'oldness' of assumed archaic forms before basing syntactic reconstructions on them. Some ways to determine relics that are sometimes suggested are the following. Safe archaisms are those which are synchronically felt to be old fashioned and in observable history their use is seen to be decreasing (Hock 1985:55). And, "the more widespread a particular complex form turns out to be among related languages without contact in time and space, the stronger the argument for 'inheritance' becomes (Winter 1985:623). Without diminishing the value for reconstruction of the other tools talked about in this paper (i.e. directionality and implicational universais, regularity through recurrent patterns, syntactic aspects of reconstructed morphology), I will illustrate the argument for archaisms with Balto-Finnic data (cf. also Section 3.2.2 above). 4.1. Balto-Finnic infinitives. Balto-Finnic has two infinitives, originally nominalizations with case endings, from so-called locative adverbial functions. The so-called 'first infinitive lative' *-ta-k is inherited from the single earlier Balto-Finnic-Lapp infinitive and has the more general function. The other, the so-called 'third infinitive illative', comes only from Proto-BaltoFinnic times and derives from a nominalization in *-ma plus the illative case *-sen); it has gradually wrested territory away from the first infinitive. The third infinitive was used only when an intransitive main verb's subject or a transitive main verb's object corresponded to the infinitive's logical subject. Otherwise the first infinitive was used. While both originally had locative functions, the third infinitive originally had only concrete local meaning, so that mostly it is found with verbs of motion, though in Finnish some former motion verbs have shifted semantically, losing their motion meanings but still governing third infinitive in the illative case (e.g., pyrkiä meant "to invade, to

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penetrate, to force one's way in"; now it means "to try, to strive"). Briefly, the third infinitive, it is assumed, grew to help distinguish cases such as (here illustrated with Finnish examples): (23) eläin kelpaa syö-mä-än animal is:good:enough eat-3rd.Inf-into "the animal is good enough to eat (= animal eats something)" (24) eläin kelpaa syö-dä animal is:good:enough eat-lst.Inf "the animal is good enough to eat (= to be eaten)" That is, cases where the main verb's subject or object can be seen as both the agent and the goal or patient of the infinitive came to be distinguished by the use of different infinitives, the third when the infinitive's logical subject was intended (e.g., (23)) and the first for its logical object (e.g., (24)). With this background, we can turn to the comparative evidence. Essentially, the other Finno-Ugric languages have only one infinitive, originally a deverbal nominalization with locative case endings, like the BaltoFinnic first infinitive lative, *-ta-k. This is the situation in Lapp, the closest sister to Balto-Finnic, where the single infinitive, Proto-Lapp *-dek, corresponds to Balto-Finnic *-ta-k (Korhonen 1981a:288-289). We can safely reconstruct the two infinitives in Balto-Finnic, however, on the basis of such examples as the following (note that several of the languages selected here to illustrate the forms have undergone a variety of sound changes, e.g., loss of final *-n, loss of final *-k, frequent loss of final vowels, and loss of intervocalic *-t after a short vowel, among others): 'third infinitive illative' with verbs of motion or where the infinitive's logical subject is represented with the main verb: (a)

Standard Finnish: isä läht-i leikkaa-ma-an heinä-ä father leave-Past cut-3rd.Inf-into hay-Part "father went to cut hay"

(b) Veps: tat tul' ot-ma-ha tiitar-t father come:Past take-3rd.Inf-into daughter-Ace "the father came to take (his) daughter"

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(c) Estonian: tule ömble-ma come sew-3rd.Inf "come sew! "

too poiss sua niit-ma bring boy here mow-3rd.Inf "bring the boy here to mow! "

(d) VotiC: neis-i issu-ma: raise-Past sit-3rd.Inf "he rose to sit/he rose up sitting" sirs ku,tsu-tti koko suku vi:nà ju:-mà then call-Past.Pass whole family brandy drink-3rd.Inf "then the entire family was called to drink brandy" (e)

Livonian: jemà tulà-b vari:tlã-m mother come-3rd.Pres look-3rd.Inf "mother comes to see" (Laanest 1982:306.) 'firstinfintive' with non-motion verbs and where the infinitive's logical object is represented with the main verb:

(a)

Finnish: mies haluaa syö-dä kala-a man:Nom want eat-lst.Inf fish-Part.Sg "the man wants to eat fish"

(b) Veps: mamš rirjka-lę kana-η vei mö-da old:man market-to hen- took to:sell-lst.Inf "the old man took a chicken to market to sell (it)" (c)

Estonian: aja lamba-d lauda-st välja mei-le näh-a drive sheep-Pi stall-from so we-Gen see-lst.Inf "drive the sheep out of the stall for us to see"

(d) Votie: hakka ant-ę sigla: vet-tä kanta-a old:woman give-Past sieve:Acc water-Part to:carry "the old woman gave her a sieve to bring water" (e)

Livonian: ko:fa paint laski:s ne lam:bS-d sudu:-dän shepherd put:Prt allow:Past the sheep-Pl.Acc wolf-Pl.Gen

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jera suö-d up eat-lst.Inf "the shepherd let the wolfves eat the sheep" (Laanest 1982:306-307, Saukkonen 1984.) These correspondences establish the validity of the reconstruction of the two infinitives for Proto-Balto-Finic, and they bring us to a point where we can now consider the role of relics in this case. The younger origin of the third infinitive illative has left relics of first infinitives in circumstances otherwise calling for the third. For example, although motion verbs require the third infinitive, the verb "to lie down, to go to bed, to go to sleep" maintains a relic first infinitive in frozen contexts with motion verbs, not just in Finnish but in several of the Balto-Finnic languages, e.g.: (a) Finnish: meni maa-ta went lie:down-lst.Inf "went to lie down" (b) Karelian: mänöü moa-ta (same) (c) Veps: tul'emaga-tta (same) (Laanest 1982:306-307; Saukkonen 1984). By the rules, one expects Finnish men-i makaa-ma-an [go-Past lie-3rd.InfIllative], which is grammatical, but odd. The fact that this relic form corresponds in several languages gives us greater confidence in considering it a true relic. There are a few other equivalent kinds of relic, e.g., Finnish: (25) pan-i sauna-η lämmi-tä put-Past sauna-AcC heat-1 st.Inf "heat the sauna/set the sauna to heating" By the rules, one expects: pan-i sauna-η lämpene-mä-än [put-Past sauna-Ace heat-3rd.Inf-Illative]. (Laanest 1982:306-307.) (26) men-nä vipeltä-ä go-1 st.Inf wriggle "to move with quick and short movements" (Hakulinen & Leino 1985:11).

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It might be argued that from such relics one would reconstruct the former stage before the third infinitive began to encroach on the first infinitive's territory. However, the third infinitive is well established in Proto-BaltoFinnic by correspondences such as those considered above, and these relics only hint at a former wider distribution of first infinitives without much detail to go on. If archaisms and relics are typically of this sort, one would have to be somewhat less enthusiastic about their value than, for example, Hock (1985) is. The real value of the infinitive relics in Balto-Finnic seems to be that of strengthening slightly the pre-Balto-Finnic single-infinitive recon­ struction which was arrived at on the basis of comparative evidence from the daughter languages anyway. The Balto-Finnic relic evidence alone would not warrant the same pre-Balto-Finnic reconstruction; it is simply not sufficient for such a strong inference. 4 . 2 . Relics for participial subjects. Above it was seen that Proto-Balto-Finnic had participial constructions in which the participle's logical subjects were originally arguments of the main verb, but were reinterpreted in Finnish as genitive-subject arguments of the participle due to the homophony of accusative and genitive singular case endings. Finnish relics preserve evidence of the former state in, for example, folk poems. One example is: (27) kuul-tihin kala-t kute-va-n hear-Past,Pass fish-Pl.Acc spawn-Pres.Prt-Suf lohe-n-pursto-t loiskutta-va-n salmon-Gen-tail-Pl.Acc splash-Pres.Prt-Suf "the fish were heard spawning, salmon-tails splashing" Modern Standard Finnish, instead of the plural accusative of "fish" and "salmon-tails", would have the plural genitive, i.e.kalo-j-en and lohenpursto-j-en. Thus this poem contains a relic of the former construction. While it is supportive of the reconstruction already securely established on the basis of comparative evidence from cognate languages, one wonders what a comparativist could legitimately make of it in the absence of the testimony from other languages and older texts? One might imagine it to be a poetic innovation involving some kind of incipient subject-raising, or some other possibilities. If one were to believe it to be evidence of the former state, it would still be a rather large inferential leap to attempt to recover that state, without other supporting evidence. Thus, while the role of relics is to be applauded, its limitations should also be faced squarely.

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Reconstructed P r o t o - U r a l i c syntactic constructions.

To this point, hindrances and helps to syntactic reconstruction have been considered and illustrated with Balto-Finnic data. Another way of assessing the prospects for syntactic reconstruction in general is to evaluate its practical results, i.e. the success of its application. Since reconstructions for various aspects of Proto-Uralic grammar have been proposed from which Balto-Finnic has innovated, it will prove a worthwhile exercise to examine the strength of those reconstructions against the Balto-Finnic innovations. If syntactic reconstruction can be shown to have been successful in this case, then faith in the prospects for syntactic reconstruction in general is strengthened. 5 . 1 . P r o t o - U r a l i c word order. The reconstruction of Proto-Uralic SOV order is secure. Most languages of the family are SOV; while BaltoFinnic(-Lapp) has innovated to SVO order, evidence points to Balto-Finnic's former SOV state. That is, as seen above, implicational word order universais indicate that Balto-Finnic's prenominai relative clauses and Standard( -MarkedAdjective comparatives would have originated only in an SOV language. Thus, directionality and the normal application of the comparative method suffice for a believable reconstruction in this case. 5.2. C o p u l a . Proto-Uralic is reconstructed with no copula in the present tense. Balto-Finnic and some Lapp dialects have acquired a copula. 3 In this case, the weight of the testimony of the various other copulaless branches argues for the postulated reconstruction. In addition, the 'negative past' construction (restructured from a former copulaless 'perfect') constitutes, in effect, a relic from the former copulaless times (see above). This and other relic constructions (Korhonen 1981:302-303) can be taken as secondary support within the copula-containing branch of the family for the copulaless reconstruction already well established on sheer comparative evidence from across the family. 5 . 3 . P a r t i t i v e case. Proto-Uralic did not have a partitive case as is clearly shown by the correspondences across the family. The direction of the

3

In Lapp, the peripheral dialects, Southern and Turja Lapp, have no copula either in the adjective predicate or in the perfect constructions. Other dialects with copulas show the results of Balto-Finnic and Scandinavian influence. The Balto-Finnic copula itself is frequently attributed to influence from the Germanic model. (Cf. Korhonen 198 la:304.)

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change from locative/genitive constructions to markers of partially affected objects corroborates this conclusion (see above). 4 5.4. Agreement. In Balto-Finnic adjectives agree in case and number with their head nouns, e.g.: (28) te istu-tte iso-i-ssa talo-i-ssa-nne you sit-2nd:Pl big-Pl-in house-Pl-in-2nd:Pl "you sit in your big houses" Proto-Uralic is reconstructed without this agreement. In other Finno-Ugric languages the adjective remains unchanged, e.g., Hungarian: (29) új haz "(a) new house" új ház-ban [new house-in] "in a new house" új ház-ak [new house-Pi] "new houses" The agreement found in Balto-Finnic is a rather late occurrence. It is often asserted that this development is due to Baltic or Germanic influence, though an independent origin within Balto-Finnic is also frequently defended. ProtoUralic attributive adjectives did not agree with head nouns, but they bore an attributive suffix, the same as the genitive in shape. Most Uralic languages today are like Hungarian, with no agreement. The reconstruction without adjective agreement would seem secure on the basis of this distribution throughout the family. Also, Balto-Finnic languages contain relics that suggest agreement is recent. In Finnish, for example, there are a few frequent adjectives which do not agree, e.g.: (30) aika tava-lla [great way-with] "a great deal" ensi vuon-na [next year-Ess:Sg] "(during) next year" eri talo-i-ssa [different house-Pl-in] "in different houses" joka talve-lla [each winter-on] "each/every winter" 4

It has frequently been thought that the Balto-Finnic partitive may be due to foreign influence. Balto-Finnic and Baltic share in addition to the partly affected objects the following partitive functions: (a) as the subject of existential sentences showing an indefinite quantity; (b) as the subject of negative existential sentences; (c) as the object of negative transitive verbs; (d) as the object of verbs of "desire" ("ask for", "long for"); (e) for the object of nonterminating durative verbs ("look for", "wait for", "follow"); etc. It seems clear that Balto-Finnic and Volga-Balto-Finnic have evidence of possible native development. In any event, whether the Balto-Finnic partitive is the result of an independent innovation or areal convergence, it clearly does not represent the Proto-Uralic pattern and consequently the reconstruction is not affected one way or the other by what may have caused this innovative departure from the pattern of the protolanguage.

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pikku poj-i-lle [small boy-Pl-to] "to the small boys" viime vuos -i-na [last year-Pi-Ess] "during the last years" Some have thought that Balto-Finnic agreement is recent and probably due to Germanic influence because, while it has case and number agreement, it lacks agreement with possessive pronominal suffixes, e.g., kaunii-ssa talo-ssa-ni [beautiful-in house-in-my] "in my beautiful house", but not *kaunii-ssa-ni talo-ssa-ni. The assumption seems to be that if agreement were old it should also show possessive pronominal agreement as well, though it is not clear why this should follow. Standard Estonian does not have such full agreement as Finnish; case agreement does not hold when the head word is in the essive, terminative, abessive or comitative cases; in these instances the adjective is in the genitive case, e.g.: (31) ilusa maja-na [beautiful:Gen house-Ess] "as a pretty house" ilusa maja-ni [Term] "up to the beautiful house" ilusa maja-ta [Abess] "without the beautiful house" ilusa maja-ga [Comit] "with the beautiful house" Laanest 1982:304). Lack of agreement in some of these cases may be seen as a relic of former nonagreement times. 5 (Cf. Hakulinen 1968:444-453, Korhonen 1981a:344-346, Laanest 1982:304-305, Ravila 1960.)

5

As far as the reconstruction of Proto-Uralic is concerned, it makes no difference whether the development of Balto-Finnic agreement is due to foreign influence, native factors, or a combination of both. The evidence is clear that it is a departure from the original system of Proto-Uralic. Some evidence, however, suggests that agreement might be older in this group than sometimes thought. For example, Finnish demonstrative pronouns agree with nouns in case, but the relic versions of the case endings are employed on the pronouns: sii-nä talo-ssa [it-in house-in] "in that house" sii-tä talo-sta [it-from house-from] "from that house" The seeds of Balto-Finnic agreement are perhaps to be seen in the partial agreement found in its closer relatives. Lapp adjectives in general lack agreement, with the exception of the partial agreement of buorre "good", nubbe "second" and a few pronouns, e.g. Norway Lapp: "good child" buorre manna Nom.Sg. buore maina Gen. S g. buorren mannan Ess. Sg. buorek ma:nak Norn. PI. bu:rii marnai Gen.Pl. (Korhonen 1981a:344-345). Mordvin has partial agreement, but otherwise lacks agreement.

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5.5. Subordination. Proto-Uralic subordination did not involve conjunctions and contained no finite verbs, but rather employed nominalized forms of the subordinate verbs with case markings as required by the governing main verb. It is not uncommon for the subordinate structures of SOV languages to be more nominal-like (or participial/adjectival). BaltoFinnic, however, has developed SVO and, with it, subordinate clauses with conjunctions and finite verbs. The comparative evidence from the corresponding constructions across the family strongly supports the reconstruction, at the same time suggesting that Balto-Finnic has innovated. Again, evidence internal to Balto-Finnic supports these conclusions. The main conjunctions have etymologies showing their development from pronominal stems (that is, those conjunctions which are not borrowed). For example, from e- : Finnish: Estonian: VotiC:

ehkä "perhaps" (older and dialects "although") ehk "or" ehtši/ehki "or"

Finnish: Karelian: Estonian:

eli "or" eli "or" elik "or" (archaic)

Finnish: Karelian: Estonian: Votic:

että "that, so that" (complementizer) että (same) et (same) etti (same)

For other examples from Finnish: from jo- ("each, some") is jos "if, whether", jotta "so that, in order that"; from ku- is  "when", kuin "as, than"; from si-("it") is sitä "because", silloin "then", siis "thus, therefore", sitten "(and) then"; etc. Several others are borrowed from neighboring languages (Korhonen 1981a:346; Laanest 1982:292). That the conjunctions are readily derived from pronominal stems or are borrowed argues that they have not long existed in their roles as conjunctions, supporting the conjunctionless reconstruction of Proto-Uralic. In short, the reconstruction of Proto-Uralic syntax appears to be very plausible, and the several rather striking Balto-Finnic innovations are easily identified and constitute no serious difficulty for the reconstruction. Given the success of the application of the comparative method of reconstruction in this particular case, some optimism in our general ability to reconstruct syntax does not seem out of order.

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Conclusions.

There are many obstacles to successful syntactic reconstruction and their impact should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, prospects are brighter than many have thought them to be for successful syntactic reconstruction. The more grammatical implicational universais we establish, the greater our knowledge of possible directions of syntactic change, the better our ability to reconstruct. In the implicational universais we have an analogue to the directionality of sound change. Regularity of syntactic change can be found when phenomena are embedded in more encompassing patterns. Morphological reconstruction can carry us along the road towards the protogrammar. The difficulties produced by analogical change (restructuring) and borrowing for syntactic reconstruction are probably not different in kind from their effects on phonological, morphological and lexical reconstruction. Relics and archaisms can be of aid, particularly as additional testimony to be weighed in connection with other sources of evidence. There also appear to be limits to successful reconstruction. For example, more abstract rules - i.e. those without direct phonological correlates and not participating as one member of a broader 'paradigm' or pattern of similar phenomena - will be more difficult to retrieve via comparative reconstruction. Still, in view of the pessimism in recent literature concerning comparative syntax, there is room for rejoicing over how much is accessible to reconstruction.

REFERENCES Allen, W. Sidney. 1953. "Relationship in comparative linguistics". Transactions of the Philological Society 1953.52-109. Alvre, Paul. 1980. "Über einen Ausnahmerektionstyp in den ostsee­ finnischen Sprachen". Soviet Finno-Ugric Studies 16:4.254-258. Tallin: Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR. Anttila, Raimo. 1972. An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. New York: Macmillan. Anttila, Raimo. 1976. Analogy. The Hague: Mouton. Ariste, Paul. 1968. A Grammar of the Votic Language. (= Uralic and Altaic Seríes, 68.) Bloomington: Indiana University. Birnbaum, Henrik. 1977. Linguistic Reconstruction: Its Potentials and Limitations in New Perspective. (= Journal of Indo-European Studies, Monograph 2.) Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, Inc.

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Birnbaum, Henrik. 1984. "Notes on syntactic change; cooccurrence vs. substitution, stability vs. permeability". Historical Syntax ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 25-46. Berlin: Mouton. Brugmann, Karl. 1904. Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indo­ germanischen Sprachen. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner. Campbell, Lyle & Marianne Mithun. 1981. "Syntactic reconstruction: priorities and pitfalls". Folia Linguistica Historica 1:1.19-40. Collinge, N.E. 1960. "Some reflexions on comparative historical syntax". Archivum Linguisticum 12.79-101. Comrie, Bernard. 1980. "Morphology and word order reconstruction: problems and prospects". Historical Morphology ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 83-96. The Hague: Mouton. Dressler, Wolfgang. 1971. "Über die Rekonstruktion der indogermanischen Syntax". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 85.5-22. Givón, Talmy. 1971. "Historical syntax and synchronic morphology: an archaeologist's field trip". Chicago Linguistic Society 7.394-415. Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax: A Functional-Typological Introduction, vol. I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Hakulinen, Auli & Pentti Leino. 1985. "The history of the Finnish participial construction from a discourse point of view". Paper presented at the International Finno-Ugric Congress, Syktyvkar, USSR. Hakulinen, Lauri. 1968. Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys, 3rd ed. Helsinki: Ottava. Harris, Alice . 1985. Diachronic Syntax: the Kartvelian Case. (= Syntax and Semantics, 18.) Orlando: Academic Press. Harris, Alice C. 1986. "The role of equations and relics in syntactic reconstruction". Paper presented at the Workshop on Reconstruction, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hawkins, John A. 1983. Word Order Universals. New York: Academic Press. Hock, Hans Henrich. 1985. "Yes, Virginia, syntactic reconstruction is possible". Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 15.49-60. ChampaignUrbana: University of Illinois Press. Ikola, Osmo. 1959. "Eräistä suomen syntaktisista siirtymistä". Suomen Kielen Seuran Vuosikirja 1.39-60. Helsinki. Ikola, Osmo. 1968. "Zum Objekt in den ostseefinnischen Sprachen". Con­ gressus Secundus Internationalis Fermo-Ugristarum, Helsingiae Habitus 23-28. VIII. 1965.I: Acta Linguistica ed. by Paavo Ravila, 188-195. Helsinki: Societas Fenno-Ugrica (Suomalais-Ugniais Sueran). Itkonen, Terho. 1982. "Partitiivin käytön historiaa". Review of Studier i de östersjöfinska språkens partitivbruk by Lars-Gunnar Larsson. Virittäjä 86.429-434. Itkonen, Terho. 1983. "Välikatsaus suomen kielen juuriin". Virittäjä 1983.190-206,360-369.

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Ivanov, V.V. 1965. Obščeindoevropejskaja, praslavjanskaja i analtolijskaja jazykovye sistemy (sravnitel'no-tipologičeskie očerki). Moscow: Nauka. Janhunen, Juha. 1982. "On the structure of Proto-Uralic". Finno-Ugrische Forschungen 44.23-42. Jeffers, Robert J. 1976. "Syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction". Current Progress in Historical Linguistics: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by William M. Christie, Jr., 1-15. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Jucquois, Guy. 1976. La reconstruction linguistique: application à l'Indoeuropéen, 2nd ed. Louvain: Éditions Peeters. Keenan, Edward L. 1985. "Relative clauses". Language Typology and Syntactic Description, II: Complex Constructions ed. by Timothy Shopen, 141-170. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kettunen, Lauri. 1930. Suomen murteet II: murrealueet. (= Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Toimituksia 188.) Helsinki. Korhonen, Mikko. 1981a. Johdatus lapin kielen historiaan. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Korhonen, Mikko. 1981b. "Onko Suomen kieli konservatiivinen?" Virittäjä 1981:3.181-194. Korhonen, Mikko. 1981c. "Typological drift in the Finno-Ugric languages with special reference to the case system". Hangeu 173:4.687-710. Korea. Korhonen, Mikko. 1984. "The roots of the Finnish language". Finnish Features. Helsinki: Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Krahe, Hans. 1972. Grundzüge der vergleichenden Syntax der indoger­ manischen Sprachen. Innsbruck: Wolfgang Meid & Hans Scheja, Institut für vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck. Laanest, Arvo. 1982. Einführung in die ostseefinnischen Sprachen. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Langacker, Ronald W. 1977. "Syntactic reanalysis". Mechanisms of Syntactic Change ed. by Charles N. Li, 59-139. Austin: University of Texas Press. Lightfoot, David W. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lightfoot, David W. 1980. "On reconstructing a proto-syntax". Linguistic Reconstruction and Indo-European Syntax: Proceedings of the Colloquium of the 'Indogermanische Gesellschaft' ed. by Paolo Ramat, 27-45. (= Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series 4, Vol. 19.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lightfoot, David W. 1981. "Reply to some critics". Lingua 55.351-368. Miranda, Rocky V. 1976. "Comments on Jeffers". Current Progress in Historical Linguistics: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by William M. Christie, Jr., 12-14. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

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Norman, William M. & Lyle Campbell. 1978. "Toward a Proto-Mayan syntax: a comparative perspective on grammar". Papers in Mayan Linguistics ed. by Nora . England, 136-156. Columbia: Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri. Oinas, Felix. 1961. The Development of Some Postpositional Cases in BaltoFinnic Languages. (= Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran, Toimituksia 123.) Helsinki. Raun, Alo & Anrus Saareste. 1965. Introduction to Estonian Linguistics. (Ural-Altaische Bibliothek.) Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Ravila, Paavo. 1960. "Adjektiiviattribuutin kongruenssin synty suomen kielessä". Sananjalka 2.28-35. Saukkonen, Pauli. 1984. "Infinitiivirakenteidemmehistoriaa". Nykysuomen rakenne ja kehitys, 2: Näkökulmia kielen vaihteluun ja muuttumiseen ed. by Heikki Paunonen & Päivi Rintala, 175-186. (= Tieto-Lipas, 95.) Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Svensson, Prikko Forsman. 1983. Satsmotsvangheter i Finsk prosa under 1600-talet: participialkonstruktionen och därmed synonyma icke-fìnita uttryck i jämförelse med språkbruket före och efter 1600-talet. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Timberlake, Alan. 1977. "Reanalysis and actualization in syntactic change". Mechanisms of Syntactic Change ed. by Charles N. Li, 141-177. Austin: University of Texas Press. Vincent, Nigel. 1980. "Iconic and symbolic aspects of syntax: prospects for reconstruction". Linguistic Reconstruction and Indo-European Syntax: Proceedings of the Colloquium of the 'Indo-germanische Gesellschaft' ed. by Paolo Ramat, 47-68. (= Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series 4, Vol. 19.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Virtaranta, Pertti & Pentti Soutkari. 1964. Näytteitä suomen murteista. (= Tieto-lipas 34.) Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Warner, A.R. 1983. Review article of Lightfoot (1979). Linguistics 19.187-209. Watkins, Calvert. 1963. "Syntax of the Old Irish verb". Celtica 6.1-49. Watkins, Calvert. 1964. "Preliminaries to the reconstruction of Indo-Euro­ pean sentence structure". Proceedings of the Ninth International Con­ gress of Linguists ed. by H.G. Lunt, 1035-1045. The Hague: Mouton. Watkins, Calvert. 1969. Indogermanische Grammatik. HI: Formenlehre, erster Teil: Geschichte der indogermanischen Verbalflexion. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. Watkins, Calvert. 1976. "Towards Proto-Indo-European syntax: problems and pseudo-problems". Papers from the Parasession on Diachronic Syntax ed. by Sanford B. Steever, Carol A. Walker & Salikoko S. Mufwene, 306-326. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. Winter, Werner. 1984. "Reconstructing comparative linguistics and the reconstruction of the syntax of undocumented stages in the development of language and language families". Historical Syntax ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 613-626. Berlin: Mouton.

CASE ASSIGNMENT AND NP MOVEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF SCANDINAVIAN JAN TERJE FAARLUND University of Trondheim

Traditionally, as well as in some recent work within the Government and Binding framework (Platzack 1985a, b), the North Germanic languages have been divided into two types: Insular Scandinavian, that is Icelandic and Faroese; and Mainland Scandinavian, that is Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. Insular Scandinavian has a rather elaborate case system, subjectless sentences and oblique subjects. In Mainland Scandinavian there is an obligatory subject in all tensed sentences (except the imperative), and the only remnant of the case system is the distinction of two cases in personal pronouns. This distinction also has historical relevance since older stages of all the Scandinavian languages belonged to the first type. Attempts have been made to ascribe several morpho-syntactic differences between these two language types to one single parameter: the null subject parameter (Platzack 1985a). In this paper it will be demonstrated that the different varieties of Scandinavian, past and present, do not fall into two neat and distinct groups with regard to syntactic properties relevant to the null subject parameter, and that therefore this parameter is inadequate as an explanation of the relevant facts. Furthermore, there are grammatical stages of Scandinavian with grammars which present serious difficulties to the basic principles of the case theory of the Government and Binding framework (Chomsky 1981, Kayne 1984:103f.). Platzack (1985a) states the null subject parameter as in (1): ( 1) The Null Subject Parameter COMP can be specified [+Pronoun] The idea is that the pronominal feature can absorb the case that otherwise would have to be assigned to the subject. Since a subject position thereby will be left without case, it either has to be left empty, or it can be filled by an NP which already has case. In a language which allows null subjects, such as

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Icelandic, we therefore find sentences like (2) with no subject, or (3) with an oblique subject.1 (2) Rigndi i gær? rain:Pt yesterday "Did it rain yesterday?" (3) Mig vantar peninga me:A lack:Pr money:P:A "I lack money" Oblique subjects are assumed to be generated within VP and have their case assigned there prior to movement into subject position. Since the feature PRONOUN in COMP absorbs the case that otherwise would be assigned to the subject, we get no left-over case in (2) and no case conflict in (3). Languages without null subjects, such as English and Mainland Scandinavian, here represented by Norwegian, have no pronominal feature in COMP, and therefore there has to be a phonologically expressed element in subject position to receive the case assigned by the tensed verb. Such languages therefore do not have subjectless sentences, compare (2) and (4), and they do not have oblique subjects, compare (3) and (5). (4) a. Det regna i går it rain:Pt yesterday "it rained yesterday" b. *Regna i går (5) a. Eg vantar pengar I:N lack:Pr money "I lack money" b. *Meg vantar pengar me:A lack:Pr money These same facts can also be predicted directly by an analysis of the different case assignment systems in the two types of languages, without recourse to the rather arbitrary pronominal feature in COMP. Let us therefore take a look at case assignment in Old Norse and Modern Mainland Scandinavian. 1

The following abbreviations are used for morphological categories: S - singular; Ρ - plural; F - feminine; M - masculine; Nt- neuter; N - nominative; A - accusative; D - dative; G - genitive; Def - definite; Pr - present; Pt - past; PP - past participle; Aux - the passive auxiliary. The others are self-explanatory.

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In Old Norse there are four cases, all of which are used for NP arguments of verbs. In the lexical entry of a verb there is a specification of the number of arguments it takes, and the semantic roles distributed to each argument. Cases may be assigned to NPs according to their semantic roles. The sentences in (6) exemplify the instrumental dative, those in (7) the recipient dative, and those in (8) the patient accusative. All the sentences provide examples of agent nominatives. (6) a. peim reið Goðgestr konungr that:D:M ride:Pt Godgest:N king:N "King G. rode (on) it" b. Einarr kastaði steini Einar.N throw:Pt rock:D (7) a. hon skyldi bera ọl víkingum she:N shall:Pt carry beer.A viking:P:D "She was to bring beer to the Vikings" b. Ólafr konungr pakkaði henni vel 01af:N king:N thank:Pt her:D well (8) a. Hallfreðr setti bú saman Hallfred:N set:Pt home:A together "Hallfred set up a home" b. nú tekr hann hestinn now take:Pr he:N horse:Def:A The genitive is used to denote a partitive meaning in a very wide sense, as in (9), including a non-affected object, (9c). (9) a. hann var ekki skald ok hann hafði peirrar listar eigi he:N was not bard:N and he:N have:Pt that:S:G skill:G not fengit get:PP "He was not a bard, and he had not gotten any of those skills" b. konungr aflaði sér svá dyrgripa king:N provide:Pt Refl:D thus treasures:P:G "The king provided such treasures for himself"  menn leituðu hennar man:P:N search:P:3P her:G "People looked for her"

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With the exception of a few idiosyncratic case assignments, the accusative, dative and genitive cases correspond fairly well to specific semantic roles. The nominative, however, seems to represent a variety of semantic roles, cf. (9a) and the sentences in (10). (10) a. vín er honum bæði drykkr ok matr wine:N is him:D both drink:N and food:N "Wine is both drink and food for him" b. porbjọrn átti fé lítit Thorbjorn:N own:Pt money:A little:Nt:A  hann var gørviligr he:N was well-accomplished:N d. Bjarni hét maðr Bjarni:N be-named:Pt man:N "There was a man by the name of Bjarni" What these and other uses of the nominative case have in common, however, is that it is assigned to the highest ranking NP in a semantic role hierarchy. This hierarchy is of the familiar kind, as first proposed by Fillmore (1968). The version I will adopt here is given in (11). (11) Semantic Role Hierarchy: agent > instrument > recipient > patient There are two case assignment rules, then, in Old Norse. One rule assigns nominative to the highest NP in the semantic role hierarchy. This case assignment rule can be formulated as in (12) (where A1 stands for the first argument in the hierarchy for a given predicate). The other case assignment rule assigns case by semantic role as shown in (13). (12) A1 -

NOMINATIVE

(13) INSTRUMENT RECIPIENT PATIENT PATIENT [+PARTIVE]

-

DATIVE DATIVE ACCUSATIVE GENITIVE

I have argued elsewhere that Old Norse is non-configurational, that is, it has a flat structure with no separate subject constituent (Faarlund 1988). One consequence of this is that each NP is governed by the verb. Therefore no other case assignment is needed in Old Norse. All NP arguments are assigned case by one of the two rules (12) or (13). And there is no case assignment by the feature TENSE.

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In Mainland Scandinavian, where only two cases are distinguished, there is a perfect correlation between position and case form, in the sense that subjects are always in the nominative and all objects in the oblique case. (14) a. Eg ser deg I:N see:Pr you:S:A "I see you" b. Ho ventar på deg she:N wait:Pr for you:S:A "She is waiting for you" This is what we find in the standard languages and most dialects of Mainland Scandinavian, as well as in English.2 In these languages, then, there is case assignment by structural government only, by rule (15). ( 15) SUBJECT OTHER

-

NOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE

These differences in case assignment account for several syntactic differences between Old Norse and Modern Scandinavian. In Modern Scandinavian, whenever the subject is a pronoun which shows case, it is in the nominative. The subject is also positionally defined. In other words, nominative case is assigned to a specified structural position. Furthermore, there are passive sentences where the subject may correspond to any kind of object in the active counterpart. (16) a. Dei tildelte henne ein premie they:N award:Pt her:A a prize "They awarded her a prize" b. Ho vart tildelt ein premie she:N Aux:Pt award:PP a prize "She was awarded a prize"  Premien vart tildelt henne prize:Def Aux:Pt award:PP her:A "The prize was awarded her" And of course also in passive sentences the subject has all the syntactic and morphological subject properties of active subjects. In Old Norse, on the other hand, there are sentences without nominative NPs. This occurs whenever no phonologically expressed NP bears the 2

Iwill disregard in this context the genitive in those languages and dialects where it is used only for the possessor in NPs and never in argument positions.

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highest semantic role (cf. (11)), as in (17) or (18), where the verbs may be considered active with a non-expressed agent. (17) a. ekki sá skipit fyrir laufinu not see:Pt ship:Def:A for foliage:Def:D "The ship could not be seen because of the foliage" b. hér hefr up sọgu Heiðreks konungs here raise:Pr up story:A Heidrek:G king:G "Here begins the story of King Heidrek" ( 18) a. pegar er lysti, ... then when brighten:Pt "When it became light..." b. snjófaði mjck á jcrð6ina snow:Pt much on earth:Def:A "It snowed much on the Earth" In Old Norse, the nominative in passive sentences can only correspond to an accusative in the active counterpart, as shown in (19) and (20). (19) a. henni var vel pakkat her:D was well thanked:Nt:S:N "She received due gratitude" b. *hon var vel ð she:N was well thanked:F:N (20) a. margra vikinga er getit many:M:P:G viking:P:G is:Pr:3S mention:PP:Nt:S:N "Many Vikings are mentioned" b. *margir vikingar eru getnir many:M:P:N viking:P:N are:Pr.3P mention:PP:M:P:N Within the Government and Binding framework this is explained in terms of the null subject parameter: if two post-verbal NPs have different cases, only one is assigned structurally by government, the other one has to be assigned inherently. If the NP with inherent case is moved into subject position, it cannot be assigned nominative, because then a case conflict would arise. Therefore only NPs with a structurally assigned accusative case can correspond to nominative in passive sentences. But the fact that it is the accusative, and not the dative, which is structurally assigned, remains totally arbitrary. A semantically based case theory like the one sketched above, however, offers a non-arbitrary explanation of this: with the verb be the patient is always A1, and therefore in the nominative; consider sentences with adjectival

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predicates such as (10a, c). An NP with a different role with regard to an adjectival predicate would be in the dative or the genitive; see, for example, the dative honum "him" in (10a). Accusative is precisely the case assigned to patients by active verbs. Hence this correlation between active accusative and passive nominative. Consider now the following data from a different stage of Nordic. Certain dialects of Central and Eastern Norway and adjacent parts of Sweden have kept the dative case in certain nominal categories.3 (21) a. hann takke foreldrom sinne he:N thank:Pt parent:Def:P:D Refl:Poss:D "He thanked his parents" b. hu låvå gutta mat she:N promise:Pt boy:Def:D food "She promised the boy food"  dom tala åt 'n they speak:Pt to her:D "They spoke to her" I will refer to the varieties of Mainland Scandinavian with this case system as Central Scandinavian dialects. In these dialects dative objects become nominative in the passive. (22) a. foreldra vart takke parent:Def:P:N AuxiPt thank:PP "The parents were thanked" b. gutten vart låvå mat boy:Def:N Aux promise:PP food "The boy was promised food" c. hu vart tala åt she:N AuxiPt speak:PP to "She was spoken to" There are no oblique subjects or null subjects in these dialects. Sentences corresponding to (2), (3) and (19a) are all unacceptable in any Central Scandinavian dialect, as in any other variety of Mainland Scandinavian. (23) a. *foreldrom vart takke parents:Def:P:D Aux:Pt thank:PP "The parents were thanked"

3

The examples arefromthe Central Eastern Norwegian dialect of Toten.

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b. *gutta vart låvå mat boy:Def:D Aux:Pt promise:PP food "The boy was promised food" c. *da vart 'n tala åt4 then Aux:Pt her:D speak:PP to "Then she was spoken to" In the Government and Binding framework, structural case is assigned at Sstructure and inherent case at D-structure. If dative is assigned inherently in a postverbal position, it should be impossible to change it into nominative at a later stage of the derivation. This problem may be solved if NP movement to subject position is allowed to operate before case assignment. Such a solution also allows for a unified account of the different historical stages represented by the various contemporary Nordic languages and dialects. I will now turn to such an account. Modern Icelandic has oblique subjects, that is, NPs in non-nominative case but with syntactic subject properties. There is a limited class of verbs that select a specific non-nominative NP for subject, and these NPs exhibit the same syntactic subject properties as do regular nominative subjects. In such sentences, case is assigned at D-structure, prior to NP movement into subject position. This can be demonstrated by means of subject control in embedded sentences. In the Icelandic sentence (3) above, repeated here as (24a), the accusative mig "me" is a syntactic subject. This is shown by the fact that it is represented by an empty category in the embedded version in (24b). (24) a. Mig vantar peninga me:A lack:Pr money:P:A "I lack money" b. Eg vonast til að vanta ekki peninga I:N hope:Pr:Refl to to lack:I not money:P:A "I hope not to lack money" It is not possible, however, to find Old Norse equivalents of (24b), and this is one piece of evidence for the non-configurational structure of Old Norse: no NP can be syntactically identified as a subject. It follows from this and other

4

Only the clitic pronouns, not the full forms, have separate dative forms. The subject clitic is used in main sentences only when following the verb, therefore an example sentence with inverted word order is used here. The clitic 'n is a homonym for masculine nominative and feminine dative. Therefore this sentence is acceptable with the meaning "He was spoken to".

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similar evidence that Old Norse does not have NP movement, in the sense of movement of an NP into a specified subject position or role. Modern Faroese offers somewhat conflicting data. On one hand, it is like Central Scandinavian dialects in that dative objects do become nominative in the passive, as shown in (25). (25) a. Teir fagnaðu honum væl they:N welcome:Pt:3P him:D well "They welcomed him heartily" b. Hann var væl fagnaður he:N was well welcome:PP:M:N  *Honum var væl fagnað him:D was well welcome:PP:Nt:N Faroese differs from Icelandic in this respect, and the two languages can therefore not be classed together with regard to the null subject parameter. On the other hand, Faroese also has null subjects or oblique subjects. (26) a. Meg droymdi dreym me:A dream:Pt:3S dream:A "I had a dream" b. Mær damar mjólkina me:D like:Pr:3S milk:Def:A "I like the milk" It therefore seems that Faroese is at a stage where case assignment may be ordered before or after NP movement. The facts presented here can be summarized as follows: (I)

Old Norse: INHERENT CASE ASSIGNMENT: (a) A1 — nominative (b) instrument recipient patient patient [+partitive]

dative dative accusative genitive

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(Π) Icelandic: INHERENT CASE ASSIGNMENT: (a) A1 -

nominative

(b) instrument recipient patient patient [+partitive]

-

dative dative accusative genitive

NP MOVEMENT (  ) Faroese: (NP MOVEMENT) STRUCTURAL CASE ASSIGNMENT: subject — nominative INHERENT CASE ASSIGNMENT instrument recipient

-

dative dative

-

accusative

-

patient (NP MOVEMENT) (IV) Central Scandinavian: NP MOVEMENT

STRUCTURAL CASE ASSIGNMENT: subject -

nominative

INHERENT CASE ASSIGNMENT: instrument recipient patient

-

dative dative accusative

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(V) Standard Mainland Scandinavian: NP MOVEMENT STRUCTURAL CASE ASSIGNMENT: subject - nominative other -accusative Assuming that Icelandic, Faroese, Central Scandinavian and Standard Mainland Scandinavian represent various historical stages of Nordic, in that order, we can sum up this part of the history of Nordic syntax as follows: a rule of NP movement was introduced, and case assignment moved closer to the surface and became structural rather than inherent. It is clear that the null subject parameter of the Government and Binding framework is insufficient to account for these distinctions, since it only distinguishes between two syntactic types. But more seriously, the situation we find in Faroese and the Central Scandinavian dialects cannot be accounted for at all within the case theory of Government and Binding. An NP which has been assigned case inherently in VP cannot be moved to a position where it has to be assigned nominative structurally without creating a case conflict and thereby an unacceptable sentence. A further problem is that the Central Scandinavian dialects also allow stranding of prepositions that take the dative case, see (22c), repeated here. (27) hu vart tala åt she:N Aux:Pt speak:PP to Preposition stranding is a very peculiar syntactic phenomenon, hardly found outside Scandinavian, English and Dutch. It is assumed to be made possible by a very restricted rule of reanalysis, whereby the preposition is incorporated into the verb, and the NP is assigned structural case like a direct object (cf. Maling and Zaenen 1985 with references). Therefore prepositions that can be stranded cannot assign the dative case. This is clearly a wrong prediction for the Central Scandinavian dialects. To conclude, then, the positing of an arbitrary feature [+PRONOUN] in COMP does not give us anything extra in terms of generalizations or explanations. The differences discussed here between the various stages of Nordic can be ascribed to differences in the case assignment system and its ordering with respect to NP movement. This difference may of course be expressed notationally as a feature in COMP, but then that feature has to be taken as a symbol of the differences, not as an explanation of them.

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REFERENCES Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris. Faarlund, Jan Terje. 1988. "Transformational passive and the origin of NP movement". University of Chicago Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 4. Fillmore, Charles N. 1968. "The case for case". Universais in Linguistic Theory ed. by E. Bach & R.T. Harms, 1-88. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Kayne, Richard S. 1984. Connectedness and Binary Branching. Dordrecht: Foris. Maling, Joan & Anne Zaenen. 1985. "Preposition-stranding and passive". Nordic Journal of Linguistics 8.197-209. Platzack, Christer. 1985a. The Scandinavian Languages and the Null Subject Parameter. (= Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax, 20). Trondheim: University of Trondheim. Platzack, Christer. 1985b. "Syntaktiskaförändringari svenskan under 1600talet". Svenskans beskrivning 15.401-415.

DOMESDA Y BOOK AND LATE OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS JACEK FISIAK Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

Old English dialectology, unlike Middle English (cf. Mcintosh et al. 1986; Kristensson 1967, 1987; etc.) has not recorded significant progress over the last decade. One of the reasons for this situation is the paucity of evidence and its uneven distribution both in time and space, which has usually led scholars to present Old English dialects in grammars as 'timeless' phenomena with diachronic and diatopic variation often lumped together. Furthermore most of the dialectal Old English manuscripts lack precise localization which makes it impossible on this basis to attempt even a limited presentation of the geographical distribution of dialect features. As has been generally accepted, Old English (c. 700-1100) has come down to us in four basic dialects, i.e. Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon. Their geographic location is, in most cases, described vaguely. For instance, a classic example of the account of the geographical distribution of Old English dialects repeated with minor modifications until today can be best illustrated by the following quotation from E. Sievers' Old English Grammar. In the earliest OE manuscripts the existence of dialects is plainly discernible. The chief of these are the Northumbrian, in the north; the Midland or Mercian in the interior; the Saxon, in the south; and the Kentish, in the extreme southeast (Sievers 1903:2).

Furthermore, certain parts of English with sizeable populations, e.g., East Anglia or Essex, are usually left unaccounted for (notable exceptions here Smith 1956 and Pilch 1970). However, even if endeavors were made to locate dialects more precisely, their borders (i.e. either bundles of isoglosses or transition zones) were determined by means of extralinguistic factors (cf. Smith 1956:XXIX-XXX). For the reasons mentioned above caution has been advocated in locating dialects with any degree of exactness (cf. Luick 1914-1921:29 or Campbell 1959:10). A large number of scholars, under the circumstances, have rejected Old English dialectology in the modern sense of the word, sometimes even

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Map 1. Old English dialects. Based on Smith (1956). declaring it impossible (Campbell 1959:10, Hogg Forthcoming; cf. also Crowley 1980, 1986; Bähr 1985 and Toon 1987). This is particularly true of the cases where textual evidence alone constitutes dialect data. However, a certain number of scholars who have used other than textual evidence, viz. onomastic evidence, have attained a fair degree of success in the mapping of Old English dialect information - both at the beginning of our century (e.g., Brandi 1915) and more recently (e.g., Snyder 1969).

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In the opinion of the present writer the available evidence for Old English dialects, i.e. TEXTS (literary, charters and inscriptions) and NAMES (place names and to some extent personal names) in Old English and Latin texts or on coins, it would seem, can provide enough information for a more detailed analysis, at least for the end of the Old English period, than hitherto attempted. Each type of evidence, however, presents some problems. Most Old English manuscripts which have survived until today were copied in the Late West Saxon standardized language between the end of the 10th century and the 12th century. Some early West Saxon manuscripts date to the late 9th and early 10th centuries, but even then the language exhibits some traces of incipient standardization (Kurban 1978). The remaining West Saxon evidence is poor and belongs to the 9th century. The non-West Saxon evidence consists of 72 texts of which only 27 are longer than a few lines. Nine of the longer texts are charters, and three are short poems or inscriptions (Bede's Death Song, Cædmon's Hymn and the runic text on the Franks' Casket). Kent has no longer texts. There is no dialectal textual witness for Northumbrian in the 9th and early 10th centuries, for Mercian before 750, or from the mid 10th century and the end of the 11th century, and for Kentish before 800 and after 1000. The situation is even more critical for the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. It is hoped, however, that the recent work of Mcintosh and his collaborators (1986), which has laid solid foundations for the study of copied and dialectally mixed late medieval manuscripts, will be applied to the appropriate manuscripts of the 11th century Old English period and the 12th-century transition period, and will yield valuable new dialect information. Inscriptions, both runic (approximately 65, of which only 30 are of significance) and non-runic (158 listed by Okasha 1971, of which approximately 40% are insignificant), are also widely distributed in time. Runic inscriptions from the earliest period are quite frequent. Their length varies from 41 words to two. Their distribution is space is uneven. There are, for example, no West Saxon runic inscriptions. Seventy-two percent of all of them are to be found in the north, as can be seen on Map 2. The non-runic inscriptions are poorly represented in the Midlands. The East Anglian ones are useless for dialectological purposes. Moreover, 80% of non-runic inscriptions appear in the north (see Map 3). Charters (i.e. royal grants, private agreements, wills, records of proceedings of councils, etc.) are extremely numerous throughout the Old English period. Unfortunately after 900 they tend to be written in the West Saxon dialect everywhere in England. Charters provide important dialect

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Pre-650 runic object.  -650 object with rune-like symbol. Post-650 runic monuments. Rune-stones: ■ 1 example; 2-3 examples; 8 examples. Runes on objects other than stone: 1 example; 2 examples.

Map 2. Runic monuments. Based on Page (1973:26f.). evidence for Mercian and Kentish before 900. No early charters from the north are known to have survived. There are few or no dialectally significant charters for areas of England not represented by literary records, e.g. East Anglia.

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Inscriptions on stone. 1 item; 2-3 items; 4 or more items. Inscriptions on material other than stone. A 1 item; A 2-3 items.

Map 3. Based on Okasha(1971:140f.). It would seem thus that the textual evidence alone is insufficient to provide dialect information or mapping in terms of isoglosses, lexical or grammatical items, or statistical characterization of administrative units, such as counties. The Old English dialectologist has to look for other sources of

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information to supplement the textual witnesses in order to reconstruct the distribution of at least some types of linguistic forms. This additional evidence is provided by onomastics. It is often the only source of information for areas unaccounted for by the textual evidence (e.g., East Anglia). The study of place names and personal names (by nature limited to spelling, phonology and lexical variation) can provide deeper insights into the linguistic geography of Old English. (The use of onomastics in historical dialectology is nothing new and has been advocated by several scholars since 1900, with all its advantages and limitations, e.g., Ekwall 1913, 1917; Wyld 1913-1914; Brandi 1915; Arngart 1949; Cameron 1959; and more recently, Sundby 1970; Cavers 1977; and Kristensson 1965, 1967, 1976, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987, to mention but a few.) The largest number of Old English names has been recorded in one document, viz. the Domesday Book (1086) (hereinafter: DB ), which thus provides a rich source of data for the study of regional language variation (within the bounds and limits of onomastic evidence). The names from before DB are not numerous and suffer from limitations similar to those of the textual evidence. When supplemented by both the textual and onomastic evidence from 1000-1150, the DB material makes it possible to give aratherdetailed account of Late Old English dialects within an optimal span of time without confusing diatopic and diachronic differences (see Fisiak 1985a, 1985b for this and other controversial issues in historical dialectology). Furthermore, the evidence provided by DB can be supported by ampler data from the second half of the 12th century and the 13th century, a time not too distant from the end of the 11th century, when DB was compiled. The application of RETRODICTION technique (Donahue 1968:147) can corroborate additionally some of the direct Old English evidence and help to elucidate more issues in Old English dialectology. (RETRODICTION, as opposed to prediction, is based on the assumption that the known area of one period has a general correspondence to the preceding period and that on this basis one can hypothesize about the general geographic bounds and linguistic features of earlier dialects.) This technique is not new and has been used by scholars such as Brandi (1915) to determine Old English dialect boundaries on the basis of the onomastic evidence from Taxatio ecclesiastica (1291) and Moore, Meech & Whitehall (1935) to determine some Middle English isoglosses on the basis of Ellis' (1889) survey of Modern English dialects. It should be remembered, however, that this technique must be used with caution because the distribution of forms may change in the course of time. Isoglosses may shift, disintegrate or arise. The later history of Middle English (Wakelin 1983, Fisiak 1984 and

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1985b) shows how certain features could spread or disappear entirely, and there is every reason to assume that something similar could have taken place in the 12th century. It is interesting to note that only a few scholars have made even a limited use of the DB material and that the whole document has never been subjected to detailed scrutiny from the point of view of dialectology alone. Thus, the phonology of names has been treated by Stolze (1902) in a superficial and from our present standpoint - outdated way. Ekwall (1917) analysed names which contained the reflexes of WGmc.a before 1 followed by a consonant and reflexes of i-mutation of WGmc.a before / followed by a consonant to establish the distribution of these features in Old English (i.e. for the whole period), supplementing this material with Middle English place-name evidence down to the 15th century. Reaney (1925) investigated four features in several counties to support his claims about the English of 12th-century London. Von Feilitzen (1935) produced the most penetrating study yet of the DB material, but limited to personal names. Snyder (1969) investigated the names which appeared in the hatched area marked in Map 4 with reference to a few features. Most scholars, however, to this day seem to have followed Zachrisson (1909, 1924), ignoring DB as reliable evidence for Old English. Although it is basically a Norman document written in Latin (the bulk of it by non-English scribes), DB contains a relatively large number of English names (some of which have been written down by English scribes); and in view of the general scarcity of Old English dialect data, it deserves serious treatment. We hope to demonstrate below that it is an important source of information and if handled with care, DB can reveal some new and interesting information about Old English dialects. But before we proceed any further a few words about the document itself would seem to be in order. The Domesday Book is the result of the survey of the lands of England ordered by William the Conqueror and conducted in 1086. It contains records of the land, ownership, area and value of the lands, etc. The inquest was carried out for tax purposes for the Treasury. The main manuscript {Exchequer) of the Domesday Book consists of two volumes which are preserved in the Public Record Office in London. The smaller manuscript {Little Domesday) covers Essex, Norfolk and Sussex. The larger volume comprises the rest of England except Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Durham. There are no less than 13,400 names in DB (they have been recently collected in Domesday Gazetteer, compiled by Darby & Versey 1975).

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Map 4. Area investigated in Snyder (1969). Opinions as to the dating of the manuscript vary from shortly after 1086 to the middle of the 12th century. Most authorities, however, are inclined to accept the end of the 11th century. The DB inquest was conducted by royal commissioners who went to the circuits assigned to them and collected in each hundred the sworn verdicts of local juries. In each hundred, half the jurors were Norman and the other half English. The statements of jurors were taken down by the Norman clerks of the commission and included in returns. The procedure was mainly oral,

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although sufficient evidence exists that Old English documents were also sometimes submitted to the commissions. "Most DB spellings of Old English place and personal names are thus in the last resort based on actual spoken forms, which in the case of the English jurors were no doubt often tinged with local dialects" (von Feilitzen 1937:6). The occurrence of traditional Old English forms in DB may also point to an occasional employment of native English scribes. The original returns were subsequently sent to Winchester where they were rearranged and copied to yield finally the two DB volumes which have come down to us.1 Although one should not exclude the possibility of English scribes being employed by the royal chancery and the DB commissions, the evidence available now "leaves no doubt that the vast majority of the clerks responsible for the compilation of the great record must have been Normans" (von Feilitzen 1937:8). As Zachrisson (1909:60) has pointed out, "from a linguistic point of view we have to look upon DB as an essentially Norman and French work". This, however, should not automatically disqualify the work as a source of linguistic information for Old English. For one thing the scarcity of dialect material does not permit us to reject even the smallest scrap of evidence as long as our investigation proceeds with due caution and is methodologically sound. Caution is particularly necessary since DB forms are strongly influenced by Norman pronunciation and spelling tradition as well as by the Late West Saxon standard language (Ekwall 1917:8), e.g., the appearance of a for ON ei in Bradeuuelle (DB) for Braithwell (York) or Bradebroc (DB) for Braybrook (Northumbria) in the north of England. Zachrisson pointed to additional deficiencies and problems connected with DB as a source of linguistic evidence for English, such as "the fanciful and inconsistent spellings in this record [and] also the fact that all the MSS of Domesday Book are copies of original returns which no longer exist" (Zachrisson 1924:99). The "fanciful spellings" are not so fanciful and inconsistent as Zachrisson thought if one looks at medieval scribal practices in a more systematic way. We hope to demonstrate below that their value as evidence is no worse than the spellings of the 13th or 15th century. Despite copying (and nowadays we know far more about the mechanism of the process than half a century ago), the mixed material of DB contains enough dialect information worth investigating which is not the result of Anglo-Norman influence. The non-West Saxon dialect layer in DB was clearly recognized by von Feilitzen (1935), who voiced the opinion that

Dictation cannot be excluded in the process of copying.

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in interpreting the DB forms due allowance should however always be made for the possible presence of non-WS features, for as we have seen the spellings of the DB scribes were in the majority of cases ultimately based on the oral evidence of local juries (39).

Thus it is possible that a number of local forms were recorded relatively faithfully and the efforts of Norman scribes represent more or less successful attempts to record the actual spoken forms of late OE place- and personal names (40).

When investigating the phonology of English names in DB, the nature of the document (see above) makes it necessary to determine first the extent of Anglo-Norman influence2 before other factors are considered. First of all, English names have been basically recorded by Norman scribes, which entails the replacement of English scribal habits by Norman ones, e.g., the use of «u» for OE «y», rendering /y/, «u, v» for OE «f» representing [v], «eh» for OE «c» rendering /k/. Secondly, some of the recorded names must have been modified phonetically because of interference resulting from language contact, e.g., frequent substitution of Anglo-Norman initial/t/ for OE /θ/. Thirdly, the graphic form of the word may represent a phonological process which might have taken place in the 11th century and was duly written down by the scribe. Other factors which must be considered when analysing DB names are the influence of traditional Old English spellings, which has been mentioned above, regular scribal errors due to non-linguistic causes, and certain spelling stereotypes which even in early medieval, relatively variegated, spelling systems could appear and were used over a large area of the country (e.g., church in DB). For lack of space these issues cannot be discussed at length here. To illustrate the validity of DB for Old English dialectology, the distribution of two features will be discussed in the remaining part of the present paper: (a) «e, u, i/y» rendering OE /y/, resulting from the i-umlaut of/u/; (b) «a» representing the i-umlaut of OE Anglian «ealC».3

2

For details see Stolze (1902), Zachrisson (1909, 1924), von Feilitzen (1935); cf. also Pope (1952:420-450) and Vising (1923) on Anglo-Norman. 3 At this point I prefer to remain noncommital as regards the phonetic value of the digraph.

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In my investigation of the distribution of «i/y, e, u» for OE /y/ in DB I have used spellings in such test words as OE hyll, brycg, hrycg, hyrst "wood", and mylen. According to standard accounts, OE/y/changed to/e/in Kent before or around 900 (Jordan 1968:61-66). Campbell (1959:124) includes also Surrey in the e- area. On the basis of the Middle English place-name evidence pro­ vided by Wyld (1913-1914), Luick (1914-1940:169) has extended it to parts of Sussex, Middlesex and Suffolk, and even into Cambridgeshire. He also dates the change of/y/ > /i/ to the 10th and 11th centuries, and assigns it to a territory covering Northumbria, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, parts of Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devonshire and Dorset. The spellings in DB suggest that in Late Old English the e- area extends further to the west than assumed by Luick, Brunner and Wyld (see Map 5) In stressed position «e»-forms appear in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Hertford, Bedford and northern Northamptonshire in the test words mentioned above. In unstressed position the situation looks different, e.g., «e»-spellings can be found in hill as far west as Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire (see Map 6). The distribution pattern in other test words is similar. Von Feilitzen (1935:54-56) found «e» in personal names also in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Berkshire, Devonshire, Somerset and Cheshire. The interpretation of this phenomenon is not easy. Some of the earlier scholars would consider the espellings in Kent and some other southeastern counties as recordings of/e/ < OE /y/. In other areas «e» is explained by them either as an Anglo-Norman way of rendering/y/in writing (von Feilitzen 1937:55 and Seltén 1972:116) because of a similarity between OE /y/ and AN /e/ (Stolze 1902:17) as a result of the lowering and unrounding effect of the neighboring consonants, e.g. /r/ (Stolze 1902:17, Schlemilch 1914:9, Edwall 1936:115ff.), or as an AngloNorman spelling for «i». None of these explanations is convincing. «e» can be found before /r/ as well as in the neighborhood of other non-lowering consonants, e.g. /d3/, as in bridge. Furthermore, why should «e» be used for «i» in some areas and not in other areas in the same word? Why should «e» be considered the spelling for /y/ in areas other than Kent and the southeast? If we look at Maps 7 to 12 we see that «e»-forms rendering OE /y:/ can be found in western and central counties in later centuries as well. Even in modern dialects the occurrence of /i:/ in such a word as mice (< mēs) gives further evidence that the unrounding of /ữ(: must have operated in a larger area than so far accepted. Thus Ellis (1889) has recorded /mi:s/ in Gloucestershire (Cirencester), Devonshire (Iddesleigh and Totness) and in some East Midland and southeastern counties. Orton et al. (1962-1971) have found /mi:s/ in

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Map 5. [DB] hill, hurst, brìdge,rìdge,mill.

Map 6. [DB] -hill

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Map 7. [ 12th century] hill.

Map 8. [ 12th century] mill.

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Map 9. [13th century] bill.

Map 10. [13th century] mill.

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Map 11. [ 15th century] fill, filth, hill, bridge, bury, sin. Based on Mcintosh et al. (1986).

Map 12. [15th century] Ære. Based on McIntosh et al. (1986).

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Map 13. [mi:s] mice in modern dialects. Based on Orton et al. (1962-71). Suffolk (the only form in all localities), Norfolk, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire (see Map 13). The retrodictive evidence afforded by Middle English names (Brandi 1915, Reaney 1925, 1926-1927, Wyld 1913-1914, Serjeantson 1922, Bohman 1944, Ek 1972 and Seltén 1972), by Mcintosh et al. (1986), and by modern dialect surveys supports the evidence of DB and allows us to posit the e-area for Late Old English of the 11th century as stretching from East Anglia to Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, with occasional forms even in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Wyld (1914-1914) was certainly wrong to exclude Norfolk, even in part, from this area. Apart from «e»-spellings occurring in various documents from the 12th to the 15th centuries, late 14th and 15th-century texts as well as modern dialect surveys provide enough evidence to include the county in the e- area. As regards the u- area, it is smaller in DB than Luick (1914-1940) suggested for Old English, i.e. the West Midlands (see Maps 5-10). It grows larger in the 12th century. Further research, however, is necessary into the spelling conventions used in recording the material from this part of England to provide an explanation of the phenomenon.

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Map 14. The vocalism of OE wælle. Based on Kristensson (1987:243). The second feature which I would like to discuss briefly is the reflex of Old English Anglian i-umlaut of a before 1 as wælle "well", which in Middle English appears as «a» in the Mercian territory. In West Saxon the umlauted vowel was ie, represented in Middle English spelling by «e». As demonstrated by Kristensson (1986 and 1987:106, 119-121), the a-area in the 14th century largely corresponds to the extent of the Anglo-Saxon dioceses of Hereford and Lichfield. In the early 14th century «a» forms were predominant in Cheshire, western Derbyshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire west of the Severn; «e» forms were preponderant in Gloucestershire except west of the Severn, eastern Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxford­ shire (see Map 14). In DB the a-area is much smaller and includes Shropshire, Herefordshire and western Staffordshire (one form occurs in Nottinghamshire). In other counties the spelling is «e». Ekwall (1917:40) posited for Old English (without specifying for which century) the occurrence of the 'unbroken' form (i.e. spelled «a» in Middle English) for Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, (probably) Cheshire, southern Lancashire and (western) Derbyshire, and the a- area was much closer to the DB evidence (see Map 15).

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Map 15. [DB] a < i-imlaut of ea. The comparison of the data from the 11th century and the 14th century shows an expansion of Mercian forms in Late Middle English in an easterly direction. A cursory glance at 12th and 13th-century evidence supports Kristensson's claim about the direction of change. However, the DB «a» area, which looks like a genuine Old English «ælC» area, is not coterminous with the two dioceses. In Late Old English it must have been much smaller. The present report, I hope, has demonstrated that DB is a useful source of evidence for Old English dialectology of the 11th century, and that it is possible to recover some facts about 11th-century English dialects in the modern sense with the help of DB and the retrodictive evidence. More studies of early 12th-century manuscripts should help to recover even more. I also hope that this study - even in its present tentative state - can help to verify some of our earlier ideas about a possible distribution of some Old English dialectal features, their direction of expansion and chronology. I have also raised some questions which have to remain unanswered for the time being, since more research is still necessary both into the DB material and into Early Middle English dialects.

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REFERENCES Arngart, O.S.A. 1949. "Middle English dialects". Studier i Moderna Språkvetenskap 17.17-29. Bähr, D. 1985. "Methods in Old English dialectology". Methods V/Métbodes V ed. by HJ. Warkentyne, 85-91. Vancouver: University of Victoria. Benskin, M. & M. Samuels, eds. 1981. So Meny People Longages and Tonges. Edinburgh: The editors. Bohman, H. 1944. Studies in the ME Dialects of Devon and London. Gothenburg: Pehrsson. Brandi, A. 1915. Zur Geographie der altenglischen Dialekte. Berlin: Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Cameron, . 1959. "An Early Mercian boundary in Derbyshire: the placename evidence". The Anglo-Saxons ed. by P. Clemoes, 13-34. London: Bowes & Bowes. Campbell, A. 1959. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Cavers, D. 1977. "In support of the use of place-names as an aid to the study of Middle English dialects". An English Miscellany Presented to W.S. Mackie ed. by B.S. Lee, 54-69. London: Oxford University Press. Clemoes, P., ed. 1959. The Anglo-Saxons. London: Bowes & Bowes. Crowley, J. 1980. The Study of Old English Dialects. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina. Crowley, J.P. 1986. "The study of Old English dialects". English Studies 67.97-112. Darby, H.C. & G.R. Versey. 1975. Domesday Gazetteer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davenport, M. et al., eds. 1983. Current Topics in English Historical Linguistics. Odense: Odense University Press. Donahue, T.S. 1968. The Present State of Middle English Dialect Studies. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University. Ek, K.-G. 1972. The Development ofOEy and eo in South-Eastern Middle English. Lund: Gleerup. Ekwall, E. 1913. "Die Ortsnamenforschung - ein Hilfsmittel fur das Studium der englischen Sprachgeschichte". Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrifte 5.592-608. Ekwall, E. 1917. Contributions to the History of Old English Dialects. Lund: Gleerup. Ellis, A.J. 1889. Early English Pronunciation, Vol. V. (= EETS, 56.) London: Trübner. von Feilitzen, . 1937. The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. Fisiak, J. 1984. "English dialects in thefifteenthcentury: some observations concerning the shift of two isoglosses". FLH 4.75-98. Fisiak, J. 1985a. "Middle English dialectology today: some issues". Studia Linguistica Diachronica and Synchronica. Werner Winter Sexagenario

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Anno MCMLXXXIII ed. by U. Pieper & G. Stickel, 257-280. BerlinNew York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Fisiak, J. 1985b. "The voicing of initial fricatives in Middle English". Focus on England and Wales ed. by W. Viereck, 5-28. Amsterdam: Benjamins. (Repr. in SAP 17.3-16.) Hogg, R. Forthcoming. "On the impossibility of Old English dialectology". Jordan, K. 1934. Handbuch der mittelenglischen Grammatik. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. (Repr. 1968.) Kastovsky, D. & A. Szwedek, eds. 1986. Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries. In Honour ofJacek Fisiak. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Koopman, W. et al., eds. 1987. Explanation and Linguistic Change. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Kristensson, G. 1965. "Another approach to Middle English dialectology". English Studies 46.138-156. Kristensson, G. 1967. A Survey of Middle English Dialects, 1290-1350: The Six Northern Counties and Lincolnshire. Lund: Gleerup. Kristensson, G. 1976. "Lay subsidy rolls and dialect geography". English Studies 57.51-59. Kristensson, G. 1981. "On Middle English dialectology". So Meny People Longages and Tonges ed. by M. Benskin & M. Samuels, 3-13. Edinburgh: The editors. Kristensson, G. 1983. "Dialectology and historical linguistics". Current Topics in English Historical Linguistics ed. by M. Davenport et al., 2935. Odense: Odense University Press. Kristensson, G. 1986. "A Middle English dialect boundary". Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries. In Honour of Jacek Fisiak ed. by D. Kastovsky & A. Szwedek, 443-457. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kristensson, G. 1987. A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290-1350: The West Midland Counties. Lund: Lund University Press. Kurban, N. 1978. The Evolution of the Written Standard for Late West Saxon from the Ninth to the Twelfth Centuries. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Indiana. Lee, B.S., ed. 1977. An English Miscellany Presented to W.S. Mackie. London: Oxford University Press. Luick, K. 1914-1940. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. Stuttgart: Tauchnitz. (Repr. 1964.) Mcintosh, Α., M. Samuels &M. Benskin. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, 4 vols. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. Mawer, A. & F.M. Stenton. 1924. Introduction to the Survey of English Place-names. (= EPNS, I.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moore, S., S. Meech & H. Whitehall. 1935. "Middle English dialect characteristics and dialect boundaries". Essays and Studies in English and Comparative Literature, 1-60. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

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Okasha, E. 1971. Hand-List of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Orton, H. et al. 1962-1971. Survey of English Dialects, 4 vols. Leeds: Arnold. Page, R.I. 1973.  Introduction to English Runes. London: Methuen. Pieper, U. & G. Stickel, eds. 1985. Studia Linguistica Diachronica and Synchronica. Werner Winter Sexagenario Anno MCMLXXXIII. BerlinNew York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Pilch, H. 1970. Altenglische Grammatik. Munich: Hueber. Pope, M. 1952. From Latin toModernFrench with Special Consideration of Anglo-Norman. Manchester: Manchester University Press. (Repr. 1973.) Reaney, P.H. 1925. "On certain phonological features of the dialect of London in the twelfth century". Englische Studien 59.321-345. Reaney, P.H. 1926. "The dialect of London in the thirteenth century". Englische Studien 61.9-23. Schlemilch, W. 1914. Beiträge zur Sprache und Orthographie spätaltenglischer Sprachdenkmäler der Übergangszeit. Halle/S.: Niemeyer. Seltén, B. 1972. The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names: East Anglia 1100-1399. Lund: Gleerup. Serjeantson, M.S. 1922. "The dialectal distribution of certain phonological features in ME". English Studies 4.93-109; 191-198; 223-233. Sievers, E. 1903. An Old English Grammar trans. by A.S. Cook. Boston: Ginn & Company. Smith, A.H. 1956. English Place-Name Elements, Part I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Snyder, L.L. 1969. The Old English Dialect Boundaries: Some Place-Name Evidence. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Stolze, M. 1902. Zur Lautlehre der altenglischen Ortsnamen im Domesday Book. Berlin: Salewski. Sundy, B. 1970. "Present-day trends in Middle English dialectology". Revues des Langues Vivantes 36.566-587. Toon, .. 1987. "Old English dialects: what's to explain: what's an explanation?". Explanation and Linguistic Change ed. by W. Koopman et al., 275-293. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Viereck, W., ed. 1985. Focus on England and Wales. Amsterdam: Benjamin. Vising, J. 1923. Anglo-Norman Language and Literature. London & Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wakelin, M. 1983. "The stability of English dialect boundaries". English World-Wide 4.1-15. Warkentyne, HJ., ed. 1985. Methods V/Méthodes V. Vancouver: University of Victoria. Wyld, H.C. 1913-1914. "The treatment of OE ƒ in the dialects of the Midland and SE counties in ME". Englische Studien 47.1-58.

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Wyld, H.C. 1920. "South-eastern and South-East Midland dialects in Middle English". Essays and Studies 6.112-145. Zachrisson, R.E. 1909. A Contribution to the Study of Anglo-Norman Influence on English Place-Names. Lund: Ohlsson. Zachrisson, R.E. 1924. "The French element". Introduction to the Survey of English Place-names ed. by A. Mawer & F.M. Stenton, 93-114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

BILINGUISME ET INTERFERENCES LE CAS DE L'ANGLAIS SUD-AFRICAIN

PASCAL GALLEZ UOFS, Bloemfontein En 1652, le comptoir du Cap de Bonne Espérance est créé. Ce comp­ toir deviendra vite, de fait, une colonie. En 1669, il s'étend déjà au-delà de Paarl et de Drakenstein, jusqu'au 'pays de Waveren' (premier nom du village de Tulbagh). Dès 1703, des permis sont accordés à de nombreux fermiers, permis les autorisant à s'enfoncer en 'terra incognita' afin de se consacrer non plus à l'agriculture, mais à l'élevage. Ces fermiers aventureux sont, pour la plupart, d'origine hollandaise et parlent le hollandais qui va, au fil des généra­ tions, se simplifier et, dans une mesure considérable, se transformer — au contact des langues indigènes et du malais—jusqu'à devenir l'afrikaans. C'est alors que l'afrikaans a déjà commencé à se distinguer en tant que dialecte distinct du hollandais, que l'armée anglaise, d'abord provisoirement, de 1795 à 1803, puis dans une optique permanente, en 1806, occupe un territoire qui appartient à la Hollande et, par conséquent, à la France — pays contre lequel l'Angleterre est engagée dans une guerre qui ne se terminera qu'en 1815. Les autorités anglaises occuperont le fort et la ville du Cap plutôt que la colonie et seront, par la suite, toujours à la traîne des colons quand il s'agira de décider des frontières réelles de la colonie, quand elles n'interdiront pas, purement et simplement, l'expansion de cette dernière. En 1824, traînées jusqu'à la frontière naturelle que représente la rivière Orange, les autorités anglaises refuseront protection à tous ceux qui, quoique restant loyaux à la couronne anglaise, passeront la frontière déterminée par la rivière Orange. Ajoutons que les troupes anglaises, fort dispersées dès qu'elles sortent de la ville du Cap, n'auront qu'une très médiocre influence linguistique sur une population de langue afrikaans — ce qui permettra à la langue afrikaans de s'établir définitivement — alors qu'au contraire, la pupulation de la langue

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afrikaans majoritaire dans ce qui est légalement la colonie du Cap, fera sentir dès le premier instant son poids linguistique sur la population de langue anglaise. Selon Uriel Weinreich (1953) l'un des aspects les plus évidents d'interférences lexicales, et c'est sans doute le premier aspect, est l'emprunt d'un mot indigène, en conformité avec un modèle étranger. L'Angleterre n'est pas l'Afrique australe: les deux géographies diffèrent sensiblement; la dissimilarité qui existe entre le relief, la faune, la flore anglaise et ses équivalents sud-africains rend la langue anglaise inopérante face à ce qui est, pour le lecteur anglophone, inconnu. II sera donc normal qu'il emprunte, pour nommer un animal, un arbre, un type de paysage, inconnus à lui et à sa langue, le mot indigène qui désigne et nomme l'inconnu. C'est de là que viendront les premiers éléments de ce qu'on peut appeler aujourd'hui l'anglais sud-africain (en abrégé: ASA): nous trouvons les mots kopje (en ASA: koppie), springbok; gemsbok, wildebees (en ASA: wildebeest), veld', etc., avec, comme nous pouvons le noter, un effort occasionnel, de la part du locuteur anglophone, pour angliciser orthographiquement (et phonétiquement), le mot afrikaans transféré en anglais. La situation restera ainsi, mutatis mutandis, jusqu'au moment où la puissance coloniale reconsidère sa position quant aux frontières légales de la colonie, et ceci pour deux raisons: les mines de diamants de Kimberley — village qui se trouve au-delà des frontières de la colonie du Cap — et les mines d'or du Rand (Johannesburg), camp minier qui, lui aussi, se trouve au delà des frontières de la colonie. Ceci amènera deux guerres anglo/boers (en 1899 et en 1900/1902). Au cours de la seconde guerre, les troupes anglaises, appliquant la statégie dite 'de la terre brûlée', vont déplacer toutes les populations de langue afrikaans sur lesquelles ils peuvent mettre la main vers des camps de concentration, mais quelquefois aussi vers les villes. De ce fait, le contact linguistique entre une communauté de langue afrikaans avant tout paysanne, et une communauté de langue anglaise purement citadine prend place, pour ne jamais cesser. Ainsi, Bloemfontein, ville avant tout anglophone jusqu'au début du siècle, devient une ville à majorité linguistique afrikaans (le ratio est de 66/34 en faveur de l'afrikaans) à la fin de la guerre, et jusqu'à aujourd'hui. C'est donc à partir du tout début du vingtième siècle qu'afrikaans et anglais sont mis en contact régulier. Il faut ajouter qu'à ce stade, le territoire géographique qui deviendra l'Union Sud Africaine, puis la République d'Afrique du Sud, ne connaît qu'une langue 'officielle': l'anglais. Les populations de langue afrikaans sont

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amenées à parler anglais, en traduction directe la plupart du temps, traduction directe qui entraînera l'apparition, chez les locuteurs de langue anglaise, d'interférences non seulement lexicales, mais aussi sémantiques, syntaxiques et morphologiques. En 1925, l'afrikaans devient, lui aussi, langue nationale à part entière (replaçant le hollandais qui n'était à peu près plus parlé par les afrikaners), entraînant tout un chacun, volens nolens, sur la voie du bilinguisme. La victoire électorale du Parti National, en 1948, et le retrait subséquent de l'Union Sud Africaine du Commonwealth en 1961 vont créer une situation isolationiste dans laquelle la population anglophone minoritaire va se trouver confrontée à l'anglais tel qu'il est parlé par la majorité afrikaans, sans plus posséder de réfèrent anglais. En 1976, la RSA crée son propre système télévisuel qui est bilingue. De ce fait, tout téléspectateur de langue anglaise est continuellement confronté à l'afrikaans, en situation dite 'bi-culturelle'. Pour terminer la mise en place de l'arrière-plan historique sur lequel cette étude se fonde, ajoutons qu'en 1968, l'armée sud-africaine (SADF) telle qu'elle est connue aujourd'hui (service militaire obligatoire, unités 'mixtes', mélangeant anglophones et afrikaners, mais avec majorité afrikaans) est créée et que enfin, après un demi siècle de haine farouche, résiduelle aux deux guerres anglo/boers, les deux commu­ nautés afrikaans et anglaise se rapprochent, au point qu'il n'est plus excep­ tionnel aujourd'hui de rencontrer des couples mariés dont chacun des parte­ naires est issu d'une communauté différente. Pour simplifier, disons donc que, dès qu'il y a contact entre communautés linguistiques afrikaans et anglaise, le contact établi amène des interférences dans tous les domaines. Les Afrikaners étant les seuls bilingues, par nécessité, ils parleront un anglais 'afrikanerisé', dans chacune des situa­ tions dans lesquelles ils sont amenés à parler anglais (armée, administration, vie sociale, mariage,...) et, de ce fait, entraîneront l'apparition de Γ ASA. Ajoutons aussi, nous tournant maintenant vers les facteurs extralinguistiques qui déterminent tout aussi puissamment la situation de contact à laquelle nous nous intéressons ici, et suivant la méthode indiquée par Uriel Weinreich (1964[1953]) à ce propos, que: Nous nous sommes intéressés, dans le but de faire cette étude, à un groupe dont la composition — tous âges confondus, de l'adolescence à la post maturité — pouvait être culturellement considéré comme homogène: la plupart des familles incluse dans le groupe-témoins étaient en relation professionnelle avec l'université de l'OFS; les quelques personnes non-universitaires étaient,

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pour une raison ou pour une autre, profondément impliquées dans le monde culturel et en contact permanent avec les universitaire anglophones de l'université. A) Nous pouvons de ce fait assurer la facilité des locuteurs du groupe à s'exprimer en anglais, et la facilité de ces locuteurs à séparer les deux langues officielles. B) La capacité des locuteurs anglophones à s'exprimer en afrikaans varie du médiocre au très médiocre. C) Il n'existe pas vraiment de spécialisation des deux langues en sujets et en interlocuteurs. Dans notre groupe-témoin, la langue utilisée dans tous les domaines est l'anglais. L'afrikaans n'est parlé que quand le locuteur d'origine non-anglophone (c'est-à-dire, dans le cadre de cette étude, afrikaans) est incapable de parler ou de comprendre l'anglais, parlé ou écrit. D) L'anglais a été, ou est, appris à la maison, en situation familiale, puis à l'école et à l'université. La situation de contact avec l'afrikaans a lieu à l'école (l'afrikaans est une matière obligatoire pour les enfants issus d'un milieu anglophone, tout comme l'anglais est une matière scolaire obligatoire pour les enfants du groupe linguistique afrikaans) et dans la rue (camarades de jeu). Il est ensuite réappris, pour les enfants de sexe masculin, au cours du service militaire et, ensuite, généralement, très peu utilisé. E) L'attitude du groupe anglophone à l'égard des deux langues — l'un étant l'afrikaans et l'autre étant l'ASA — est claire. Avec un degré de variation suffisamment bas pour qu'on puisse ne pas le prendre en considération, le locuteur anglophone possède une grande fidélité à l'égard de l'anglais: le mépris à l'égard de l'afrikaans est notable dans la plupart des cas. Pour regrouper ce point E avec point H par Weinreich (point H: attitude vis-à-vis des deux langues — de par le prestige qui leur est attribué; statut indigène ou immigrant des langues concernés), les deux langues sont ressenties comme étant indigènes à la République, mais le prestige de l'afrikaans peut étre considéré comme extrémement faible. F) La taille du groupe anglophone et du groupe afrikaans diffère de manière considérable: le ratio est de 65/45 en faveur du groupe linguistique afrikaans (chiffre du recensement de 1986) — si nous ne prenons pas en compte le groupe racial dit 'métis', dont la langue maternelle est l'afrikaans (ils sont d'ailleurs surnommés 'les afrikaners bruns'). De plus, le groupe linguis­ tique anglophone ne possède pas d'homogénéité — ne serait-ce que dans ses modèles (référents) culturels. Le groupe linguistique anglophone est composé de nationalités diverses qui ne sont pas toutes, loin de là, anglophones. La

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majorité de ce groupe est d'origine anglaise, mais une forte minorité de ce groupe correspond à tous les immigrants (francophones, slavophones, urdu, germanophones, yiddishes,...) qui ont choisi l'anglais plutôt que l'afrikaans, étant arrivés dans la République à partir du dix-neuvième siècle, à l'époque où l'Union faisait encore partie du Commonwealth, et pour lesquels l'ASA est devenu la langue, jusqu'à aujourd'hui. G) Prévalence des individus bilingues: ce point a été défini par les points A à E. I) Attitude envers la culture de chacune de communautés linguistiques: ce point a été partiellement traité en E. Ce qui a été dit sur la manière dont le groupe linguistique anglophone perçoit l'afrikaans en tant que langue reste opérant sur le plan culturel. Le membre de la communauté linguistique anglophone lit en anglais, écoute en anglais, voit (télévision, films) en anglais, et rarement en afrikaans, langue qu'en général il méprise. J) L'attitude envers le bilinguisme per se, de la part du groupe témoin, est neutre, voire positive — pour autant que ce bilinguisme n'implique pas l'afrikaans, dans lequel cas le groupe anglophone, dans sa grande majorité, mais pas dans sa totalité, indiquera que l'apprentissage de l'afrikaans s'est fait parce qu'il était obligatoire, et insistera sur les points E et I. K) Le groupe-témoin présentait dans sa quasi totalité une intolérance de principe quant au mélange linguistique, aux interférences, ainsi qu'à une langue qui pouvait être jugée comme étant, du point de vue normatif, incorrecte. Il faut cependant ajouter que cette intolérance de principe était en pratique, dans une mesure non négligeable, battue en brêche, les locuteurs anglophones ayant intégré dans leur langue, comme nous le verrons, suffisamment d'interférences lexicales, sémantiques, syntaxiques et morphol­ ogiques pour que la recherche à laquelle nous nous livrons ait une raison d'être. L) Relation entre le groupe bilingue et les deux communautés linguistiques non bilingues: cette question ne se pose pas. Les locuteurs anglophones qui parviennent à un stade de bilinguisme surprennent leurs relations anglophones, sans plus. Dans un cadre de contact maintenant situé exactement, dans lequel nous voyons le groupe des locuteurs anglophones refusant, dans une très large mesure, le bilinguisme anglais-afrikaans officiellement pratiqué en RSA, nous allons cependant constater la présence de nombreuses interférences dans tous les domaines linguistiques, créant ce que nous avons appelé dès l'abord l'ASA.

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Domaine lexical. Nous devons ici établir une distinction entre les mots qui devaient s'intégrer nécessairement à l'anglais, de par le fait qu'ils désignaient des choses inconnues à la civilisation anglaise et à sa langue (flore, faune, géographie, ...), mots qui ont été intégrés à l'anglais à l'instant même où les locuteurs de langue anglaise sont arrivés au Cap, le morphème lexical ayant été crée en afrikaans et étant accepté de manière immédiate par le locuteur anglais, morphèmes lexicaux qui ont souvent pénétré l'anglais dit 'mondial', (ce groupe de morphèmes lexicaux correspondra au groupe I) et les mots que nous pourrions plus proprement considérer comme interférences qui, d'origine afrikaans, avaient un équivalent anglais qui a virtuellement disparu, le mot afrikaans étant utilisé à sa place (groupe Π). Le Dictionary of South African English (Bradford 1980) contient 4000 rubriques, dont environ 2000 sont des entrées afrikaans. Nous pouvons diviser les 2000 rubriques qui nous intéressent en deux groupes de taille sensiblement égales, l'un correspondant au groupe I, l'autre au groupe IL Le premier groupe correspond à des additions de vocabulaire; le deuxième, généralement, à des remplacements de morphèmes lexicaux, qui amènent, d'abord, une confusion du mot ancien et du mot nouveau (nice et lekker, par exemple), lequel mot nouveau fait disparaître, en règle générale, le mot ancien bakki ayant éliminé pick-up, par exemple). Groupe I: Aandbloom, nagapie, rooi ass, kafferboom, rooibos (tous ces morphèmes nouveaux relevant du domaine de la flore). Aardvark, gemsbok, springbok, slang, wildebees (qui relèvent du domaine de la faune). Waterblommetje, Karbonaadjie, Biltong (qui relèvent de la cuisine). Veld; kap/kaaje; hoek (qui relèvent du domaine géographique). Apartheid (politique), stinkwood (flore; traduit directement de l'afrikaans stinkhout); boeretan (bronzage boer typique); voorlaaier (type de fusil utilisé exclusivement par les Afrikaners et, par extension, gros fusil); etc. Nous pouvons noter que de nombreux morphèmes lexicaux indiqués ici sont passés dans l'anglais dit 'mondial' (apartheid,veld, koppie). Groupe II:

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Nous nous trouvons ici des morphèmes lexicaux qui possèdent un équivalent anglais connu, mais sous-utilisé en RSA, le morphème lexical afrikaans ayant envahi la sphère lexicale anglophone. Bakkie (pour: voiture dite 'pick-up'); stoep (pour: véranda); moffie (pour: gay, "homosexuel"); takkie (pour: sport shoes); boeremusic (pour: folk music); braai (pour: barbecue); boeremeisje (pour: young girl, "jeune fille"; mais elle doit être d'origine afrikaans); skattje (pour: darling, "mon lapin, mon trésor, etc."); ou/oke/okie (pour: man. "homme"); to smaak (pour: to like, enjoy "apprécier"); lekker (pour: nice "beau, bien"); sies ("Horreur!"); etc. Dans ce "etc." nous pouvons compter la plus grande partie du lexique militaire. On ne sait trop ici s'il nous faut donner des raisons linguistiques ou extra-linguistiques à ces interférences lexicales issues de l'afrikaans. Les systèmes lexicaux anglais eî afrikaans sont suffisamment différents l'un de l'autre pour qu'on puisse supposer un mélange de système; il nous faut donc considérer les facteurs extra-linguistiques comme étant essentiels, prenant les points D et F déjà mentionnés, comme étant les plus signifiants. Un facteur linguistique interne doit cependant être pris en considération, quand le morphème lexical implique l'affectif. Il semble que, dans cette situation, les morphèmes lexicaux impliqués perdent de leur force expressive et demandent renouvellement, remplacement. Ceci explique le phénomène de changement lexical qui intervient dans les cas suivant: nice > lekker; darling > skattie; nonsense, balderdash > twak, etc. Un autre facteur linguistique interne est celui de l'utilisation du lexique afrikaans à des fins humoristiques. Le mépris que l'anglophone ressent pour l'afrikaner lui fait utiliser son vocabulaire à des fins de plaisanterie (on trouve beaucoup de mots afrikaans dans les blagues dites 'Van de Merwe Jokes'). Domaine semantique. Le domaine sémantique amène, lui, moins de problèmes. Chacun des élé-ments auxquels nous allons maintenant nous intéresser provient de l'afrikaans, traduit en anglais. L'interférence sémantique peut donc être considérée comme directement imposée par le locuteur afrikaans. Les afrikaners sont les seuls en RSA à être, en tant que groupe, bilingues afrikaans/anglais. Leur appren-tissage de l'anglais est, dans la plupart des cas, passif (la télévision et, à l'école, le professeur d'anglais). Le résultat est un anglais compréhensible, mais truffé d'afrikanerismes qui vont passer en anglais, au vu du fait que, dans la plus grande partie de la république, nous

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avons dans toutes les situations une majorité de locuteurs afrikaners. La traduction directe amenant des changements sémantiques peut être illustrée par les exemples suivants: — butchery: Traduction directe de l'afrikaans slaghuis. Le mot slaghuis correspond en afrikaans à la fois à la boucherie et à l'abattoir, à butcher et à slaughter house. En ASA, le lexème butchery est devenu le seul mot utilisé pour butcher. —-to stay: Uve, "résider". Quoique Γ afrikaans fasse une différence nette entre stay (bly) et live (woon), l'évolution du sens du morphème stay est largement attribuée par les anglophones ASA à une interférence imposée par les locuteurs afrikaans pariant anglais, qui n'auront pas fait la différence entre les deux mots. — thank you: no "non". Ce déplacement de sens vient de l'afrikaans, où le mot dankie est toujours négatif (donnant en traduction exacte "non merci"). — terribly: very "beaucoup". Ce déplacement de sens, du négatif au positif, vient du fait qu'en afrikaans, le morphème utilisé pour indiquer le positif est verskriklik (terribly "affreusement"). Le morphème aura été utilisé en traduc­ tion directe. — must: équivalent ASA de should, ought to ou shall. Le must ASA ne signale que très rarement une obligation imperative. Là encore, nous voyons que le déplacement de sens de ce morphème est venu d'une traduction directe de l'afrikaans, produite par les locuteurs afrikaans parlant anglais. En afrikaans, le verbe moet, au cognitif, est équivalent à must "devoir". — shame: expression correspondant, en ASA, à tout, sauf à la honte. Cette interjection peut être amicale, admirative, indiquer la tristesse ou, tout simplement, correspondre à Ah? Bon. Dans un seul cas, l'exclamation shame est associée au how disgraceful anglais: dans le cas de la locution ag, sies tog shame! Nous n'avons pas ici de traduction directe de l'afrikaans mais, une fois encore, tous les locuteurs d'ASA consultés, ainsi que le Dictionary of South African English estiment que le déplacement de sens de shame en ASA est dû aux locuteurs afrikaners de l'anglais. Domaine syntaxique. Ainsi que nous pourrons le noter, nous nous trouvons ici confrontés à un dilemme. Quelques-uns des éléments syntaxiques, que l'on pourrait croire dans un premier temps particuliers à Γ ASA peuvent être trouvés dans d'autre

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dialectes anglais ou américains. Ainsi, dans l'anglais de Malaisie, nous pouvons noter que, tout comme en ASA, la phrase normale correpondant à Really? Is that so? est Is it?; cette même locution semblait tout d'abord typique de l'ASA. Plusieurs des éléments syntaxiques ici signalés peuvent donc être retrouvés dans d'autres aires linguistiques; nous pensons pouvoir assurer que chacun d'entre eux peut être accepté en tant qu'ASA aussi, tous étant en fait des interférences produites par le locuteur d'origine afrikaans parlant anglais. Corne with, Are you going/coming with? pour: Are you going with me/him/them/... ou pour: Are you going along? Take it with pour: Take it with you. Le with est utilisé de manière redondante, ou équivalente à along. Il s'agit d'une traduction directe de l'adverbe afrikaans saam; along. Have: le verbe have est utilisé de manière générale en ASA, infiniment plus qu'en anglais, de par le fait qu'en afrikaans, on a besoin de het "have" au passé. De ce fait, au lieu de dire I saw him, nous dirons plus naturellement en ASA: I have seen him. Is it? (pour: Really? or Is that so?). L'expression indique la sur-prise, l'incrédulité ou, tout simplement, un intérêt poli. Il s'agit d'une traduc-ion directe de la locution afrikaans: Is dit? (Is that so?). Domaine morphologique. La morphologie a longtemps été considérée comme le bastion le plus solide de la langue. Selon cette idée, c'était la présence ou l'absence d'interérences morphologiques dans une langue donnée qui permettait de déterminer si cette langue était créolisée ou non. Il semble en fait que cette théorie ne repose sur rien. La présence ou l'absence d'interférences dans le champ mor­ phologique ne nous permettra pas de déterminer si l'ASA peut être considéré comme existant, et comme un dialecte, ou une langue créole — le champ morphologique seul ne conduit à rien, si on ne lie pas cette étude aux autres champs étudiés. Nous devons diviser cette étude en deux sections: nous aurions d'une part, de manière évidente, des morphèmes afrikaans qui ont été adoptés dans la langue parlée et écrite des locuteurs anglophones de RSA, et qui sont utilisés par eux de manière régulière. Ces morphèmes sont, il faut le signaler, des morphèmes non liés, non intégrés (noms, interjections, déjà partiellement traités de ce fait dans nos rubriques consacrées à la lexicographie ASA et sa sémantique). Ce sont des interférences lexicales, plutôt que des interférences proprement morphologiques.

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Les choses changent si nous nous tournons vers les morphèmes dit 'intégrés', liés. Certains morphèmes intégrés de l'afrikaans sont transférés en ASA, où ils sont tout aussi intégrés. Nous verrons alors des structures du type de celle que nous représentons ici: préfixe afrikaans + morphème lexical ASA + suffixe afrikaans/anglais; pluriel afrikaans/anglais. Exemples: le verbe ASA donner (qui signifie en afrikaans "assommer, démolir, écraser" mais qui est utilisé en ASA, avec un déplacement de sens, avant tout comme terme de rugby, pour indiquer un placage particulièrement 'dur') sera utilisé par le locuteur ASA de la manière suivante: — présent: he donnerS him — passé composé: he has donnerED him — plus-que-parfait: he had GEdonnerED him. Il en est de même avec le morphème verbal ASA to braai "griller, faire un barbecue" et, de manière systématique, avec tout morphème ASA. Diminutif afrikaans/anglais: Exemples: boy/tjie, shoe/ïjie, ... Nous pouvons conclure au regard des exemples donnés ici, en rapport avec le total lexical, sémantique, syntaxique et morphologique que fait l'anglais dit 'de la reine' qui reste, dans notre étude, l'objet de référence, qu'il est logique que nous parlions d'un ASA. L'anglais est une langue dont on sait qu'elle absorbe facilement des éléments lexicaux appartenant à d'autres langues et, de ce fait, nous ne pouvons pas prendre en trop grande considération le champ lexical nouveau que l'ASA nous offre pour décider si l'ASA est ou non dialectal; syntaxe et morphologie ASA, par contre, peuvent nous aider, regroupées avec les éléments lexicaux et sémantiques que nous avons pu noter. Nous pouvons alors estimer que malgré des changements nets dans certains domaines— changements que nous avons indiqués — l'ASA reste dans son ensemble similaire à l'anglais réfèrent, dit 'de la reine'. De ce fait, suivant la terminologie de Rossetti (1949), l'ASA pourra être qualifié de langue mélangée et non de langue mixte. Le locuteur anglophone britannique arrivant en RSA aura certes des difficultés d'adaptation à l'ASA, mais ces difficultés peuvent être considérées comme minimes sauf, peut-être, au niveau lexical. Nous pouvons de ce fait estimer que la dialectalisation de l'anglais en Afrique du Sud peut être considérée comme existante (le locuteur anglophone ASA admet

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d'ailleurs sans difficultés qu'il parle, lit et écrit un anglais qui n'est plus tout à fait l'anglais réfèrent), mais aussi comme faible. Quant à l'influence de l'afrikaans sur la dialectalisation minime qui fait l'ASA, elle ne souffre aucun doute. Si l'afrikaans n'est responsable que de la moitié des interférences lexicales en ASA, il est par contre à l'origine de toutes les interférences syntaxiques, sémantiques et morphologiques attribuées à l'ASA. L'évolution linguistique qui conduit de l'anglais à l'ASA est principale­ ment due à l'afrikaans et à un bilinguisme qui est, avant tout, le fait des locuteurs afrikaans. Quant au fait que, dans une situation aussi déséquilibrée en faveur de l'afrikaans, l'anglais ne soit pas devenu une langue créole, cela semble tenir à deux facteurs, l'un étant linguistique, l'autre, extra-linguistique: d'abord, le fait que le statut de l'afrikaans est, au sein de la communauté anglophone, médiocre; ensuite, le fait — linguistique — que, perdant pour des raisons diverses son réfèrent anglais (l'interdiction imposée en 1981 par le syndicat des acteurs anglais 'Equity' de passer les programmes impliquant ses membres sur les chaînes de télévision sud-africaines), le locuteur anglophone a dû découvrir un nouveau réfèrent: l'anglais américain. Cette étude ne serait en effet pas complète si l'on ne signalait pas un phénomène récent (apparu au cours de cette décennie) et d'importance: le changement dans ces toutes dernières années de l'ASA en américain sudafricain (en bref: AMS A), changement dû autant à des raisons linguistiques (le locuteur anglophone ASA est soumis à un flot télévisuel et radiophonique totalement américain qui fait de l'AMSA le seul réfèrent) qu'à des raisons extra-linguistiques (le prestige de l'Amérique est, en RSA, à son zénith pour l'instant). Ce déplacement d'une aire linguistique (anglaise) à une autre (américaine) se manifeste aujourd'hui tout particulièrement sur le plan phon­ ologique: tout présentateur, ou disc-jockey, sur une radio ou une télévision commerciale (par exemple: M-Net; 702; Radio Capitol) se doit d'imiter aussi fidèlement que possible l'accent new-yorkais. Cette mode, qui avait d'abord touché les chaînes radiophoniques ou télévisées commerciales, donne l'impression d'être maintenant devenue aussi la politique de la SABC, dont les présenteurs de différentes chaînes (par exemple: Radio 5; Radio Métro) se sont mis à l'américain (cf. les cours d'américain donnés aux disc-jockeys de ces radios aux frais de la SABC). Il est à noter que le mythe américain passe pardessus les barrières raciales et culturelles: Radio 5 est une chaîne radio destinée avant tout aux blancs anglophones; Radio Oranje, aux blancs afrikaaners; Radio Metro, aux noirs urbanisés.

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Sur le plan lexical — ce sera la deuxième et dernière rubrique — l'im­ portance de I'AMSA, quoique encore médiocre, va grandissant: nous pourrons noter comme exemple de cette influence nouvelle les éléments suivants: Le yes anglais avait été supplanté depuis le début du siècle par le ja afrikaans, le ja afrikaans est depuis peu supplanté par le yeah atttribué à l'américain newyorkais. Le mot ASA bioscope habituellement utilisé pour cinéma est en train d'être supplanté par le mot flick, d'origine américaine. Le mot ASA oke/ou/okie, déjà mentionné, est en compétition sévère avec le mot d'origine américaine dude. Les mots cherry ou meisje, habituellement utilisés en ASA pour désigner (en milieu scolaire et estudiantin) une jeune fille, sont eux aussi entrés en compétition avec le mot d'origine américaine bird. Le mot whisky, anglais mondial, a été totalement supplanté par le mot scotch, utilisé aux USA. Le mot cigarette entre en compétition depuis peu avec son équivalent américain smoke. L'importance du déplacement de l'anglais réfèrent à l'américain réfèrent reste cependant encore minime, mais on peut penser qu'elle devrait s'amplifier dans les prochaines années, sans peut-être que son influence sur l'anglais parvienne à dépasser celle de l'afrikaans dans un futur proche. Nous pouvons en conclusion estimer que les deux changements linguistiques auxquels nous nous sommes intéressés doivent, dans le premier cas, beaucoup aux facteurs linguistiques et, dans le deuxième, aux facteurs dits extra-linguistiques. Quand on voit la rapidité avec laquelle le deuxième change­ ment s'accomplit, il semble évident que le facteur essentiel du changement linguistique, de la présence de l'interférence dans une langue, n'est pas lin­ guistique mais extra-linguistique: il s'agit du prestige. RÉFÉRENCES Branford, Jean. 1980. A Dictionary of South African English. Capetown: Oxford Univ. Press. Rossetti, Alexandru. 1949. "Langues mixtes et mélange des langues". Acta Linguistica 5.73-79. Weinreich, Uriel. 1964[1953]. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.

REANALYSING ACTUALIZATION, AND ACTUALIZING REANALYSIS ERICA  GARCIA Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden

1.

Actualization, reanalysis and frequency range.

In his seminal paper on syntactic change Timberlake (1977) distinguishes between reanalysis, which affects the form of the grammar and takes place at the (unobservable) level of hypothesis forming, and actualization, the manifestation of the 'new' grammar at the (observable) level of language use. Inasmuch as different analytic levels are involved, the distinction is certainly warranted: it seems nonetheless desirable to take a close look at the relation between the two. It is generally agreed that change takes place as the language learner abduces a new structural analysis from the actualization of an older grammar (Andersen 1974:23), the reanalysis becoming manifest when it is actualized as an output incompatible with the 'originarl' grammar (Leumann 1927:106 et passim). But what exactly is the original actualization that provides the input to reanalysis? Certainly not all and only the sentence types generated by the (earlier) grammar: the relevant output which is the object of reanalysis can obviously never be single instances of use. It is rather a whole range of utterances (in principle open ended) covering a series of environments, both linguistic and extralinguistic. This range is, of course, qualitatively varied, but it is also - and this is very important - QUANTITATIVELY DIFFERENTIATED, since the various environments occur with different relative frequency. One of the ways in which change may (and does) take place is by continuous shift in quantitative relations. The inventory of forms may remain the same, as well as their uses, but there may be a shift in the relative proportion of the various uses to which the forms are put such that, after a certain time, we may find ourselves with a different inventory of forms on our hands or realize that these have changed their value!

* I am indebted to R de Jonge, D, Nieuwenhuijsen and Y. Tobin for critical comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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We would be hard put, however, to say where and when THE change or reanalysis took place since the whole thing happens so naturally and imperceptibly. The 'gradualness' of linguistic change may well be due to the fact that reanalysis and actualization take place at the same time. They should then, perhaps, be seen as two sides of the same coin rather than as distinct stages in a diachronic process. This interdependence of reanalysis and actualization becomes clear when the successive spread of an innovation is followed over a series of texts. 1 We will attempt to formulate the 'reanalysis' for one welldocumented (though barely studied) syntactic change in such fashion as to shed light on the quantitative relations obtaining in the texts. At the same time, we will try to show how the very quantitative properties of the actualization played a key role in that reanalysis. 2.

A case study: Old Spanish nosotros/vosotros.

The change to be discussed is the replacement of Old Spanish 1st p1. nos and 2nd p1.vos by nosotros and vosotros respectively. These complex words, originally phrases consisting of personal pronoun plus lexical modifier otros "others", are now the (only) tonic forms of the plural 1st and 2nd person pronouns. Two problems have traditionally been found worthy of discussion: First, did the change originate in the first or second person? Lenz (1925:228-229) argued for the first, Gili Gaya (1946) for the second; neither took the trouble of checking in the available texts. The issue is now definitely settled on the basis of textual counts (de Jonge 1986) in favor of Gili Gaya's position. Secondly, why did the change take place at all? And why did it happen when it did? Since this second problem is closely related to the origin of the change, we begin by presenting in Fig. 1 the Old and Early Modern Spanish paradigms. It should be pointed out both that - as in French - vos was commonly used in Old Spanish as a polite form of address for the second person singular

1 Cf Timberlake (1977), Naro (1981) and Garcia (1985) for discussion of how the range and ranking of qualitative contexts plays a role in the spread of syntactic change.

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Early Old Spanish Unmarked Peripheral Duplicating Clitic (Possessive) Verb-ending 1st 2nd 3rd

yo tú

mi tu su

me te se

Prepositional2

mí tí sí 3

Number marked Central Peripheral (Possessive) nos vos

nuestro/a vuestro/a

Early Modern Spanish Unmarked Peri- Duplica- Clitic Prepopheral ting Verbsitional ending 1st mi 2nd tu 3rd su

yo tú -

me te se

mi

tí sí

Clitic

nos (v)os4 -

Superiority marked Non-clitic Peri­ Plural Cerem. pheral Sg. nosotros vosotros -

nos vos -

nuestro/a vuestro/a -

Fig. 1. Early Old Spanish and Early Modern Spanish personal pronoun paradigms. and that - again as in French - there was no distinction between 'nominative' and 'objective' forms of the pronoun.5

2 We omit the special forms conmigo, contigo, consigo, connusco and convusco resulting from con + pronoun where a reflex of enclitic Lat. cum survives as go. Cf. García (in press) for discussion of these forms. 3 Cf. García (1985) for an analysis of se, si as third person pronouns, and of él (and the related clitic forms) as deictics. 4 In clitic use vos was further weakened to os; cf. Nieuwenhuijsen (1985), García et al. (in preparation) for discussion of this change. 5 Old Spanish lacked a clitic/non-clitic distinction in the plural. This explains the possibility of attaching a lexical modifier to a pronoun which is the object of the verb as in: E commoquier que el se quiso sofrir la muerte por nos pecadores saluar, ca el auje poder sobre los otros e non los otros sobre el, mas quiso ser obediente a Dios padre. (CZ-P96a/(7)) "But nonetheless it was he who wished to suffer death to save us sinners, for he had power over the others and not the others over him, but he would be obedient to God the Father/5 We have encountered this construction only with the first person, and then only in the (probably fixed) phrase 'to save us sinners'. In a fairly late text (Abad Don Juan, Toledo

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Two hypotheses have accordingly been advanced for the incorporation of the -otros forms into the paradigm: (a) the distinctness as to number of vosotros vis-à-vis the indeterminate vos led to the systematic favoring of the unambiguous longer form (Lapesa 1980:397 §96.6);6 (b) the adoption of vosotros, nosotros as tonic forms resulted in the formal differentiation of 'tonic' vs. 'clitic' pronouns in the plural, thus remedying the functional ambiguity of OSp. nos, vos (Alvar & Pottier 1983:122 §94)7 There was a twofold change, then: a change in value for nos/vos and a change in status (a phrase became a word) for nosotros/vosotros, which is schematized in Fig. 2. The wholesale recourse to vosotros/nosotros in all save clitic function resulted, then, in a double differentiation: nosotros/vosotros monopolized PLURAL non-clitic reference to the first and second person. It follows that if nos/vos had a plural reference, the forms were clitics. If they were used as non-clitic forms, their referent was singular. In short, we have substitution resulting in double split. A split, however, necessarily presupposes new linguistic signs whose signifiants and signifiés recombine earlier contents and expressions in new relations. However arbitrary the sign may be synchronically, nothing is less arbitrary than the diachronic recombination of signifiants with signifiés. printing of the late 15th century, Menéndez Pidal 1934) we actually find the phrase r nosotros pecadores salvar: Y pues Dios nuestro señor tomó muerte e pasión por nosotros pecadores salvar, tomemos la nosotros por el ensalçamiento de su santa fe cathólica {Abad 225/6) "And since God our Lord suffered death and pain for us sinners [to] save, let us take it for the glory of his holy catholic faith" The same phrase recurs in a later version (Valladolid 1562) of this text (Menéndez Pidal 1903:47/9). It is likely that the indeterminacy of the O.Sp. nos favored reanalysis of the grouping of nos pecadores: it could be seen either as object of the infinitive salvar "save", or as object of the preposition r "for, in order to". The E.Mo.Sp. por nosotros pecadores salvar would thus reflect a blend of por nosotros "for us", por salvar a nosotros "to save us" and of por nos salvar "to save us", with a proclitic pronoun. 6 The two developments (rapid increase in the singular use of vos and adoption of vosotros as tonic second person plural pronoun) clearly coincide in time (late 14th, 15th centuries). 7 This result cannot be invoked as a motivation for the change without incurring the teleological circularity so often imputed to functional explanations (Lass 1980:80 et passim). Alvar & Poitier's insight is, nonetheless, valid and significant.

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Early Old Spanish nos

=

"1st pl."

vos

=

"2nd pl." Used metaphorically to suggest superiority of singular addressee.

otros

=

"others", lexical modifier.

Syntactic range of no/vos: all pronominal references save peripheral ( 'possessive' ) ones. Late Old Spanish "1st pl." Used metaphorically to suggest superiority of singular speaker (pluralis majestatis), since ca. 1350.

nos

Early Modern Spanish Singular reference Non-clitic 1st < 2nd

. vos

Plural reference Clitic

nos

Non-clitic

>

nosotros

(v)os4

vosotros

Fig. 2. Split in the Old Spanish plural pronouns. Indeed, what diachronically joins form to content is the same mechanism responsible for productive (synchronic) language USE, namely the appro­ priateness of meaning for message.8 Consider the fact that the complex forms in otros could become THE regular expression of certain grammatical categories only because they de facto got that value in actual use by occurring very long very frequently with only that value. This specialization, however, could never have taken place had not the meaning of otros in the original syntagm strongly suggested the

8 This approach to language change is NOT vitiated by teleological circularity. It does presuppose, however, that language change takes place naturally, i.e. that the connection between successive grammars is a plausible one. The very smoothness and imperceptibility of language change would seem to warrant such an assumption.

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value ("non-clitic plural") of the new forms nosotros/vosotros. To make explicit that synchronic appropriateness is to motivate the diachronic change. It is easy to see the connection between the value of the original phrases noso t r o s / v o sotros and the category PLURAL these forms came to express. In nos otros/vos otros plurality was doubly expressed (by the pronoun and in the inflected ending of the lexical modifier), while it was signalled only once in the case of the most likely alternative, the simple forms nos/vos. Given a choice between the two, the more explicit expression is clearly the better one: the 'marked' category PLURAL is (economically and iconically) matched with the most 'marked' of the available expressions - particularly in the case of the second person where vos was (most) frequently used with singular reference. Nos and (v)os retained the potential for plural reference, however, when used as clitics. We must accordingly also account for the restriction of the complex -otros forms to non-clitic function. The relevant trait here is salience of reference: in the Spanish grammatical tradition clitic pronouns are referred to as 'atonic' (i.e. unstressed). The opposition, thus, is between an unstressed, bound, dependent, backgrounded use of a form and its tonic, free, independent, foregrounded exploitation. Now within the entire syntactic range covered by OSp. nos and vos, not all uses would deserve or receive attention to the same degree. Highest attention would probably attach to the pronoun when it was in contrast with its own absence, i.e. in nominative use duplicating the personal verb-ending. Conversely, there is evidence (Ramsden 1961, Monedero Carrillo de Albornoz 1983:292) that the use of pronouns as bare object of the verb rated the least attention. Clitic vs. non-clitic use came down, then, to muted vs. highlighted reference best (i.e. directly) conveyed by lack of stress vs. full stress on the form. Now the (complex) forms with -otros were referentially more salient than the simple forms not only because of their greater phonological bulk, but also for an important semantic reason: something that is different - as an 'other' by definition is - will already and by itself attract attention, since more attention is naturally paid to what is new and different than to what is familiar and old. Otros marked those plural referents that - for some reason or other - were so relevantly different as to require attention drawn to that difference. Referents referred to as otros were then, for that very reason, likely to have extra attention paid to them. As speakers resorted to the complex -otros forms when attention had to be drawn to the otherness of the referent (cf. Menéndez Pidal 1977:251 §93j and Lapesa 1980:259 §673), hearers could easily come to associate the

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presence of otros in an utterance not only with 'otherness' and (contrastive) differentiation of the referent, but also with the heightened attention which that differentiation inevitably evoked (Alvar & Pottier 1983:123 §94). Sooner or later, then, a hearer might come to use otros merely for the sake of that effect, i.e. simply in order to heighten attention. At this point reanalysis had taken place. Not only had the form been identified with a new value, but the new value "tonic plural" pronoun was (biuniquely) associated with the former syntagm. From being stressed forms de facto, nosotros/vosotros became tonic forms juris et de jure. Such a reanalysis was naturally possible only in those uses where emphasis could reasonably constitute a reason for recourse to the -otros form. The extension from contrastive differentiation to plain emphasis was easiest in the most salient of the tonic uses, i.e. for the explicit mention of the subject. Once the -otros forms came to stand in contrast to nothing, i.e. were used merely to emphasize the identity of the subject, the battle was won for all practical purposes, and the simple forms had been effectively routed from tonic use. 9 3.

The process of change.

It is one thing to establish a plausible substantive connection between initial and final stage, and another thing to show how the gap is bridged in and through actual use. Here we need to take into account relative frequency of use which must be viewed from two equally relevant perspectives:

9 Note that the mention of a subject pronoun is already and by itself contrastive (cf. Rosengren 1974:234 et passim). Since the complex pronoun was the most attentionattracting alternative available it was, as such, the more appropriate choice for emphatic mention of the subject. Contrastive and emphatic mention of an object has always been possible. For this, Spanish resorts not to a clitic pronoun but to a prepositional phrase with a (cf. Ramsden 1961) where, as after all prepositions, we only find tonic forms. The process of selection of expression by content did not take place in a paradigmatic void The rest of the (pro)nominal paradigm played an important role in fixing the boundary to the gradual replacement of simple by complex forms. As shown in Rg. 1, the singular pronouns formally distinguish between subject and (clitic) object use; furthermore, the reflexes of Lat. ille likewise contrast clitic (le[s], lo[s], la[s]) and tonic form (él, ella, ellos, ellas). This clearly sets off clitic from tonic functions. But the tonic reflexes of ille are used for both nominative and prepositional functions, as is also the case with nouns. The complex forms resemble nouns and demonstratives through the lexical otros, in their plural morphology, and in exhibiting a gender opposition. It is therefore hardly surprising that the extension of the new forms should have stopped short of precisely clitic use, the domain from which nouns and demonstratives are barred

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(a) the paradigmatic, which concerns the speaker's communicative problem, e.g., "I wish to focus my interlocutor's attention on this referent that happens to be the agent in this event. Which of the available forms (nos or nosotros) is more appropriate for the task?" What is relevant here is the choice between paradigmatic alternatives and, therefore, the percentage of one form (say, nosotros) among the total of pronominal expressions (both nosotros and nos) referring to the agents of events; (b) the syntagmatic, where the language learner is relevant, whose problem is: "What is true of all (or most) of this form's uses, from which I may abduce its value?" Here we are interested in the diversified exploitation of a given form and, therefore, in the percentage of a given function (say 'clitic') among all the different uses of a form. These two aspects of frequency mediate between the speaker's expressed need and the learner's abduced grammatical value. Consider the fact that every time a speaker had reason to emphasize the differentness of - say - a second person plural and for that reason used the attention-attracting vosotros in tonic function, he also automatically failed to use vos with that value. The total number of vosotros encountered by the language learner in tonic function would rise by one, and the total of vos would fall by one. The effect on the value of vosotros was simple: it reacquainted the hearer with the availability of this form for tonic function and, once more, associated the presence of complex form to heightened attention, thus increasing the chance that the hearer in turn would use the form in that fashion and for that end. The effect on vos, while apparently only negative, was actually - and precisely because of its negative nature - much more important. By NOT occurring with the value of "salient second person plural", such vos as WERE encountered by the language learner turned out more and more to be either singular or non-salient. In short, vos was increasingly edged out by the more competitive vosotros into those unmarked categories for which it constituted an appropriate expression. In short, every increase in the paradigmatic percentage of vosotros for tonic function brings about, necessarily and automatically, an increase in the syntagmatic percentage of clitic and/or singular value within vos. Differentiation of function was, therefore, neither motivation nor goal: like Topsy it just grew as speakers yielded to the communicative urge to

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differentiate by means of otros.10 The entire process is summarized schematically in Fig, 3.11 We have shown how, once started, the change would take place through its own self-generated momentum. We must now show that the change actually did take place in the fashion outlined above. For this we go to the texts where the change is recorded. We begin by exemplifying the initial stage, where otros simply and only meant "others" and was freely added to vos and nos whenever the referent was sufficiently different to make this comment appropriate. We draw our examples from a 14th-century text where the overall percentage of nosotros is 2%, of vosotros is 12%. (1)

Dixo el rrey de los cuervos: - Nos faremos quanto tu mandares. - Dixo el cuervo: - Los buhos son en tal lugar, e ayuntanse de día en una cueva del monte, e çerca de aquel lugar ay mucha leña seca; lleve cada un cuervo quanto pudiere llevar della a la boca de la cueva do ellos son de día. E ay çerca ay grey de ganado, e yo avere fuego e echarlo he ay en la leña; e vos otros todos non çesedes de aventar con vuestras alas e de soplar el fuego, fasta que se ençienda bien (CD- A 3502) "And the king of the crows said: - We shall do whatever you command. - And the crow said: - The owls are in such and such a place, and they congregate by day in a cave in the hill, and close to that place there is much dry wood; let each crow take as much of it as he can to the mouth of the cave where they are by day. And close by there is a herd of cattle, and I will get fire and will throw it on the wood, and all you others do not stop from beating your wings and blowing on the fire, till it burn well"

10

The mechanism outlined in this section is of the 'invisible hand' type advocated in Keller (1982); cf. also Heringer (1985). 11 The different number interpretations of nos/vos, i.e. (a) singular (tonic) (b) (singular or plural) non tonic are not taken into account in Fig. 3 since they follow from the value "non salient" postulated for these forms. If the form appeared in a salient syntactic environment (i.e. in tonic use) its inherent non-salience could only be due to the number of the referent A full account of the split of nos/vos along the number axis obviously involved contrast with yo/tú besides nosotros/vosotros; we will consequently concentrate on the plural reference of vos/nos. We do not provide a comparable scheme for the split of vos into tonic vos and atonic (clitic) os because this is a simple instance of (iconic) split along a single dimension. For this reason, too, we use nos/nosotros as the exemplifying form in Fig. 3; it would unduly complicate matters (especially for non-Hispanicists) to incorporate both changes involving vos into a single figure.

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Succession of synchronic grammars

Diachronic evoluti on

Actualization Quantitative shift Reanalysis Early Old Spanish (13th, early 14th c.) nosotros always Use deserving Environment nos + otros expresses "1st "1st pl. + others" most attention most congenial p1." and receives to otros "we others" attention; nos nos "1st pl." only expression Range Environments available for 1st successively Old Spanish compatible with p1. NOT receiving (14th, 15th c.) of nos otros the complex attention. Language learn­ "1st pl. different" uses form owing to nos "1st pl. (not progressive ing and use are different" of bleaching of easier if content/ otros due to expression rela­ tion is biunique. Early Modern nos increased use Therefore: Spanish (16th c.) nosotros nos otros: always Environment and only tonic "salient 1st p1.' Use deserv­ nos "non-salient ing least nos: always and least congenial 1st p1." attention to otros only clitic. Fig. 3. Split and substitution of simple pronouns by complex -otros forms for tonic (plural) reference. (2)

Desy fuese la fenbra al çarapico, que era en la mar buena pieça, e fizole saber lo que tenia en coraçon ella e su marido de mudarse en aquel pielago de aquellos peçes e aquel cañaveral e aquel apartimiento, en aquel lugar tan apartado e tan seguro. E dixole: 'Sy pudieres guisar que seas y con nos otros, con consentimiento de mi marido e con su plazer, fazlo'. (CD-A 5899) "Whereupon the female went to the curlew, who was out in the sea a good distance, and let him know what she and her husband intended with regard to moving to the marsh with the fish and the reeds and the privacy, in that remote and safe spot. And she said to him: 'If you could manage it so as to be there with us [two], with my husband's permission and his pleasure, do bring it about'."

In these examples otros highlights the difference most relevant to the speech partners, namely a contrast between the person referred to and his

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interlocutor. As Lenz (1925) correctly surmised, the first and most obvious use of nosotros is to refer to an exclusive first person plural. Similarly, the contrast most naturally established by means of vosotros is with the speaker himself. The examples quoted illustrate these uses. The frequent recourse to otros dates from the late 13th and 14th centuries, and clearly began in the 2nd rather than the1stperson. The reason, as already mentioned, is that in the 2nd person, and only here, there arose at that time and not before - a specific contrast of great importance, namely the differentiation (Gili Gaya 1946:114, Schmidely 1983:42) between a single addressee (politely addressed as vos) and a plurality of addressees. Since the least one can expect of a speaker is that he will make it clear whom or how many he is addressing, we may assume that vosotros must have been in particular demand whenever the number of the addressee had to be made clear. The following examples from a 15th-century text make the point: (3)

[Situation: a merchant, who has bought the Friendly Knight and his companions as slaves, is in danger of attack. The Friendly Knight gives him advice:] 'Aqui cerca esta un castillo del enperador, e vayamos nos alla; ca yo trayo cartas de guya, e soy bien çierto que nos acogeran allj e nos faran mucho plazer.' 'Vayamos,' dixo el mercador, 'pero catad que non pierda yo lo que dj por vos otros9 (CZ-P 145a/19) "'Here close by there is a castle belonging to the Emperor, let us go there, because I have letters of introduction with me, and I am sure that they will receive us there and treat us very well.' 'Let us go', said the merchant, 'but look out that I do not lose what I gave for you [p1.]'"

The merchant is speaking only to the Friendly Knight who, though his slave, has proven his worth in battle and is consequently addressed respectfully (cf. Catad "Look out!", a plural imperative). Had the merchant said vos, he might have been referring to the money paid for the Friendly Knight alone. He is concerned, however, for his entire investment, which may be in danger if the party takes refuge in a castle held by his slaves' allies. (4)

[Situation: Zifar has become king of a realm by marriage; he discovers that his first wife and their two sons are alive and have come to his land. When his second wife - to whom he owes the kingdom - dies, he proposes to recognize his first wife and his sons. If the nobles of the realm do not agree to this, he will renounce the crown. A count speaks for the nobility:] 'Mas tenemos por derecho e por acuerdo que resçibades vuestra muger e vos mantengades con ella [...] Ca nos resçibimos a vuestra muger p

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señora e por reyna e al vuestro hijo mayor por heredero despues de vuestros dias.' Estonce dixo el conde a todos los otros: 'Vos otros tenedes lo asy por bien?' (CZ-Ρ 72b/15) '"But we view it as right and agree to it that you should take [back] your wife and live with her [...] For we shall receive your wife as our lady and our queen and your eldest son as the heir after your life.' Then the Count said to all the others: 'Do you others agree to this?'" As the Count switches address from a single person (Zifar, the Kng) to a group (his fellow noblemen), he uses vosotros. If our line of reasoning is correct, the percentage of the complex form vosotros should be higher in those situations where a singular addressee is also present - i.e. where, as in the examples quoted, the reference is to a plurality in the presence of a potential singular addressee - than in those where that is not the case. In Table 1 we present the relevant figures for two (successive) versions of the same text, the Cavallero Zifar: Ms. P, probably of the 15th century (Wagner 1929:x), and the Seville print of 1512 (obviously based on Ms. P). Text

2nd sg. present Total cases

CZY

9

% -otros 56

No 2nd sg. present Total cases 137

% -otros 18

CZ-S

9 67 118 47 Table 1. Use of vos/vosotros for a plural addressee depending on presence of a 2nd sg. addressed with vos.

Differentiation as to the number of the addressee clearly was a factor strongly favoring recourse to the complex form. This factor must moreover have kept favoring the use of vosotros, since the polite use of vos became more and more widespread in the 15th century.12 It is only a short and easy step from the speech situation to the discourse that takes place in it, and it is very natural to use the form that marks contrast 12

The low totals for second person singular found in Table 1 should not be viewed as representative of actual speech at the time. They are derived from a written literary work. Most of the second person plural uses, furthermore, proceed from Book ΠΙ of the Cavallero Zifar, where the King addresses his sons and gives them advice on how to conduct themselves as rulers. In real life the proportion of conflict of number situations must have been considerably higher than what is reflected in Table 1.

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between the speech participants for contrast between a speech participant and third persons. This extension naturally makes for more frequent recourse to the complex forms and, consequently, for a gradually laxer interpretation of 'otherness' itself. Each of the widenings of the semantic range of 'others' from contrast to mere noteworthiness - resulted thus in ever more instances qualifying for recourse to the complex form. The inflationary spiral is so natural that it must bring about on its own both increased use and concomitant devaluation of the complex forms (cf. García 1986 for discussion of the principle). We begin our demonstration that this kind of devaluation did indeed take place by examining the process at its mid point, i.e. when simplex and complex forms were in actual alternation (neither could be viewed as an idiosyncratically exceptional use), and trying to establish what triggered the use of the -otros forms when number ambiguity was not at issue. To this end we have classified all the cases of "no second person singular present" from Table 1, plus all cases of first person plural in CZ, for both Ρ and S, according to the following parameters: (i)

the person referred to must be differentiated from another because: (a) if first person: the reference is exclusive; if second person: the speaker and addressee belong to rival armies or factions; and/or (b) the person referred to is contrasted with some other person;

vs. (ii) there is no reason to differentiate for any of the reasons given above. In Table 2 we present the relevant data.13 Everything is as it should be. The later text - S - has a higher percentage of otros forms than does the earlier (P). The situations marked for differentiation score higher than do the unmarked ones, and the second person - defined in opposition to the speaker and hence inherently contrastive (de Jonge 1986:132-133) - shows a higher percentage of otros than the first. But how exactly did the overall percentage come to rise? The basic mechanism has already been outlined: namely, the gradual and progressive 13 For the simple forms nos and vos we have naturally counted only those uses that alternate with the complex forms, i.e. "object" uses are excluded, as are all singular references of vos. We confine ourselves to paradigmatic percentages throughout. Assuming a stable proportion of tonic vs. clitic uses, the non-use of nosotros/vosotros in clitic function automatically yields a rise in the percentage of clitic exploitation of nos/vos for every rise in the percentage of -otros forms in tonic use.

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Text

1st pl.

2nd pl.*

U

U

M

CZ-P oS

-osotros Total % -oíros CZ-S -os -osotros Total % -otros

46 0 46 0

62 11 73 13

88 7 95 7

24 18 42 43

40 3 43 7

54 17 71 24

48 29 77 38

15 26 41 63

M = Occasion for differentiation/contrast U = No occasion for differentiation/contrast * 2nd p1.: only cases where singular addressee is absent Table 2. Use of simple vs. complex forms depending on situation. relaxation of the conditions that counted as 'sufficiently other' to warrant recourse to the complex forms. We must now produce the evidence, that is, SHOW that from P to S the complex forms increased in number precisely because of the qualitative relaxation, i.e. through the extension of the marked form to situations of weaker contrast or differentiation. To make the connection we must compare the contexts where P has the simple forms, but S shows the complex ones, with those contexts where the complex forms already appear in P. The former set should be weaker, less marked than the latter. In Table 3 we give the totals for 'marked' vs. 'unmarked' situations for both conditions.

Total P =S -osotros P nosAros

1st p1. % Marked

2nd p1. Total % Marked

10

100

24

75

10

70

28

25

S nosotros/ vosotros Table 3. Percentage of 'marked' situations for CZ- P/S correspondences.

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The percentage of marked situations is clearly much higher for those cases where the earlier text has the otros form than among those where the complex form makes its appearance only in the later text. Illustrative examples follow: (5)

Ρ = S vosotros E el mayordomo dixo a los caualleros: 'Aquel mi sobrino que va alli adelante, que lleva las mis sobreseñales, quiero que vaya en la delantera, e todos vos otros seguitlo e guardadlo' (P 48a, S 158/2) "And the majordomo said to the knights: 'That nephew of mine that rides ahead, bearing my signals, I want him to be in the van, and all [the rest of] you follow him and pay heed to that he does.'"

(6)

Ρ vos, S vosotros 'Señores', dixo el Cauallero Amigo, 'comoquier que yo non sea atan complido de razon nin de entendimiento asy commo era menester para dezir el mandado de mi señor el enperador delante de tan grandes señores ni tan complidos de entendimiento commo vos [otros, S] sodes ...' (P 144a, S 491/5) "'Gentlemen', said the Friendly Knight, 'although I be not so perfect in reasoning nor in understanding as it would behoove in order to speak the message of my lord the emperor before such great lords and so perfect in understanding as you[others S] are ...'"

In (5) the contrast between the leading role of Zifar and his followers' attendant one is both considerable and very important: the speaker's and all his friends' survival depends on the knights' indeed allowing Zifar to go ahead and lead them in battle. In (6), on the other hand, there is no reason to suppose that the herald actually thinks so meanly of his understanding as he pretends to do. Though as bearer of an unwelcome message he begins by flattering his audience, events have shown him to be both deserving of the difficult mission entrusted to him and hardly lacking in self-confidence. A similar comparison follows for the first person: (7)

Ρ = S nosotros [Situation: the Friendly Knight is telling King Zifar about the battle.] 'Certas, señor,' dixo el Cavaliere Amigo, 'fallamos; ca non se vio el rey Artur en mayor priesa e en mayor peligro con el Gato Paus que nos vimos nosotros con aquellos malditos ca sy bien los rascavamos mejor nos rascavan' (P 63a, S 215/8) "'Certainly, sire,' said the Friendly Knight, 'we did find [someone to break our pates], for King Arthur did not find himself in direr straits nor in greater danger with Paus the Cat than we did with those accursed

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fiends, for if we scratched them well even better did they scratch us back.'" (8) Ρ nos, S nosotros E dixo el uno a los otros: 'Amigos, verdadero es el proberbio antigo, quien a buen señor sirve con servicio leal, buena soldada prende e non al. E nos [otros, S] guardemos a esta buena dueña e sirvamosla lo mejor que podamos, ca ella nos dio muy buen galardon mas de quanto nos meresciemos.' (P 51b, S 171/12) "And the one said to the rest: 'Friends, true indeed is the ancient proverb, serve a good master loyally, receive good pay full royally. So let us [others S] look after this good lady and serve her as well as we can, for she gave us very good reward, more than we deserved.'" In (7), where the complex form appears already in Ms. P, we have a first person that is not only exclusive but also contrasted with King Arthur, while in (8), where the complex form shows up only in S, the reference is inclusive and the contrast is much weaker - at best, with whomever the proverb is about. The late - and last - uses of nos and vos as tonic forms with plural reference appear to occur predominantly (probably as archaisms) in legal texts or with general, almost generic, non-differentiated reference. The confinement of simple (tonic) forms to undifferentiated reference is the last and logical step in the process whereby the complex otros forms replace them as salient reference to a plurality. After all, a plurality presupposes differentiation, and that is what the -otros forms had in fact been saying all along. Examples of non-differentiated (plural) reference follow from a 15thcentury text with 79% -otros in the first, 90% in the second person: (9) ... la grand virtud e firmeza de su lealtad, e grandeza de consejo e de coraçon, quedara en enxemplo e fazaña para los que vinieren despues de nos, e avran perpetua memoria de sus claros e notables fechos (Luna 205/6) "... the great virtue and strength of his loyalty, and the greatness of his counsel and his heart, will remain as an example and achievement for those who should come after us, and who will have eternal memory of his luminous and noteworthy deeds." (10) E a todas estas [...] cosas que allí se juraban [...] leya cada capítulo por sí un lector, e leydo preguntábales el preste, e dezíales, así a los unos como a los otros: — Vos juráis al consagrado cuerpo de N.S. Jesucristo e vos adorays de conplir lo contenido en este capítulo? (Luna 267/13)

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"And for all these things that were sworn on that occasion each chapter was read for itself by a reader, and when it had been read the priest asked them, and said to them, to the ones as well as to the others: — Do you swear to the consecrated body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and do you promise to keep what is said in this chapter?" (11) Cata que dize la evangélica doctrina que no todo aquel que dize paz a vos fabla por Espíritu Santo. (Luna 364/31) "Consider that the evangelic doctrine states that not everyone who says peace be with you speaks by the Holy Ghost." In the last example it is not clear, nor does it in fact matter, what the specific number of the referent is. Nos and vos could survive as tonic forms, then, only with unmarked singular reference: the pluralis majestatis, and the worn-out vos, soon to be replaced by the greater pragmatic impact of the ceremonious third-person Vuestra Merced 4.

Summary and conclusions.

In our discussion of the shift from nos/vos to nosotros/vosotros actually of the double split of the formerly undifferentiated plural pronouns we have been involved throughout with both actualization and reanalysis without having had to, or even being able to, distinguish between the two. But though the end points of the process are unmistakably distinct, the evolution in between is smooth both quantitatively and qualitatively. The complex form becomes steadily more frequent in tonic function as it takes ever less 'difference' to make the recourse to otros appropriate, and the differentiating punch of otros weakens the more it is used. In this fashion what was originally a reference to a plurality saliently different from its interlocutor evolved into the expression of different, distinct, salient and finally - mere (differentiated) plurality. In short, a chicken-and-egg relation between quality and quantity. The customary distinction between reanalysis and actualization may thus actually reflect a static view of language, and a Saussurean split between synchrony and diachrony. We know that this division is fallacious, and that a more dynamic conception of synchrony is required. We also realize that the gap between synchrony and diachrony can only be bridged by spanning the abyss between individual competence and langue as a social phenomenon. This abyss, however, is constantly bridged in practice through language use.

158

ERICA C. GARCÍA

The study of linguistic change continues to make this clear, particularly when close attention is paid to distributional frequencies. Starting from the only kind of motivation that can be legitimately and non-circularly invoked - an individual speaker's communicative need - it is possible to arrive by sheer weight of numbers at a general, community-wide paradigmatic result. We accordingly do not give up hope: as historical linguists we may yet come to have the cake of functional explanation without having to eat the humble pie of teleological circularity.

TEXTS Abad:

"Leyenda del Abad don Juan de Montemayor". In: Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. 1934. Historia y epopeya. Madrid: Centro de estudios históricos. CD-A: Calila e Digna, Ms. A. In: Keller, John E. & Robert White Linker. 1967. El libro de Calila e Digna. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Luna "Crónica de Don Alvaro de Luna". In: Mata Carriazo, Juan de. 1940. Crónica de don Alvaro de Luna. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. P or CZ-P: Cavallero Zifar, Ms. P(15th c.). In: Olsen, Marilyn Α. 1984. libro del Cauallero Citar. Madison, WI: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies. S or CZ- S: Cavallero Zifar, Seville printing (1512). In: Wagner, Charles Ph. 1929. El libro del Cauallero Zifar. Ann Αrbor University of Michigan Press.

REFERENCES Alvar, Manuel & Bernard Pottier. 1983. Morfología histórica del español. Madrid: Gredos. Andersen, Henning. 1974. "Towards a typology of change". Historical linguistics II ed. by John M. Anderson & Charles Jones, 17-60. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Garca, Erica C. 1985. "Quantity into quality: synchronic indeterminacy and language change". lingua 65:275-306. García, Erica C. 1986. "Cambios cuantitativos en la distribución de formas: causa y síntoma de cambio semántico?" Actas del VIH Congreso de la AIH ed. by A.D. Kossoff et al., vol. I, 557-566. Madrid: Istmo.

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García, Erica . In press. "La historia se repite con sigo". Actas del IX Congreso de la  ed. by Sebastian Neumeister. Madrid: Istmo. García, Erica C , R. de Jonge, D. Nieuwenhuijsen & . Lechner. In preparation. " Vos — vosotros, vos - os: dos y el mismo cambio?". Gili Gaya, S. 1946. "Nos-otros, vos-otros". RFE 30:108-117. Heringer, HJ. 1985. "De Saussure und die unsichtbare Hand". CFS 39:143-174. de Jonge, . 1986. "Vos-, nos- + otros; one or two phenomena?". Linguistics in the Netherlands 1986 ed. by Frits Beukema & A. Hulk, 131-139. Dordrecht: Foris. Keller, Rudi. 1982. "Zur Theorie sprachlichen Wandels". ZGL 10:1-27. Lapesa, Rafael. 1980. Historia de la lengua española. Madrid: Gredos. Lass, Roger. 1980. On Explaining Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lenz, Rodolfo. 1925. La oración y sus partes. Madrid: Centro de estudios históricos. Leumann, Manu. 1927. "Zum Mechanismus des Bedeutungswandels". IF 45:105-118. Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. 1903. La leyenda del Abad don Juan de Montemayor. Dresden: Max Niemeyer. Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. 1934. Historia y epopeya. Madrid: Centro de estudios históricos. Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. 1977. Manual de gramática histórica. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Monedero Carrillo de Albornoz, C. 1983. "El objeto directo preposicional en textos medievales". BAE 63:241-302. Naro, Anthony J. 1981. "The social and structural dimensions of a syntactic change". Language 57:63-98. Nieuwenhuijsen, D. 1985. Estudios sobre el pronombre medieval: vos - os. Unpublished M.A. essay, Spanish Department, Leiden University. Ramsden, H. 1961. "The use of A + personal pronoun in Old Spanish". BHS 38:42-54. Rosengren, Per. 1974. Presencia y ausencia de los pronombres personales sujetos en español moderno. (= Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 14.) Stockholm. Schmidely, Jack. 1983. La personne grammaticale et la langue espagnole. Paris: Editions Hispaniques. Timberlake, Alan. 1977. "Reanalysis and actualization in syntactic change". Mechanisms of Syntactic Change ed. by Charles Li, 141-177. Austin: University of Texas Press. Wagner, Charles Ph. 1929. El libro del Cauallero Zifar. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Press.

THE RISE OF OM IN MIDDLE DUTCH INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS MARINEL GERRITSEN Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam Hogeschool Midden Nederland, Utrecht

0.

Introduction.

Modern Dutch differs from Middle Dutch in the use of the word  in infinitive constructions, indicated in the examples to follow by italics. (1) Alst .j. lettel gestaen heift te verclaersene in een If it a little stood has [in order to] to become limpid in an jarne of in een kanne urn or in a can ( 15th-c. Diary: 158) "If it has stood a while in an urn or in a can in order to become limpid" (2) Hij is naar Amerika gegaan om beroemd te worden He is to America gone in order to famous to become "He went to America in order to become famous" Such infinitive constructions are seldom introduced by  in medieval Dutch (1), but very often in Modern Dutch (2). In the course of time we see that they are increasingly introduced by , a change that resembles the rise of for in Middle English infinitive constructions. In this paper I shall deal with the embedding, the transition and the causes of the rise of  in Dutch infinitive constructions. 1.

Design.

1.1. External factors. In order to gain insight into these questions I carried out a quantitative study of non-literary prose texts written in the last quarters (sic) of the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in the dialect of Bruges, a notable West Flemish town 50 miles to the north of Lille.11 have 1

Data for the 14th century are scarce. I had serious problems in acquiring texts from the last quarter of the 14th century. During that period Flanders was politically controlled by the Burgundians, and thus there were political reasons for writing in French.

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chosen to conclude my investigation at the beginning of the 17th century since most of the change under consideration took place before that date. The last quarter of the 13th century has been chosen as the starting point since that is the beginning of the period in which we find suitable texts for the study of syntactic change in the Dutch language area. The investigation has been restricted to the dialect of Bruges since two-thirds of the oldest records suitable for the study of syntactic change originate from Bruges. Furthermore, I introduced the independent variable 'Style' in order to gain insight into the stylistic embedding of the change. I distinguished the following styles: Public Trials, Diaries, Chronicles and Statutes. In these four different styles we find increasing attention to language. I expect that style differences in the Middle Ages took place over a continuum from modern to archaic, and that the archaic constructions remained longer in styles where greater attention was paid to language than in those where this was not the case. Because of the difficulties of data-gathering, I was not able to study all the different styles for all points of time. Consequently, my study has the design outlined in Table 1. Style

ca. 1275-1300 ca. 1375-1400 ca. 1475-1500 ca. 1575-1600

Formal

Statutes -

Informal

-

Statutes Chronicles -

Statutes Chronicles Diaries Public Trials

Statutes Chronicles Diaries Public trials

Table 1. The design of the investigation of Bruges prose texts. 1.2. Internal factors. Infinitive constructions differ from other dependent clauses in three respects: (a) they lack tense; (b) they have a prosubject in deep structure that is controlled by the subject (2), direct object or indirect object (8) of the matrix clause, or that can be interpreted freely (3, 6); (c) the Comp-position is not always filled. Whether or not  occurs in Modern Dutch depends on the function of the infinitive construction. I have, therefore, reckoned with the different functions of the infinitive construction while analysing my Middle Dutch data. That is why - in order to gain a good understanding of the results of my study - a brief outline of the occurrence of  in Modern Dutch is needed.

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16 3

The use of  in infinitive constructions is OBLIGATORY if they have the function of a subject complement (3), a predicative adjunct (4), an adverbial clause of purpose (5), a specifier of NP with the value of a relative clause (6), or a specifier of AP indicating degree (7). The use of  is OPTIONAL in infinitive constructions in the function of subject (8), direct object (9) (unless the matrix verb has the meaning of "say" or "notice" in which case the use of  is UNGRAMMATICAL(10)), specifier of NP with the value of conjunctive clause (11) (unless the NP expresses the meaning of "communication" or "experience" in which case the use of  is UNGRAMMATICAL (12)), or specifier of AP not indicating degree (13). Apart from the cases already mentioned,  is also UNGRAMMATICAL in infinitive constructions in the function of complement of a preposition (14). (3) De muziek is niet om aan te horen The music is not to to listen (i.e. unbearable) (4) Ik vind haar in die jurk om te stelen I think her in that dress to steal (i.e. irresistible) (5) Hij ging naar Amerika om beroemd te worden He went to America famous to become (6) Een boek om te lezen A book to read (7) Het is te mooi om waar te zijn It is too good true to be (8) Het past je niet (om) dat te doen It becomes you not that to do (9) Hij probeerde (om) bet hek te sluiten He tried the fence to close (10) Moeder zei vroeg thuis te zullen zijn Mother said early home to will be (11) De drang (om) altijd weer te liegen The impulse always again to tell lies (12) Zijn mededeling niet te willen komen His communication not to want come (13) Hij is vrij om zich aan te sluiten bij een club He is free himself up to join with a club

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(14)Zonder de deur te openen Without the door to open 2.

Results.

For my investigation of the rise of the word  in infinitive constructions I distinguished infinitive constructions in functions in which  is OBLIGATORY, OPTIONAL and UNGRAMMATICAL in Modern Dutch. The results

are presented in Table 2. With 

Without 

% with 

13th . Modern Dutch obligatory  Adverbial clause of purpose Other functions Modern Dutch optional 

22 0 0

24 0 28

48% 0%

14th  Modern Dutch obligatory am Adverbial clause of purpose Other functions Modem Dutch optional cm

6 0 1

3 0 45

66% 2%

15th  Modem Dutch obligatory  Adverbial clause of purpose Other functions Modem Dutch optional 

35 4 4

10 0 63

100%

16th . Modem Dutch obligatory  Adverbial clause of purpose Other functions Modem Dutch optional 

09 8 9

12 0 107

100%

78% 6%

90% 8%

Table 2. Infinitive constructions with , without  and the percentage of all those infinitive constructions that occur with  in medieval Bruges. It emerges from my study that  never occurs in constructions in which it is UNGRAMMATICAL in Modem Dutch. Furthermore, it appears that there is a small - statistically insignificant - increase in the use of  in infinitive constructions in which it is OPTIONAL in Modem Dutch. With regard to

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infinitive constructions in functions in which  is OBLIGATORY in Modern Dutch, a distinction should be made between infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose (5) and infinitive constructions in other functions (3,4,6,7).  always occurs in the latter. Although the data are scarce, it looks as if those sentences have always been constructed with . This is not the case, however, for infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose. They show a statistically significant increase in the use of  between the 13th and the 16th centuries (X2, 13th-15th c , p < .003**; 13th-16th c.,p<.000**; 14th-16th c , p < .03*; 15th-16th c , p < .03*). The greater part of the change from infinitive constructions without  to those introduced by  has taken place in constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose. The bulk of this paper, therefore, deals with the rise of the use of the word  in infinitive constructions in that function. 3.

Traditional explanations for the rise of om.

In considering the use of  in infinitive constructions in other functions than adverbial clause of purpose, it has often been suggested that  arose by analogy with  in adverbial clauses of purpose. A similar explanation has also been adduced for the rise of for in Middle English infinitive construc­ tions. If this were in fact the case, one would expect that the first occurrences of  in infinitive constructions in functions other than adverbial clause of purpose would express a purpose. However, my data do not confirm this hypothesis. Constructions with obligatory  in functions other than adverbial clause of purpose are without exception introduced by , but they never express a purpose. Infinitive constructions with optional  do not generally express more purpose than constructions in similar functions without . There is only one exception: infinitive constructions in the function of specifier of NP with the function of a conjunctive clause (12). Constructions in that function with  differ from those without, as the former invariably express purpose. The greater part of my data, however, do not indicate that  in infinitive constructions in functions other than adverbial clause of purpose arose on analogy with  in infinitive constructions in that function. Two explanations are put forward for the rise of  in adverbial clauses of purpose. In the first place, it might be motivated by the fading away of the final meaning of te "to", the word that introduces nearly all infinitive con­ structions. A similar explanation has also been adduced for the introduction of for in Middle English infinitive constructions. That would have been introduced in order to emphasize the idea of purpose, earlier expressed by the

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to- infinitive. Because we have such scarce knowledge about the history of the meaning of te in Dutch, this explanation cannot be tested. A second factor that could have affected the appearance of  is the disappearance of the marking of the gerund by the ending -e (see verclaersene in example (1)). Nearly all Middle Bruges infinitive constructions are introduced by te, a word that governs the dative case. Consequently, the infinitive in the infinitival construction also has the dative ending -e: the gerund. Infinitive construc­ tions, therefore, are marked by two elements: te and the gerund-ending. In the course of time the gerund disappears (see Table 3: X2 , 13th-15th c , p < .003**; 13th-16th c , p <.000**; 14th-16th c , p < .03*; 15th-16th c , p < .000**) and the infinitive construction becomes marked by te only. According to some linguists (Weijnen 1971:130) this would have effected the rise of a new marker: . Light foot (1979:190) suggests a similar relation between the disappearance of the gerund-ending in Old and Middle English and the rise of for. In order to test this hypothesis I have investigated Occurrence of gerundending 13th . 14th . 15th . 16th .

44 7 35 44

Non-occurrence of gerund-ending 2 2 10 66

Total of % of occurrences occurrences with counted gerund-ending 46 9 45 110

96% 78% 78% 40%

Table 3. The occurrence of the gerund-ending in infinitive constructions functioning as adverbial clause of purpose. the occurrence of the four variants to form infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose in Middle Bruges. The different variants are arranged in ( 15) from Old to Modern variants. Table 4 shows the results of this investigation. (15) a. -  + gerund-ending: te copene "in order to buy" b. -  - gerund-ending: te copen "in order to buy" c. +  + gerund-ending:  te copene "in order to buy" d. +  - gerund-ending:  te copen "in order to buy"

THE RISE OF OM DUTCH INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

-  + ger.-end. Total % 13th . 23 14th . 2 15th . 7 16th . 0

50 22 16 0

- - ger.-end. Total % 1 3 0

2 12 7 0

+  + ger.-end. Total % 21 5 28 44

46 55 62 40

167

+  - ger.-end. Total % 1 7 66

2 11 16 60

Table 4. The occurrence of gerund-ending and  in infinitive constructions functioning as adverbial clause of purpose. The formation of infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose changes gradually in the period under investigation from the stage reflected in (15a) via that in (15c) to the stage reflected in (15d) (see Table 4). There is probably a relationship between the disappearance of the gerund-ending and the rise of , since there are so few adverbial clauses of purpose without either one (i.e. (15b)) and since a high percentage of infinitive constructions functioning as adverbial clause of purpose have both  and the gerund-ending (i.e. (15c)) in the period in which this change takes place. However, we cannot conclude from Table 4 that the disappearance of the gerund-ending has caused the rise of . Whereas 96% of 13th-century infinitive constructions serving as adverbial clause of purpose were formed by a gerund with an ending, already in that century 48% were introduced by . If the disappearance of the gerund-ending were indeed to have caused the rise of , we would expect the gerund-ending to have disappeared more or less before  arose. Table 4 does not confirm the hypothesis that there is a causal connection between the disappearance of the form of the gerund-ending and the rise of . We have to take into account, though, that this relationship should not be considered in purely syntactic/morphological terms, but also in terms of semantics. It is possible that rather than the disappearance of the form of the gerund - the ending itself- causing the rise of , it was instead due to the fading away of the meaning that the gerund-ending probably expressed. Perhaps the gerund-ending expressed a purpose, but this meaning was disappearing and  thus arose.2 This hypothesis cannot be tested, unfortunately, due to our scarce knowledge about the meaning of the gerundending and the changes in it. Although Table 4 does not fully corroborate the traditional hypothesis that the disappearance of the gerund-ending caused the rise of  in adverbial 4

should like to thank Jaap van Marie, who suggested this possible explanation.

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clauses of purpose, it gives a nice description of the change in formation of infinitive constructions serving that function. With this in mind I shall deal with the transition and embedding of the change in the hope that we will be brought closer to an answer to the question of why  was introduced in those sentences than traditional explanations have offered. 4.

Embedding.

For reasons of clarity of presentation, all the data I have presented so far included the four styles listed together in Table 1. The change from the old manner of constructing adverbial purpose clauses (cf. 15a) to the new one (cf. 15d) does take place in all the styles, but faster in some than in others. My data corroborate fully the hypothesis that syntactic change occurs more rapidly in informal than in formal styles. The construction with both the gerundending and  (cf. 15c), which forms the transition between the old and the new variants, occurs in the 15th century in Public Trials statistically significantly more often than in the more formal style of the Diaries (Χ 2 , ρ < .01**, n=27) and the Statutes (Χ 2 , ρ < .003**, n=16). We find in the 16th century that the transition construction (cf. 15c) occurs significantly more often in Diaries than in the more formal style of Chronicles (Χ 2 , ρ < .005**, n=78). The same holds true for the construction with  only (cf. 15d). This new variant occurs significantly more often statistically in Public Trials than in more formal Diaries (Χ 2 , ρ < .01**, n=70) and Statutes (Χ 2 , ρ < .003**, n=29). The stylistic embedding of the change in infinitive constructions serving as adverbial clause of purpose confirms the theory that syntactic change occurs faster in informal than in formal styles. The new variants are used statistically significantly more often in situations in which not much attention is paid to language use. The stylistic embedding of the change indicates that we are dealing here with a 'natural' syntactic change. It is a matter of fact that this does not yet answer the question why  was introduced in those sentences, but it does make plausible that language production factors are involved. My investigation into the transition of the change shows this possibility. 5.

Transition.

The adding of  to infinitive constructions functioning as adverbial clause of purpose can be considered an elucidation which can be used for both semantic and syntactic reasons. In connection with the SEMANTIC REASONS, it is plausible that in a period in which final clauses are constructed by infinitive constructions with and without , the latter expresses more purpose than

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169

the former. It is difficult of course to determine in older texts whether some constructions express more purpose than others, but I did not find any evidence for this. With regard to the SYNTACTIC FACTORS that could affect the use of , it is plausible that  occurs more often in complex structures than in simple ones, because the adding of  can be considered an elucidation. In order to test this, I formulated a set of five hypotheses about the complexity of infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose. (a) Infinitive constructions become more complex as the distance increases between the beginning of the infinitive construction and the constituent in the matrix clause that has to be interpreted as its subject. (b) Infinitive constructions controlled by the subject of the matrix clause are less complex than those which are controlled by the object or the indirect object, or which can be interpreted freely. (c) Infinitive constructions become more complex as the number of words or constituents they contain increases. (d) Infinitive constructions in dependent clauses are more complex than those in main clauses. (e) An infinitive construction at the end of the matrix clause is less complex than one in another position. I expected  to occur more frequently in the more complex variants of the infinitive constructions. Only two of the five hypotheses were confirmed by my data as having significance: (a) the distance between the infinitive construction and the NP in the matrix clause that has to be interpreted as its subject (I shall call this 'Distance'); and (b) the length of the infinitive construction (I shall call this'Length'). I shall deal first with Distance. It emerges from my study that Distance affects the occurrence of . The distance is statistically significantly greater in infinitive constructions with  than in those without . Table 5 shows the results with the levels of significance according to Analyses of variance.

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() +  + gerund-ending ConstiWords tuents Mean SD Mean SD η 13th . 2.7 14th . 1.2 15th . 2.3

1.1 6.7 3.7 21 0.4 8.4 4.6 5 1.1 5.6 2.9 22

() -  + gerund-ending ConstiWords tuents Mean SD Mean SD n 1.7 2.5 1.7

1.1 4.2 4.2 23 0.7 13.0 2.8 2 0.5 2.6 0.9 7

Significance of difference bet. A and  Const. Words .006** .04* .06 .26 .21 .02*

Table 5. The difference in distance in words and constituents between infinitive constructions serving as adverbial clause of purpose with  and without  with the significances according to Analyses of variance. Sentences (16) and (17) are examples of the influence of the distance on the occurrence of . In the sentence with  (16) we see a long distance between the NP in the matrix clause that has to be interpreted as the subject of the infinitive construction (word capitalized) and the beginning of the infinitive construction (italicized). The distance is nil, however, in the sentence without  (17). (16) DAT SAY moet weder keren ter stede// dar tghemaect That cloth shall again come back to the place where it made zijn vonnesse te ghedoghen was om was in order to his judgement to stand "That cloth shall come back again to the place where it was made in order to stand its judgement" (13th-c. Statute:367) (17) dat say sal/ men gheven DEN SCERRE sine that cloth will one give the shearer [in order to] his langhe. & sine brede; te settene an die rame length & his width to set on the frame "One will give that cloth to the shearer in order to set the length and the width on the frame" (13th-c.Statute:365) We have in (16) an infinitive construction that is controlled by the subject of the matrix clause and in (17) an infinitive construction that is controlled by the indirect object of the matrix clause. It appears that the kind of control plays a different role from what I expected in hypothesis (b) above. On the basis of purely syntactic criteria I expected that infinitive constructions controlled by the subject of the matrix clause would be less complex, and easier to produce and perceive than those controlled by an NP with another function in the matrix clause. This hypothesis was, however, far from confirmed. I now understand why: the distance between the infinitive construction and the NP in

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the matrix clause which must be interpreted as its subject interferes. Due to the syntactic structure of Dutch, this distance is generally longer for infinitive constructions that are controlled by the subject of the matrix clause than for infinitive constructions that are controlled by an NP with another function, as appears from (16) and (17). Complexity in surface structure appears to have a greater influence on the use of  than complexity in deep structure. A second factor affecting the occurrence of  in infinitive constructions in the function of final adverbial is the LENGTH of the infinitive constructions. The ones with  are significantly longer than those without . The results are presented in Table 6 with the levels of significance according to Analyses of variance. (A) +  + gerund-ending Consti- Words tuents Mean SD Mean SD η 13th . 1.0 14th . 1.6 15th . 1.7

0.2 1.5 0.7 21 0.5 3.4 2.7 5 0.7 5.2 5.4 28

(B) -  + gerund-ending Consti- Words tuents Mean SD Mean SD n

Significance of difference bet. A and  Const. Words

0.5 1.5 0.4

.008** .31 .82 .81 .0003** .05*

0.9 0.7 0.5

1.1 1.8 23 4.0 4.2 2 1.0 1.3 7

Table 6. The difference in length in words and constituents between infinitive constructions functioning asfinaladverbial with  and without  with the significances according to Analyses of variance. My study shows that the addition of  to infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose has been affected by the complexity of the construction. It occurs statistically significantly more often in infinitive constructions that are relatively far from the NP in the matrix clause that has to be interpreted as its subject, and it occurs more often in constructions that are relatively long. Since there are two factors that affect the occurrence of , it is possible in theory that they interact. We can ask whether Distance affects the occurrence of  if we take into account that Length plays a part too (cf. I in Table 7 below). We can also ask whether Length affects the occurrence of  if we take into account that Distance also plays a role (cf. II in Table 7 below). In order to investigate this, I performed analyses of co-variance with Distance as dependent variable and Length as -variable in the first of the two questions. For the second of the two questions I performed analyses with Length as dependent variable and Distance as -variable. The results are shown in Table 7.

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I II Adjusted mean Significance Adjusted mean Significance distance in words of difference length in constituents of difference 13th . 14th . 15th .

+  - 6.4 4.5 8.4 12.9 5.7 1.8

+ /-  .16 .32 .01**

+  1.0 1.6 1.8

-  0.6 1.5 0.3

+/-  .03* .86 .0003**

Table 7. The difference for the distance adjusted for length in words (I) and in length adjusted for distance in constituents (II) between infinitive constructions functioning as adverbial clause of purpose with and without  with the significances according to Analyses of -variance. We see from Table 7 that Length adjusted for Distance of the infinitive construction affects the occurrence of  in both the 13th and the 15th centuries, but that the Distance adjusted for Length only plays a role in the 15th century. The study shows that the influence of the complexity of the infinitive construction on the use of  changes in the course of time. In the 13th century only very long infinitive constructions are introduced by , but in the 15th century only very short infinitive constructions with a very short distance occur without . The transition of the change fully corroborates the idea that the addition of  is a natural change caused by language production factors. I have already shown that the stylistic embedding of the change also indicated that we are dealing here with a natural change.3 6.

Concluding remarks.

Both embedding and transition of the change indicate that  in infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose crept into the language quite naturally. The change took place faster in informal than in formal styles, and it was conditioned by the complexity of the infinitive construction in SURFACE structure.  evidently arose in order to elucidate complex surface structures. This, however, does not yet explain why  arose. It might be caused by the gradual disappearance of the final meaning of 3

There is a third syntactic factor that affects the occurrence of  in the 13th century: subcategorization features of the matrix verb. Infinitive constructions in the function of adverbial clause of purpose with  occur significantly more often with intransitive matrix verbs than with transitive ones during the 13th century (Χ2, ρ < .002**). However, I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

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te or by the fading away of the possible final meaning of the gerund-ending. But these hypotheses cannot be tested on the basis of the history of Dutch, because there are no sources for the relevant periods. I hope this article will stimulate further investigation into changes in the formation of infinitive constructions in languages related to Dutch where there are older records suitable for the study of syntactic change - for example, German and English. It is only such studies that provide answers to the question why words like  in Dutch, for in English and urn in German arose in infinitive constructions. REFERENCES Gerritsen, Marinei. 1987. Syntaktische verandering in kontrolezinnen. Een sociolinguistische studie van het Brugs van de 13e tot de 17e eeuw. Dordrecht: Foris. Lightfoot, David. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weijnen, A. 1971. Schets van de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse syntaxis. Assen: Van Gorcum.

DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS AND SYNTACTIC CHANGE ANNA GIACALONE RAMAT University ofPavia

0. Following Sankoff & Brown (1976) and Givón (1979), the issue of the origins of syntactic change in discourse has attracted considerable attention. A discourse-based analysis of diachronic processes would, in principle, allow for the possibility that a stylistically marked rule, admitted in particular contexts, spreads gradually, superseding a previously well established rule. In many cases the shift from elements functioning at the discourse level to elements functioning at the morpho-syntactic level has been considered an instance of grammaticalization (Traugott 1982), and extensive evidence of such grammaticalization processes has been gathered in the most diverse linguistic traditions. The position of the verb and the personal pronouns structurally dependent on it in the history of Latin and the Romance languages is a very interesting example of a change that has come about through the constant interplay of phonological, semantic and textual factors and has involved a certain number of reanalyses tending to eliminate markedness from some areas of grammar. There is apparently no change in form or in function between Romance personal oblique pronouns and their Latin antecedents, but these items, while keeping the primary textual function (deictic and anaphoric) of pronouns, have undergone a change affecting their autonomy as words: they have developed a number of positional constraints and appear to have proceeded much further along the path of grammaticalization. 1. This paper will focus on the Late Latin conditions that made the changes observed in Romance languages possible. But before embarking on a discussion, a methodological point needs to be stated: in cases like this no meaningful generalization would be possible without closer inspection of the data of the texts. Such extensive empirical research is a necessary requirement for the formulation of a descriptively and theoretically satisfactory hypothesis. Let us consider for a start someratherwell-known tendencies in Latin syntax, particularly the evolution of verb position, since this is strictly linked

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to clitic development. It is a widely accepted assumption that Latin had a basic SOV order, i.e. the finite verb occupied the final position in declarative sentences. Alongside this 'unmarked' order there is evidence in Latin literature of a wide variety of other possible orders, particularly a verb-initial position, which is, according to Marouzeau (1953:45; see also Hofmann & Szantyr 1965 §214), exceptional and confers a degree of 'expressivity'. Let us assume that what we have sketched here corresponds to the situation of Classical Latin; a number of scholars (Richter 1903, Linde 1923, Koll 1965, Adams 1976, Panhuis 1984), however, have demonstrated the persistence of alternative word orders which appear in chronologically distant authors and in different text types. Particularly relevant to our purposes is the position of the object both nominal and pronominal - after the verb, because the postposition of the object is probably the most significant condition for a language to change from an OV to a VO type (Lehmann 1973:65; see, however, Harris 1978:8). Despite the cautious position of Koll (1965) on the possibilities of reconstructing the modalities of word-order change from an analysis of Latin texts, the instances of VO order, though not statistically prevalent, are positive evidence of a change creeping into the written language, particularly in technical nonliterary works. A sociolinguistic approach that takes into account the divergence between spoken and written language appears to me a more persuasive argument than statistical evidence, which has been exploited perhaps too much in the literature on word order (see also Adams 1976, Ramat 1984 and Molinelli 1986). A second point relevant to our analysis is that Latin observed Wackernagers law, whereby the second position in the sentence was weakly accented in several Indo-European languages. Wackernagel's law is defined positionally, not in terms of grammatical categories occurring in a certain position. The position after the first word of the sentence, or after the first phrase or part of it, can be filled by a number of items, including personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, particles, adverbs, copula, and also some verbs, preferably mono- and disyllabic (Wackernagel 1892; see also Banti 1980, Benacchio & Renzi 1987). The proposal by Kaisse (1982) to reformulate Wackernagel's law as a typological generalization is not discussed here; but I am inclined (in accordance with Zwicky 1985) to believe that only languages with a relatively free word order (such as Latin or Greek) tend to have clitics in the second position.1 1

Th complex question of defining 'second position' cannot be treated at length here. Wackernagel defines'second position' with regard to the first word of the sentence and not to an entire constituent and the same point has been made for Old Indic by Banti (1980). Klavans (1985:99), however, claims that "clitics seem to attach to entire phrases, not to

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It is worth noting, however, that no attention was given to Wackernagers law in the studies on Latin word order considered above, although it clearly has a number of important implications for Latin developments. The significant point here is that, in Latin, pronominal objects need not be contiguous to the verb they are structurally dependent on. In fact, they appear in different positions and produce a variety of stylistic effects. In particular, they frequently take the second position, cliticized to an initial host word. In this connection we may note, following Klavans (1985), that the syntactic host is separate from the phonological host of the Latin clitic pronouns. Certainly, pragmatic reasons can also be given to account for the general pronoun occurrence in the initial part of the sentence in that pronouns tend to be thematic because of their anaphoric character. Besides clitics we may find free personal pronouns (i.e. tonic pronouns, not bound to the second position) usually emphasized or referring to new referents (Marouzeau 1953:227, Benacchio & Renzi 1987:4). (1) me, me adsum qui feci: in me convertite ferrum: Verg. Aen. 9.426. (2) te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila coeli: Lucr. 1.6. On the whole pronoun double positioning can be traced back to 'normal' word-order rules valid also for nouns and to Wackernagel's law. This system, however, broke down during the Latin period because the law was no longer strictly observed, as noted in Marouzeau (1953:90): "il s'agit d'une survivance plutôt que d'une loi organique".2 2. When we go back to the oldest texts in the Romance languages we find a very different situation in basic word order that can be summarized as follows: words". This means that in structural terms the 'domain' of cliticization is a phrasal node, not a lexical category (as is the case for Romance clitics!). Latin clitics indeed seem to enjoy a sort of positional freedom that could certainly be a sign of a decline in the original constraints, as Marouzeau (1953) puts it. They can 'penetrate' inside a phrase: (a) di tibi omnes id quod es dignus duint : Ter. Phormio 519. Or they can occur after a constituent composed of several words: (b) di deaeque omnes me pessumis exemplis interficiant: Plautus, Most. 192. Moreover, no strict rule exists to arrange the reciprocal order of particles, conjunctions and pronouns, as is the case in older Indo-European languages. 2 As noted by Wackernagel, Latin words lack any indication of accent and therefore we can only draw on indirect evidence to know whether a word was clitic or not. Important clues can be derived from metrics: in Plautus and Terentius elements in second position bear no metrical ictus (Geisler 1982:161).

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(a) The verb appears in second position, which is by no means a weak position (pace Thumeysen 1892);3 it is outside our scope to consider in detail alternative positions such as initial position, which is common in interrogatives and imperatives, but which can also be found in declaratives (Herman 1954). We may, however, state briefly that old Romance languages are (T)VX, i.e. Topic + Verb + remaining constituent, if any (Harris 1978, Vennemann 1974), though with some idiosyncratic properties.4 (b) Wackernagers law has been lost: particles and conjunctions do not appear in second position any more and above all oblique pronouns are now strictly bound to their structural support - the verb - and are positioned before or after it. A tentative explanation of these developments should try to answer the following questions: - How was the verb shift to second position actuated? Is it an entirely Romance phenomenon, or can it be traced back to Latin texts and, in the latter case, to what kind of texts belonging to what period? - How was Wackernagel's law lost? Is the decline of this law already noticeable in Latin? - Thirdly, how did the irregularity of clitic order in Romance originate as compared to the postverbal order of nominal objects? I should like to claim that the issues raised by these phenomena ought to be analysed in a discourse-functional perspective, taking advantage of a model that includes information structure and communicative organization of the message and also allows for the possibility that the speaker expresses his attitude to what is being talked about by resorting to different (syntactic) rules. A similar view was adopted by Geisler (1982), who has suggested that in 3 Thurneysen (1892) has linked the origin of verb second position in Romance to the persistence of Wackernagel's law tending to place verbal clitics, in particular the copula, in second position in the sentence. The evidence, however, does not fully support the view of a survival of Wackernagel's law in Romance. Going back to the oldest French texts, all verbs, not only auxiliaries, regularly appear in second position and bear stress (Herman 1954). Furthermore, one point to bear in mind is the primarily syntactic nature both of cliticization and of verb movement, while Thurneysen's hypothesis is based on rhythmical grounds. 4 As recognized by Harris (1978:20) the typical SVO pattern of Romance laguages can be considered the normal realization of TVX with topicalization of the subject in the main sentence; the basic SVO order would then appear in the subordinate clause.

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Latin the weak second position in the sentence (the 'Wackernagel position') had the function of delimiting the sentence topic, which frequently corresponded to the subject but could also include other noun phrases or adverbials. In Romance languages the verb took over this function and shifted to the second position (giving rise to the (T)VX order mentioned above), a process whose origins can be found in Latin texts. Geisler, however, disregards the clear changes in stress conditions between the Latin weak second position and the second position in Romance languages occupied by a stressed verbal element. Moreover the Latin verb, too, had its own accent. Verbs like sum, fío that can appear in the Wackernagel position are exceptional cases (Hofmann & Szantyr 1965:404). It is not clear then how a stressed element like the verb could end up in second position unless the position itself was no longer weak. In his investigation of the communicative value of Latin word order in the sentence, Panhuis (1982) affirms that the order of constituents in a language with a relatively free word order such as Latin could be used to put the message in a particular communicative perspective. He suggests also that the 'medial' position of the verb in the sentence was unmarked and served the function of separating the thematic elements from the rhematic ones. Thus, although within slightly different theoretical frameworks, both scholars take a similar standpoint and recognize a function of sentence articulation for the verb. The general argument is convincing; there is, however, no general agreement as to the ultimate causes of the changes under examination. In my opinion we are dealing with two more or less overlapping changes in the history of Latin: the fall of Wackernagers law and the verb shifting from final position backwards in the sentence. Our task should then be to investigate what might have been the (independent) reasons which, at a certain moment in time, favored the verb shift. The hypothesis that I would like to support is the following: at a pragmatic level of sentence decoding, the particular situation of clitics, depending phonologically on one host and syntactically on another, may well have become intolerable in changing prosodic conditions because ofrisingdecoding difficulties. This suggestion by Jakobson (1935) has been taken up again by Benacchio & Renzi (1987:13). Wackernagers law would be incompatible with a free intensity accent, such as was developed in the Romance languages (but the process was already under way in Latin). In this situation the speakers would have been oriented towards a particular solution, namely the pragmatically conditioned choice of verb and pronoun adjacency, with recourse to the possibility of a non-final position for

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the verb that coexisted in the history of Latin with the 'normal' final position.5 In a general perspective of historical change it may be pointed out that a convergency of differently motivated processes seems to be involved in the evolution of clitic pronouns.6 A further point should be noted in this connection: Wackernagel elements in Latin are of a rather heterogeneous nature. They include particles that affect the clause as a whole and pronouns which are clause constituents. Because of this distinct characterization at the grammatical level the different fate of Wackernagel elements in historical evolution is not surprising. As I stated above, they have disappeared or have been displaced to other positions in Romance. The only exception seems to be that of oblique pronouns which for some contexts give the impression of never having moved from Wackemagel's position (Renzi in Benacchio & Renzi 1987). In fact, the interpretation of the surface collocation is quite different. The frequent choice of verb and pronoun adjacency (see the following section) caused a reanalysis of the structural and phonological dependency of clitic pronouns (a 'rebracketing' with the verb according to Hock 1986). The process of reanalysis was partially disguised by the fact that pronouns remained 'around' the second position, not occupying, however, a position of their own but more as 'satellites' of the

5 As Panhuis (1982:25) rightly points out, to speak of verb medial position is misleading, because in sentences with a verb and three or more other constituents one cannot distinguish between verbs in second, third and fourth position. Clearly, for Romance developments second position is of interest; however, in Latin authors evidence of a variety of orders is found. In one sense the statistical information supplied in works by Koll (1965) and others is not illuminating since postposition of the Object after the Verb (VO pattern) does not automatically mean second position of the verb. 6 In a purely syntactic approach to word order, the changes we are dealing with have been considered part of a major typological shift that took place gradually from an XV language to a VX language (Lehmann 1972:271-72, Vennemann 1974). This change would have been triggered by the decline of the Latin case system and by the arising ambiguity in marking S and O. As it was necessary to distinguish a basic SOV structure from a secondary OSV structure, the position of the finite verb was used for that purpose (Vennemann 1974:358). But this is not true, at least in the sense that the VO pattern in Latin was much older than the loss of inflections (see above). Furthermore, the second position of the verb seems to have been fixed in Romance long before the setting of a rigid SVO order, as the somewhat parallel developments in English and French tell us (Geisler 1982:154). I do not intend to discount the value of the typological approach in understanding the correlation between apparently disparate changes, however, this method of explanation should be backed up by discourse analysis if we want to have a better look at HOW the replacement of an existing structure (or rule) by an innovating one was actuated in language.

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verb. Being endowed with its own stress, the verb constituted a gravitational center for personal pronouns, unless they bore emphatic stress (Harris 1978).7 Having outlined these developments in general terms, we conclude, supporting the view of Green (1976:14), "that the general fact of Latin's being an SOV language has no direct bearing whatsoever on this apparently anomalous OV order in present-day usage". The claim by Givón (1971) that clitic pronoun position in Romance languages preserves the SOV order of Classical Latin does not appear to be a satisfactory explanation of our data after recent insights into the evolution of Latin word order. Being associated with the verb, personal oblique pronouns had the choice of occurring before or after it, and in modern Romance languages ultimately came to be cliticized to the left of thefiniteverb and to the right of the positive imperative. As is well-known, there is a certain variation to the enclitic/proclitic arrangement with non-finite forms and to the reciprocal order in clitic clusters (Green 1976). On the whole in old Romance languages a basic syntactic principle applied avoiding initial clitics. The conditions for linearization have been formulated by the Tobler-Mussafia law (Mussafia 1886) and can be summarized in modern terms as a prohibition against clitics standing after a surface clause boundary (Wanner 1981:335). According to Herman (1954:92), this behavior was motivated by the fact that the first position in the sentence (or better in the clause) was in any case a strong one and could only be taken by a tonic element.8 We are now in a position to see the results of this complex process, but we need further research and empirical evidence to reconstruct the gradual actuation of changes. But direct evidence is not to be expected: what we should look for is rather indirect evidence of conditions for a reanalysis of the Latin sequences. What seems to emerge from the investigations by Koll (1965) and Adams (1976), and particularly from the accurate research on Late Latin and Early Romance texts by Ramsden (1963), is the growing tendency for the pronominal objects, like the nominal objects, to follow the verb ever more closely. According to Ramsden and also to Geisler (1982), these developments are the forerunners of a general postverbal collocation of weak pronouns in Proto-Romance; only later did a procliticization process take 7 Harris rightly (1978:114) draws attention to the pairs of personal pronouns deriving in a number of instances from one Latin etymon (Lat. me > French me, moi) that were originally opposed in terms of stress, but came to be differentiated syntactically. 8 I do not follow the tentative explanation by Renzi (in Benacchio & Renzi 1987), who follows Thurneysen 1892. This presupposes the contemporary presence and reciprocal action of Wackernagel's law and of Tobler-Mussafía's law: if the verb was initial, then Wackernagel's law determined the postverbal attachment of clitics. But, as I stated above, in a Romance phase with the verb in second position WackernagePs law was no longer in force.

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place, for rhythmical reasons (Ramsden) or as a result of final syllable reduction (Geisler). 9 But Wanner (1985) takes the opposite position and defends "la préférence pour la linéarisation proclitique du pronom" in Late Latin. There is no principled reason, however, for reconstructing a unitarian development, other than possibly a need for theoretical parsimony. To postulate for Proto-Romance clitics the same distribution as full nominals would have the advantage of describing the behavior of clitics by means of syntactic rules of movement. But the solution is not economic, and empirical evidence does not seem to support it, as Benacchio & Renzi (1987) state. As historical linguistics teaches us, changes are not always unidirectional and systematic; on the contrary many variation factors or blocking devices may intervene to obscure the development. If we bear in mind these considerations, we might be justified in thinking that a constraint requiring exclusively the postverbal or preverbal position never existed. 3. To test this hypothesis I have examined a selection of Late Latin texts. The sample is small and probably unrepresentative; however, the distribution of forms does not seem accidental. My aim was to gather some concrete evidence about the development of the Romance clitic systems. To this end the clinching proof should derive from instances of'Romance interferences', such as a clear tendency to place pronouns 'around the verb'. This would imply at least for the late texts of the fourth group - an obligatory collocation of them in spoken Romance dialect, Less convincing proof but still significant would be the dissolution of the Latin sentence clitic system and the disappearance of the system of stressed free pronouns and unstressed pronouns bound to the second position. The Latin materials examined can be divided into four groups:

9

The long debate about the clitic pronoun position in Romance languages cannot even be summarized adequately here: it is reported in Ramsden (1963, Ch. 1). Meyer-Lübke's (1897) theory of pronoun enclisis on the first element of the sentence, which implies "a static view of pronoun collocation from pre-Classical Latin to medieval Romance times" (Ramsden 1953:17), found wide acceptance. The position of Meyer-Lübke, as well as that of Thurneysen (1892), are outcomes of Wackernagel's article on word order in Indo-European languages, but valid criticism has been raised against both. In particular the validity of Wackernagel's law is highly uncertain even for Late Latin, not to mention the Romance languages. Antinucci & Marcantonio (1980) have reconstructed the development of clitics in Old Italian by interpreting Meyer-Lübke's theory of enclisis typologically.

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(a) the pre-Vulgate versions of the Bible, currently designated as Itala, together with their Vulgate counterpart and the Greek original;10 (b) private letters of Claudius Terentianus and Rustius Barbarus (Cavenaile 1958) (2nd century); (c) the Peregrinatio Aetheriae (Heraeus 1908); (d) a collection of 8th-century Latin texts edited by D.S. Avalle ( 1970). 3.1. The pre-Vulgate versions of the Bible. On the whole I confirm a clear tendency for oblique pronouns to follow the verb immediately, as noted by Ramsden (1963); pronoun postposition appears regularly with verba dicendi and corresponds to the Greek word order, also mainly preserved in the Vulgate (see Koll 1965:251, who favors the hypothesis of a Greek influence on Latin word order, while Wanner 1985 would take both Greek and Latin pronominal syntax as a Hebraism): (3) a. Accesserunt autem servi patris familias et dixerunt ei (Mt. 13,27 Itala) b. Accedentes autem servi patris familias dixerunt ei (Vulgate) c. Proselthóntes dè hoi doüữloitoữoikodespótou eipon autoi Besides that, however, Ramsden observes that in subordinate clauses anteposition of pronouns is more frequent than postposition. Moreover the personal pronoun follows the subordinating conjunction or the relative pronoun, fulfilling in this way the conditions of the Wackernagel position (see (4) and (5) below). I would argue, however, that the principle involved here is that verb final position was better preserved in subordinate clauses than in main clauses (Koll 1965, etc.). Anteposition of pronouns, as well as of any other constituent, is produced incidentally and cannot be taken as a proof of survival of Wackernagel's law. Although there is a considerable amount of apparently uncontrolled variation, hints of evolution are manifested: (4) ... ne eum expellerent foras de regione (Mc. 5,10) (5) ... quanta tibi dominus fecit (Mc. 5,19)

10 From the edition of Α. Jülicher (1938-54) I have analysed the following three chapters: Matthew 13, Mark 5 and Luke 18, together with the corresponding passages of the Vulgate and the Greek text.

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However: (6) ... ne in novissimo veniendo constringat me (Lc. 18.5) 3.2. Private letters of Claudius Terentianus and Rustius Barbarus (Cavenaile 1958) (2nd century). These documents reflect the multilingual environment of Egypt and give a fairly clear idea of the gap between literary and spoken Latin, anticipating in some cases coming Romance developments in morphosyntax (Durante 1981). Pronouns are mostly adjacent to the verb; postposition, however, dominates, except in subordinate clauses, where both orders are admitted, but the examples are few. (7) Misi tibi, pater, per Martialem imboluclum concosutum (251, 8-9) (8) ... et misi tibi vasum oliarium ut mittas mi oleum cotilas VI (305, 6-7) (9) ... et rogo ut mi mittas dalabram (251,27) (10) hunc tibi mater mea misit (251,15) (11) Rogo te, frater, ut facias mi in meos usos pondera quan formosa et scribe mi ut pretium aeorum quit vis, panem tibi faciam aut aes tibi mitam. Scito enim me uxorem ducerem. Quando mox duxero continuo tibi scribam ut venias (303.10-18). In the alternation Rogo te ... and panem tibi faciam or continuo tibi scrìbam the emergence of the Romance norm regulating the position of atonic pronouns at the beginning of the sentence is perhaps visible. It seems that initial verbs and verbs preceded by the coordinating et are regularly followed by pronouns. 3.3. The Peregrinatio Aetberiae. Checking the careful exami­ nation by Ramsden seems to confirm that in comparison with Itala and the private letters there is a 'return' towards anteposition of oblique pronouns; however, there is no rigid norm. Compare (12)-(15). Taking for granted the (12) qui nos deducebant semper de castro ad castrum (7.2) (13) quando ei dixit Deus (5,2; 4,8) ( 14) ut ostenderent nobis singula loca (3,7) (15) Nam si vis, ecce modo pedibus duco vos ibi (15, 1)

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author's desire for a more literary style (Ramsden), I want to stress the noncasual distribution of forms. As Ramsden observes, anteposition is favored in subordinate clauses; however, separation from the verb does not occur often because of the lack of further constituents that could intervene. The result is a high number of cases that are compatible both with verb adjacency and with second position. Pronouns are regularly postponed when the verb is initial or is preceded by an adverbial clause: (16) Recipit se episcopus et vadent se unusquisque ad ospitium suum, ut se resumant (25,7) (17) Rogo te, domine, ut dicas michi, quod desidero audire (20,9) (18) et pervenientes ad monasterium quaedam susceperunt nos ibi satis humane monachi (3,1) Everything considered, the Peregrinatio remains the least transparent in its motivation for pronoun positioning of the texts analysed. 3 . 4 . A collection of 8th-century Latin texts edited by D . S . Avalle ( 1 9 7 0 ) . These texts are representative of 'intermediate registers' between traditional Latin and the spoken language and can be viewed as "l'anello di congiunzione, il tramite, il presupposto necessario del passaggio dal latino al volgare" (Avalle, 1970:IX). Below are listed the pronominal occurrences of the Sermo venembilis Coronati notarii de vita Sancii Zenonis (= SC) with its more vulgar counterpart, the Rhythmus de vita Sancii Zenonis (= R ) by an anonymous author who seems to consciously alternate classical and vulgar forms (Avalle 1968). (19) Ille vero dixit eis (SC 49) (20) ite, inquit, ecce ego subsequor vos (SC 65-66) (21) non ne te permittat Dominus agere adversus servum suum. Respondentes vero dixerunt 'Rogat te imperator et te vult videre' (SC 59-60) (22) Roga te Imperium a se te convocat (R 49) In the more literate Senno Coronati subordinate clauses show instances of separation of pronoun and verb and of pronoun collocation after the initial conjunction (see (23)-(25)). Of particular interest are SC 60 and R 49 (see (23) nisi ei ipsam, quam habes, coronam meam offeram (SC 85-86)

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(24) ut ei licentia tribueretur omnia idola destruendi (SC 93-94) (25) etsi quidem nun me non permittis animas hominum lucrari (SC 31) (21) and (22)), where the initial verb is followed by an enclitic pronoun, while in the subsequent sentences the pronoun, preceded by et in one case and by a se in the other, is preverbal and proclitic: this reminds us of course of the Tobler-Mussafia law (although the choice of the proclisis after et is less frequent). The imperative occurrence in R 41 tends in the same direction with a tonic subject pronoun followed by a clitic pronoun, a pattern that recurs in (26) tu nobis indica Zenonem nomine (R 41) the Laudes regiae of Soissons (Avalle, 1970, No. 10): (27) tu lo iuva!...tu los juva! and is found in Romance texts, e.g. Dante Purg. 13.17: tu ne conduci. 3 . 5 . Conclusion. To conclude this brief survey of Latin texts, I would like to take a less pessimistic position than that of Wanner (1981:341), who has claimed that, due to the imperfect tradition of linguistic materials, "the Romance clitic system ... appears as a creatio ex nihilo". On the contrary, an adequate choice of texts11 reveals a great deal about the evolution of this area of grammar. I hope to have shown: (a) how pronouns cluster around the verb; (b) how the conditions for the maintenance of Wackernagel's law cannot be proved in any case, the frequency of pronoun second position in subordinate sentences being an accidental effect both of leftward verb movement and of the shortness of sentences; (c) how an emergent regularity in the positioning of pronouns after an initial verb is manifested as early as the second century (see (7), (11), (16), etc.).

11 Of course this is a significant point; for instance, texts from the Merovingian period such as Gregorius of Tours, Fredegarius, the hagiographic literature (of which I have examined a sample) are of little or no relevance to our argument because, especially in the domain of syntax, they strictly follow traditional Latin norms (Koll 1965).

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It can be further hypothesized that these pronouns were clitic, as their rigid collocation would indeed suggest; they preserve altogether a reduced mobility, while a precise norm regulating the way they precede or follow the verb has not developed fully. In other words, the process of grammaticalization is completed only in the Romance languages according to the modalities described by the Tobler-Mussafia law. The Latin texts examined reveal the establishment of the preconditions of this law and a growing congruence with the Romance system (Durante 1981:37). Before concluding this discussion I would like to take up once again the issue of the realization of these observed historical changes. From Latin to the Romance languages there was an increase in pronoun evolution in the specificity of structural linear positioning accompanied by a decrease in the possibility of stylistic variation, a development closely related to what is commonly known as the grammaticalization process. In my view radical changes in accentual conditions caused the second position in the sentence to become an area of markedness. To solve this local problem a reanalysis took place consisting, in the case of pronouns, in a readjustment of a cliticization strategy from sentence second position to phonological attachment to a specified lexical category, the verb. A further step in the direction of grammaticalization occurred when clitic forms were reanalysed as an instance of affixation. Such a movement of clitics towards affixes has been claimed for spoken French by Harris (1976) and Lambrecht (1981) and for spoken Italian by Berretta (1985), but it is perhaps admissible also for older stages of the Romance languages as, for instance, the inscription of San Clemente (Rome, 11th century), one of the oldest documents of Italian, seems to confirm: (28) falite dereto colo palo go-him-you behind with-the pole (words in the text are not separated) However Rivero (1986) gives a series of arguments to claim that in Old Spanish non-tonic pronouns are lexical categories, not affix-like elements. I have the impression that most of them do not hold for Italian and French, but the issue needs further research. Thus these reanalyses had the ultimate effect of eliminating markedness in word-order rules of the language: object pronouns, whose pre-verbal position "constitutes probably the only significant exception" (Harris 1978:119) to the expected SVO order, were analysed as part of the verb rather than as independent words. In this way markedness was transferred from the syntactic component to the domain of morphology.

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REFERENCES Adams, J.N. 1976. "A typological approach to Latin word order". IF 81.70-99. Antinucci, Francesco & Angela Marcantonio. 1980. "I meccanismi del mutamento diacronico: il cambiamento d'ordine dei pronomi clitici in italiano". Rivista di grammatica generativa 5:3-50. Avalle, D'Arco Silvio. 1968. "Alcune particolarità metriche e linguistiche della 'Vitaritmicadi San Zeno'". Linguistica e filologia. Omaggio a Benvenuto Terracini ed. by C. Segre, 11-38. Milan: Il Saggiatore. Avalle, D'Arco Silvio. 1970. Latino "circa romançum" e "rustica romana lingua". Padua: Antenore. Banti, Giorgio. 1980. "I clitici antico-indiani". Problemi di analisi linguistica ed. by Pierangelo Berrettoni, 9-42. Rome: Cadmo. Benacchio, Rosanna & Lorenzo Renzi. 1987. Clitici slavi e romanzi. (= Quaderni Patavini di Linguistica, Monografìe, 1.) Padua: CLESP. Berretta, Monica. 1985. "I pronomi clitici nell'italiano parlato". Gesprochenes Italienisch in Geschichte und Gegenwart ed. by Günter Holtus& Edgar Radtke, 185-223. Tübingen: G.Narr. Durante, Marcello. 1981. Dal latino alVitaliano moderno. Saggio di storia linguistica e culturale. Bologna: Zanichelli. Geisler, Hans. 1982. Studien zur typologischen Entwicklung. Lateinisch Altfranzösisch Neufranzösisch. Munich: Fink. Givón, Talmy. 1971. "Historical syntax and synchronic morphology: an archaeologist's field trip". Papers from the 7th Regional Meeting, 384415. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. Givón, Talmy. 1979. On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press. Green, J.N. 1976. "How free is word order in Spanish?" Romance Syntax: Synchronic andDiachronicPerspectives ed. by Martin B. Harris, 7-32. Salford: University of Salford. Harris, Martin. 1978. The Evolution of French Syntax. A Comparative Approach. London & New York: Longman. Heraeus, W. 1908. Silviae vel potius Aetheriae Peregrinatio ad loca sancta. Heidelberg: Winter. Herman, József. 1954. "L'ordre des mots dans les plus anciens textes français en prose". Acta Linguistica Hungarica 4.69-94; 351-379. Hock, Hans Henrich. 1986. Principles of Historical Linguistics. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Hofmann, J.B. & Anton Szantyr. 1965. Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik. Munich: Beck. Jakobson, Roman. 1935. "Les enclitiques slaves". Atti del III congresso internazionale dei linguisti (Roma 1933) ed. by Bruno Migliorini & Vittore Pisani, 384-390. Florence: Le Monnier.

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ülicher, Adolf. 1938-1954. Itala. Das neue Testament in altlateinischer Überlieferung. Matthäus Evangelium (1938); Markus Evangelium (1940); Lukas Evangelium (1954). Berlin: De Gruyter. ¡Caisse, Ellen. 1982. "Sentential clitics and Wackernagers law." Proceedings of the First West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 1.1-14. Klavans, Judith. 1985. "The independence of syntax and phonology in cliticization". Language 61.95-120. Koll, Hans-Georg. 1965. "Zur Stellung des Verbs im spätantiken und frühmittelalterlichen Latein". Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 2.241-272. Lambrecht, K. 1981. Topic, Antitopic and Verb Agreement in NonStandard French. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Lehmann, Winfred. 1972. "Converging theories in linguistics". Language 48.266-275. Lehmann, Winfred. 1973. "A structural principle of language and its implications". Language 49.47-66. Linde, P. 1923. "Die Stellung des Verbs in der lateinischen Prosa". Glotta 12.153-178. Marouzeau, Jean. 1953. L'ordre des mots en latin. Paris: Les belles lettres. Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1897. "Zur Stellung der tonlosen Objekspronomina". Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 21.313-334. Molinelli, Piera. 1986. "L'ordine delle parole in latino: studi recenti". Lingua e Stile 21.485-498. Mussafia, Adolfo. 1886. "Una particolarità sintattica della lingua italiana dei primi secoli". Miscellanea di filologia e linguistica in memoria di N. Caix eA.Canello, 255-261 & 474-475. Florence: Le Monnier. Panhuis, Dirk. 1982. The Communicative Perspective in the Sentence. A Study ofLatin Word Order. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Panhuis, Dirk. 1984. "Is Latin an SOV language? A diachronic perspective". Indogermanische Forschungen 89.140-159. Ramat, Paolo. 1984. "Per una tipologia del latino pompeiano". Linguistica tipologica ed. by Paolo Ramat, 137-142. Bologna: Il Mulino. (= Linguistic Typology, 135-140. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton De Gruyter). Ramsden, H. 1963. Weak-Pronoun Position in the Early Romance Languages. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Richter, Elise. 1903. Zur Entwicklung der romanischen Wortstellung aus der lateinischen. Halle: Niemeyer. Rivero, Maria-Luisa. 1986. "Parameters in the typology of clitics in Romance and in Old Spanish". Language 62.774-807. Sankoff, Gillian & Penelope Brown. 1976. "The origins of syntax in discourse. A case study of Tok Pisin relatives." Language 52.631-666. Thurneysen, Rudolf. 1892. "Zur Stellung des Verbums im Altfranzösischen". Zeitschritt für romanische Philologie 16.289-307. Traugott, Elisabeth . 1982. "From propositional to textual and expressive meanings: some semantic-pragmatic aspects of grammaticalization".

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Perspectives on Historical Linguistics ed. by Winfred P. Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel, 245-271. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Vennemann, Theo. 1974. "Topics, subjects and word order: from SXV to SVX via TVX". Historical Linguistics ed. by John M. Anderson & Charles Jones, vol. I, 339-376. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Wackernagel, Jakob. 1892. "Über ein Gesetz der indogermanischen Wortstellung". Indogermanische Forschungen 1.333-436. Wanner, Dieter. 1981. "Clitic placement from Old to Modern Italian; morphologization of a syntactic mìe". Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages ed. by William W. Cressey & Donna Jo Napoli, 331-348. Washington, D.C: Georgetown University Press. Wanner, Dieter. 1985. "Protohistoire du placement des clitiques en roman". Linguistique comparée et typologie des langues romanes, 391-405. (= Actes du XVIIème congrès de linguistique et philologie romanes, vol. II). Aix-en-Provence. Zwicky, Arnold M. 1985. "Clitics and particles". Language 61.283-305.

FRAMING THE LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION SCENE: ASK VS. ACSIAN AND BIDDAN LOUIS GOOSSENS University of Antwerp 1.

Introduction.

In a paper presented at the VIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Goossens 1985) I provided a comparison of the 'framing contribution' of speak, talk, say and tell, and their Old English counterparts. Here I want to offer, as a follow-up, a study of a fifth Basic Linguistic Action Verb (in the sense attached to the term by Verschueren 1984) of present-day English, viz. ask and the items that correspond to it in Old English. As for speak, talk, say and tell, where we have only three corresponding verbs in Old English, the relationship is asymmetrical also in the case that concerns us here, since there appear to be two items in Old English covering the conceptual area of ask, namely acsian and biddan. Methodologically this contribution is partially in line with Goossens (1985) (and hence with Goossens 1987, where a more explicit statement of this methodology is provided), though there is added emphasis here on the prototypical meaning of the verbs involved. For the latter dimension in the approach adopted, see also Goossens (1989), which in some sense was stimulated by Geeraerts (1985). Sections 2, 3 and 4 successively deal with ask, acsian and biddan. A conclusion is provided in Section 5. 2.

ASK.

2.1. Rudzka (1982). For a detailed corpus-based analysis of the syntactic contexts with which ask occurs and an interpretation of (especially) its nuclear constituents in terms of roles in the linguistic communication scene, I refer the reader to Rudzka (1982). Since I am interested in a broad characterization of ask here, I do not try to repeat the wealth of observations that are to be found in Rudzka's paper. Rather, I first give a specification of the data on which it is based, because in what follows I want to quote some of

LOUIS GOOSSENS

192

Rudzka's examples. Then I will proceed with a presentation of her analysis of the direct object contexts, since it is at the level of the direct object that the differentiation of ask into its two main senses occurs. The discussion of a prototype meaning for ask which follows is NOT from Rudzka, but it is based on her analysis. 2.1.1. The corpus. Rudzka worked with a corpus of 2,157 instances with ask which were collected from three computerized corpora: the Leuven Theatre Corpus (TC); the LOB Corpus (LC); and the Brown Corpus (BC). To give an idea of the distribution over these three corpora, I cite Rudzka's General Survey Table for ask (Rudzka 1982:21) as Table 1. TC

LC

BC

Total

ask ask "question" ask "request" ask "require" Indeterminate "provoke"

514 323 26 7 54

415 225 12 3 2

347 199 19 6 5

1276 747 57 16 61

Total

924

657

576

2157

Table 1. Distribution of ask (three corpora). Note that the (lexical) differentiation into ask "question", ask "request", ask "require" and ask "provoke" is a preliminary decision for Rudzka. In what follows it will appear that I find it methodologically more appropriate to resort to such lexical differentiation AFTER the semantic-syntactic analysis. Note also that examples quoted in this paper will carry a two-fold specification: (1) a reference to the original corpora abbreviated as TC, LC and BC ; and (2) another one to Rudzka (1982) abbreviated as R followed by a Roman numeral and (an) Arabic numeral(s) referring to the corresponding sections and one more Arabic numeral in parentheses (the number of the example). 2.1.2. A 'conflated' direct object table. "The SLC [Scene of Linguistic Communication] associated with ask includes as its main elements a speaker, his utterance and a person to whom it is addressed" (Rudzka 1982:18). The (active) subject typically harbors the speaker, with only occasional deviations from this (metonymic expressions like the Government, British

FRAMING LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. ASK VS. ACSIAN/BJODDAN 193

Railways, Fred's voice and 'textual conveyors' like letter, telegram, postcard). The addressee typically appears as the (active) indirect object, the utterance is realized as a direct object. Whereas there is little variation at the level of the subject and even less for the indirect object, it is the direct object which exhibits the important variability which correlates with the considerable sense variation that we find in ask. As pointed out above, I prefer to demonstrate how the main sense differentiation for ask follows from this variation at the level of the direct object rather than postulating this sense differentiation beforehand. To that end I have conflated the tables on p. 32 and on p. 47 in Rudzka's paper, making some of the categories a little more specific but always in accordance with what the text tells us. I present these data as Table 2. Note that the division into an ask "question" and an ask "request" column is viewed here as following from a further semantic characterization of the different direct object types. Before proceeding to further discussion I exemplify the different categories. (1)

"Strix", asked Mr. Jackson, peering down at me, "are you in pain?" (LC.09.036.0662) (R.III.3.1(1)) - (al).

(2)

«Won't you sit down?", sheasked... - (al).

(3)

... but I ask you, please don't weep for him when he's dead ... (LC 17.056.0082) (R.III.3.2(1)) - (a2).

(4)

... A man spoke to me - asked - was I on my own - and I said ... (TC.65.113.36) (R.III.3.K63)) - (b).

(5)

She asked why she had been sent on the trip at all (LC.30.037.0378) (R.III.3.1(20))-(c).

(6)

You ask that we should pay forty thousand pounds (R.III.3.2(41))-(d).

(7)

She asked that I come and be her date (BC.29.006.0071)(R.III.3.2(42)) -(d).

(8)

Ask him to wait (TC.73.118.90) (R.III.3.2(6)) - (el).

(9)

Then he asked to use the phone... - (e2).

(LC.21.020.0564) (R.III.3.1(4))

( TC. 41.137.41)

(BC.15.015.0380) (R.III.3.2(28))

194

LOUIS GOOSSENS

(10) ... he could ask to be transferred to another tank ... (TC.68.112.50) (R.m.3.2(33)) - (c3). (11) ... they ask for scientists to have more part in the government (LC.64.034.0059) (R.III.3.2(34)) - (e4). (12) ... he asked for 37 other offences to be taken into consideration (TC78.172.76) (R.III.3.2(35)) - (e5). (13) A man came out of a café and asked him the way to Darlington ... (LC.35.037.0261) (R.III.3.1(106)) - (fl). (14) Could I ask you a favour? (TC.31.151.32) (R.m.3.2(48)) - (f2). (15) The students crowded around asking questions ... (BC.47.029.0537) (R.III.3.1(80))-(g). (16) You ask the most ridiculous questions (TC.82.117.2) (R.III.3.1(97)) -(g). (17) They asked me to tea at St. Peter's Hall. (TC.47.170.17)(R.in.3.2(87)) -(h). (18) A. How's the job going? B. You asked me that before. (TC.20.152.18) (R.III.3.1(69)) - (h). (19) A. Does your husband like those names? B. I haven't asked him. (LC.18.010.0327) (R.III.3.1(112)) - (j). (20) I was down there myself. (R.m.3.2(86)) - (j).

They asked me. (TC.33.170.0.7)

(21) In tones of polite inquiry she asked about his (LC.31.008.0379) (R.ffl.4.2(20)) - (k1).

holiday.

(22) Someone even asked me for psychedelic tea towels. (TC.42.130.30.8) (R.III.4.3(29)) - (k3). (23) ... a new question was introduced ... asking for particulars ofpersons usually living in the household who were absent on census night. (LC.01.007.0199) (R.III.4.3(52)) - (k3). Afirstpoint to be noted about Table 2 is that it accounts for nearly 94% of the corpus. The other 6.2% are the instances which Rudzka classifies as ask "require" (exemplified here by (24)), ask "provoke" (e.g. (25)) or

FRAMING LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. ASK VS. ACSIAN/BIDDAN

"question" Number % a. Direct quotation (al) Questions (a2) Imperatives

439

34.40

Semi-indirect enunciation

c.

Indirect questions

d.

that- cl. (+subjunctive/should)

to-infinitive NP+to + infinitive to + infinitive to + passive infinitive for + NP + to + infinitive for + NP + to + passive infinitive f. NP (= content essentials) (f1) cost, time, way, etc. (£2) advice, help, favor, etc. (f3) anything, what, etc.

10

0.78

320

25.00

e. (el) (e2) (e3) (e4) (e5)

g. h.

"request" Number %

0) 2

b.

NP (= category label) question(s)

195

0.26

(?) 14

1.87

438 (410) (15) (9) (1)

58.63

(3) 23

162

1.80 41 9

5.48 1.20

22

2.94

12.69

NP (= addressee) (!) (type 'ask her out' invite - ask

i.

this, that, it, etc.

43

3.36

11

1.47

j.

Ø

226

17.71

37

4.95

k. Ø + prepositional phrases (kl) about-phrases (k2) after-phrases (k3) for- phrases

51 2 (!)

3.99 0.15 169

22.80

1.

-

Unaccounted for

Total

1276 Table 2. Direct objects with ask.

4 747

196

LOUIS GOOSSENS

'indeterminate'. Obviously, the ask "require" and the ask "provoke" cases no longer actualize the Scene of Linguistic Communication and present deviations from the prototype meaning if ask. (24) This colt has done everything asked of him. (R.II.K39)).

(BC.09.007.0205)

(25) I always told you it's asking for trouble relying on that old fool (LC. 17.048.0231) (R.II.1(43)). Turning to Table 2 proper, observe that most of the categories distinguished require either a "question" or a "request" interpretation. If the direct object represents an utterance that we have to interpret as a question we have to assign a "question" meaning. This is evidently the case when the category label 'question' is used; but also when we have a direct enunciation which is a question, or an indirect enunciation which is an indirect question. The semi-indirect cases (e.g. (4)) are all 'contaminations' between a direct and an indirect question and therefore of the same kind. Among the group without a direct object but with a prepositional phrase, the cases with about- phrases are also natural candidates for a "question" reading: about- phrases are the most current way to indicate the topic with which a question is concerned. On the "request" side the 'natural' correlates of requests are somewhat harder to find. Imperatives (category (a2)) are of course important candidates, but they are extremely rare; also that- clauses containing subjunctives or should come under this heading, but again they are infrequent. If we take the two predominant categories,to-infinitivesand for- phrases, we can still make the claim, however, be it a less strong one, that they are 'natural' allies of requests: to-infinitives typically signal unrealized states of affairs, for typi­ cally indicates a goal. Next, notice the areas of overlap in Table 2. NPs giving 'content essentials' (category (f)) have to be checked for whether they concern some piece of information which triggers the "question" reading (category (f1)) or indicate some action to be carried out, which results in the "request" sense (category (f2)). Categories (i) and (j) require a scanning for the broader context: to establish the referent of the pronoun as 'information' or 'action' asked for; or to establish the omitted direct object in a similar fashion (cf. in this respect (19) and (20)). Note in addition that there may also be overlap in at least two important 'discrete' categories, viz. categories (a2) (questions) and (c) (indirect questions). Questions can indeed be used to express requests, and such questions can obviously be turned into indirect questions. An instance from

FRAMING LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. ASK VS. ACSIAN/BIDDAN

197

Rudzka's corpus study is (2); this could be transformed into an 'indirect question request' as (2'). (2') She asked him whether he wouldn 't sit down. 2.2. A prototype meaning for ASK. Let us now proceed to the establishment of a prototype meaning for ask on the basis of the data presented in Section 2.1. Taking into account the (comparatively) very low frequencies of the "require" and the "provoke" readings, I disregard these as outside the prototype. How exactly they can be treated as deviations from the prototype that we are going to set up is not very problematic, I think, but not directly relevant to the purpose of this paper. The main problem then is the relation between the "question" and the "request" senses. Do we accept the "question" sense as prototypical and the "request" sense as a contextually determined deviation? Or do we try to establish a prototype that encompasses the two readings which are then ascribed to contextual variation? Looking ahead at the prototype that we are going to need for acsian, I choose the second possibility here, though, as pointed out, I am well aware that the first possibility presents us with a reasonable alternative. Without going into an elaborate justification then, the following prototype meaning will be adopted: ASK is a three-place predicate which frames an aspect of the Scene of Linguistic Communication in which a Speaker addresses an Addressee and, doing so, produces an utterance which tries to elicit either some missing bit of information (including a pronouncement on whether a given State of Affairs obtains or does not obtain) or some action on the part of the Addressee, without appealing to any difference in Status that may exist between the two. Notice that the disjunction (the either ...or part) could be summarized as some reaction on the part of the Addressee; such an alternative formulation becomes necessary if we want to avoid disjunctions in the formulation of prototypes (on this point, cf. Geeraerts 1985:203, fn. 6). Let us see next how this compares with OE acsian. 3.

ACSIAN.

3.1. Preliminaries. The obvious counterpart for ask in Old English is acsian and its variant forms. Looking at the dictionary information offered

198

LOUIS GOOSSENS

by BTD and BTS, however, the case for a "request" meaning appears to be very weak. As such the absolute absence of infinitival complementation after acsian is no sufficient reason, of course, because the rise of the to-infinitive is only in its initial stages in Old English (see Fischer 1989). There is, it is true, the presence of ask for in the series of paraphrases in both BTD and BTS, but it is not directly clear whether this is sufficient to assign to acsian the same prototype meaning as to ask. In order to find out, I include an analysis of a restricted, but homogeneous sample of contexts in which acsian (and its variants) is used. It consists of a random selection of 100 instances from the Toronto Concordance to Old English; they are all from Ælfric, hence from around the turn of the first millennium, and homiletic and hagiographic in nature. Let us see next what this analysis teaches us about the way in which acsian frames the Scene of Linguistic Communication. 3.2. Syntactic-semantic analysis. As can be expected there is no diversification at the level of the subject; all the subject NPs in our hundred percent active sample denote the speaker of the linguistic action described. Addressee-focus is considerable, but less outspoken than for ask. Table 3 shows that the addressee is present in just over half of the instances, but when it is, it is practically always in a nuclear function (if one takes, as I think one should, both dative and accusative NPs to be nuclear). Nuclear constituents (a) accusative NP (including five cases that could be dative/accusative) (b) dative NP

45 6

Non-nuclear (prepositional phrases) (c) æt + NP Total

3 54

Table 3. Acsian: constituents framing the Addressee. I give an example with the addressee in the accusative (26), one with a dative (27), one with a prepositional (and hence non-nuclear) phrase (28), and finally one where the addressee is not framed (29).

FRAMING LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. ASK VS. ACSIAN/BIDDAN

199

(26) pa acsode se haelend hine: Hwæt wilt pu pæt ic do then asked the saviour him:Acc what will you that I do "then the Saviour asked him, 'What do you want me to do?'" (Ælfric CHom I, 10 152.20) (27) & ascode hiom hwaes tacen paet bion mihte pe ... and asked them:Dat whose sign that be might that:Rel... "and asked them whose sign that might be that..." (LS 6 (Invent Cross Mor) 37) (28) and begunnon to axienne set oởrum wegfarendum hwaet and began to ask from other travellers what se man waere pe ... the man were who ... "and they began to ask the other travellers what kind of man this was that ... (Ælfric LS (Martin) 990) (29) pa ongan he acsian & he cwæở, Hwaene sece you? then began he ask and he said whom seek you? "then he began to ask questions and he said, 'Who are you looking for?'" (LS 30 (Pantaleon) 54) Finally, let us see to what extent and how the message or utterance of the linguistic action described is framed. Table 4 surveys the different realizations, which as a rule are nuclear (categories (a)-(d)), less often nonnuclear ((f)-(h), with category (e) somewhat difficult to assess; let us say that it is semi-nuclear). Before I proceed to further discussion, I exemplify the different categories. Example (26) is an instance of (al), (27) and (28) of (b), whereas (29) illustrates acsian without any message expressed. The sentences below are instances of the categories indicated. (30) sege me, ic pe axige, gif pu aefre waere on gefeohte tell me I you:Acc/Dat ask if you ever were in fight "Tell me, I'm asking you, if you were ever involved in a fight" (Ælfric LS (Martin) 1083) -(a2). (31) pa axode hine se ealdorbiscop and mid ape gehalsode then asked him the high-priest and with oath adjured paet he openlice saede gif he ... that he openly told if he ... "then the high-priest adjured him to declare publicly and under oath whether he ..." (Ælfric CHom II, 14.1 143.167) - (c).

LOUIS GOOSSENS

200

Nuclear constituents (objects) (a) direct enunciation questions imperative (b) indirect questions (c) pæt- clause (+ subjunctive) (d) accusative NP (including pronouns) referring to or condensing question referring to object/entity requested Semi-nuclear (e) genitive NP (f) (g) embe + NP (h) of+ NP

be/bi+NP

Total

15 1 39 1 10 2 9 9 2 1 89

NB: There are three cases of overlap among these categories: once between (a) and (0; once between (e) and (b); once between (f) and (b). Table 4. Acsian: constituents framing the Message. (32) ... pæt hi hine axian woldon pæra worda digolnysse ... that they him ask wanted of-those-words mystery "that they wanted to ask him to explain the mystery of these words" (Ælfric HomM 5 (Ass 6) 19) - (d1). (33) Min hlaford... asende me to pysum earde to axienne wyrhtan ... My lord sent me to this country to ask workers... "My lord has sent me to this country to ask for skilled workers ..." (Ælfric LS (Thomas) 33) - (d2). (34) nu get ge ongytan nellað pæs ic eow acsian wille now yet you understand not-want of-that I you ask want "at present you do not want to understand yet what I want to ask you" (LS 6 (InventCrossMor) 94) - (e). (35) and pa ongan ic acsian ða geornlice bi pisum mannum and then began I ask then eagerly about these men hu gerad hiora gegaderung wæs hæmedes ... how disposed their gathering was of-marriage... "and then I eagerly began to ask questions about these men, as to what their opinion was about marriage" (LS 35 ( VitPatr) 159) - (f).

FRAMING LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. ASK VS. ACSIAN/BIDDAN 201

(36) and se cyningsende fela ærendrecan ... embe pe axiende and the king sent many messengers about you asking "and the king sent a lot of messengers asking questions about you" (Ælfric LS (Book of Kings) 75) - (g). Looking for rough similarities with ask, we first observe the clear predominance of a message-constituent, which moreover as a rule comes as a nuclear constituent. The most striking difference is the extreme rarity of instances where acsian can be given a "request" reading. The single instance for category (a2) (= (30)) is, of course, NOT significant, because imperatives are also extremely rare with ask (but note that the imperative here is in fact a performative way to ask a question). Very significant, on the other hand, is the virtual absence of counterparts to the present-day English to- infinitive; the only instance is (31), where the pæt- clause does not depend on axode alone, but on the conjoined phrase axode ... and mid ade gehalsode. Note that the two instances under (d2) correspond to for- phrases in Modern English. The conclusion at this point can only be that this is no more than the shy beginnings of a "request" reading. The differences in complementation for the "question" sense, which completely predominates, can be reduced in outline to the higher frequency of topic-indicators with acsian (prepositional phrases: categories (f), (g) and (h); but also non-prepositional genitives: category (e)). These are made up for in present-day English by the category label "question(s)", and, to a lesser extent, by the pronominal items this, that, it. In addition, there are a few minor differences, but they are not crucial with respect to the prototype meaning. Let me round off this survey of the syntactic-semantic analysis of our sample for acsian with Table 5, which notes to what extent we get a co­ occurrence with Message and Addressee. Message + addressee Message only Addressee only Neither

45 42 9 4

Table 5. Acsian: co-occurrence, presence, absence of constituents framing the Message and/or the Addressee. Clearly the combination of Message and Addressee focus is predominant. This should be taken into account in our formulation of a prototype meaning

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for acsian, though it may be added that the absence of an Addressee constituent is less 'deviant' in Old English than in present-day English. 3 . 3 . A prototype meaning for ACSIAN. There is no doubt that for acsian the "request" meaning represents a deviation from the prototype. This prototype is clearly the "question" meaning, which we can formulate as follows: ACSIAN is a predominantly three-place predicate which frames an aspect of the Scene of Linguistic Communication in which a Speaker addresses an Addressee and doing so produces an Utterance which tries to elicit some missing piece of information (including a pronouncement on whether a given State of Affairs obtains or does not obtain), without appealing to any difference in status that may exist between the two. The deviations from this prototype are somewhat different from those for present-day English ask, which show an increased Message and Addressee focus as compared with acsian, but they need not concern us any further here. 4.

BIDDAN

4 . 1 . P r e l i m i n a r i e s . The Old English lexical item that most closely matches ask "request" is biddan, though the equation is obviously not complete. Before we embark on a more detailed comparison, let me state explicitly that it is the 'simplex' biddan, and not the complex gebiddan that we want to be concerned with. Whereas there are a lot of verbs in Old English for which prefixation with ge makes only an aspectual or no difference (e.g. acsian ), this is not the case with biddan. A look at the entries for biddan and gebiddan in BTD and BTS tells us that the sense "pray" is a lot more important for the complex item. This was confirmed by a preliminary investigation of a mixed Ælfric sample (80 biddan and 20 gebiddan ), which turned up 18 "pray" and 2 "worship" meanings for gebiddan. It is important therefore to note that the following sample study is based exclusively on instances of simplex biddan (again 100 and all from Ælfric). 4 . 2 . Syntactic-semantic analysis. Again our sample contains only active instances of biddan. The subject NPs are all human, but they do not all frame the prototypical speaker of the Scene of Linguistic Communication. Indeed in the case where biddan means "pray", the subject NP frames the

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ACSIAN/BIDDAN

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'prayer' (the one who prays), who is probably best viewed as a metaphorical extension of the speaker of the Scene of Linguistic Communication. With respect to the other nuclear functions, biddan is either a three-place predicate (with the Message and the Addressee as the second and third argument), or a two-place predicate (with either the Message or, less frequently, the Addressee as the second argument), or, occasionally, a oneplace predicate (with the Message and the Addressee both unframed): cf. the global survey in Table 6. Message + addressee Message only Addressee only Neither (especially = "pray")

44 38 8 10

Table 6. Biddan: Co-occurrence, presence, absence of constituents framing the Message and/or Addressee (excluding for phrases). Let us next have a look at the specific framings for the Message and the Addressee, including in our picture the semi-nuclear and non-nuclear framings of those roles. We first survey the framing of the Addressee: see Table 7. Nuclear constituents (a) accusative NP (including 10 cases which might also be datives and 2 cases which might also be reflexives) (b) dative NP

41 1

Non-nuclear constituents (c) æt + NP Total

12 54

Table 7. Biddan: constituents framing the Addressee. As can be inferred from this Table, the Addressee is framed in a little more than 50% of the cases, and as a rule comes in a nuclear function (categories (a) and (b); for examples where it co-occurs with the Message see (39), (41) and (43) below; in (37) the Message is not framed). A non-nuclear framing is much less frequent; example (38) is an instance where the Message is not included.

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(37) Hwæt sind pa pe us biddað? Earme menn... What are those that us ask/beg Poor men... "What are those people that are begging from us? Poor men ..." (Ælfric CHom I, 18 256.1)-(a). (38)

æt hwam bidda3 hi? To/from whom ask/beg they "From whom are they begging?" (Ælfric CHom I, 18 256.3) - (c).

Notice that in (37) and (38), as in all the instances where biddan means "pray", there is inequality in status between Speaker and Addressee; when the Addressee is God (or a saint), we get as a rule the "pray" interpretation. Notice that also in the non-"pray" uses the Speaker is often to be thought of as inferior in status. Next we consider the ways in which the Message is framed. Table 8 gives the different possibilities. As we can observe, it comes as a rule in a nuclear function (even if the status of the genitive NPs as nuclear constituents is not totally unquestionable). The only clearly non-nuclear framing is the forphrase, at least when it incorporates the entity or state of affairs requested. Nuclear constituents (objects) (a) direct enunciation imperatives (b) pæt- clause (+ subjunctive, occasionally most-, twice indicative, once sceolde) (c) accusative NP (= entity requested)

46 9

Semi-nuclear (d) genitive NP (= entity requested) (c) (d) accusative or genitive NP (= entity requested)

16 9

Non-nuclear constituents (prepositional phrases) (e) for + NP Total

3

3 86

NB: There is one case of overlap between (b) and (c) and one between (c) and (d). Table 8. Biddan: constituents framing the Message. Before I offer additional discussion, I will give an example of each of the categories adopted.

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(39) Ic bidde eow, wendað min heafod adune,... I ask you turn my head down "I'm asking you, turn my head upside down" (Ælfric CHom I, 26 282.8) - (a). (40) Ic bidde paet pu hate nu rihte beran to me I ask that you order now straightaway bring to me iohannes heafod on anum disce John's head on a plate "I'm asking you to give the order straightaway that John's head should be brought to me on a plate" (Ælfric CHom I, 32 476.29 {Mark 6)) (b). (41) oft ic pe baed paet ic moste to pe faran often I you asked that I might to you travel "I've often asked to come to you" (Ælfric CHom I, 4 74.28 - (b). (42) ne baed se blinda naðor ne goldes ne seolfres not asked the blind-man neither not gold:Gen not silver:Gen ne nane woruldlice ping ac baed his gesihðe not none worldly things:Acc but asked his eyesight:Gen/Acc "The blind man neither asked for gold, nor silver, nor any other worldly things, but he asked to get his eyesight back" (Ælfric CHom I, 10 158.20) - (c), (d). (43) 5a pa he baed drihten for his ðeowan hæle then when he asked lord for his slave's health "when he asked/prayed/begged the Lord to cure his slave"(ÆlfricCHom I, 8 126.32) - (e). Clearly the pæt-clauses have by far the highest frequency. Note that as a rule they have a subjunctive, which typically signals an unrealized state of affairs like the to-infinitive in Modern English. A more specific feature worth pointing out is the occurrence in the pæt-clause of forms of motan, which is the current modal expressing permission in Old English: its use is in line with the observation that the speaker can often be thought of as assuming a status of inferiority vis-à-vis the addressee. Another observation concerns the difference between genitive and accusative objects to denote the entity requested. The genitive often expresses a partitive idea, the accusative does not (although this is not always observed, it is certainly the case in (42) where the two modes of expression occur side by side). Notefinallythat in the forphrase in (43) the NP is not the specific entity requested, but the nominalization of the requested state of affairs.

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As has already been indicated, there is an opposition in the sample between an "ask, request" sense and a "pray" sense, although it is not always possible to distinguish between the two. In Table 9 I give the distribution of the different senses across the sample. "ask, beg"

"ask, pray"

"pray"

37

30

33

Table 9. Biddan: sense distribution. What interests us most here is whether any specific correlations can be established between the different contextualizations with which biddan occurs and either the "ask, request" sense or the "pray" sense. Such specific correlations exist for both of them. (a)

- All three imperative realizations for the message (category (a)) require an ask- reading. - 7 out of 10 accusative NP realizations for the message (or rather the entity requested) do so, too; the other 3 are mixed. - There are 10 instances where ic bidde is used performatively (examples of this are (39) and (40)): 9 of them are ask- cases, the 10th is a mixed one.

(b)

- The 3 for- phrases all belong to biddan "pray". - 7 out of the 10 cases where biddan is used as a one-place predicate also give the "pray" meaning.

Note, however, that most contexts, and especially the realization of the Message as a pæt- clause, are compatible with both. The main factor dis­ tinguishing the two is related to whether the addressee is God or some saint or not, as we have already pointed out. Typical cases of overlap are those in which Christ is addressed with some request, but there are others besides. A similar difference in status is also compatible with non-religious uses; hence possible paraphrases like "ask politely" or "beg" (as in (37) and (38)). 4 . 3 . Prototype meaning. It follows from our analysis in Section 3.2 that it would be difficult to subsume most of the uses of biddan under one prototypical meaning, especially when we take into account that it can be used with reference to both the Scene of (Human) Linguistic Communication and

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the related but distinct scene which for lack of a better term I call the Scene of Praying. A prototype meaning for its contribution to the Scene of Linguistic Communication might go as follows: BIDDAN-1 is a predicate which frames an aspect of the Scene of Linguistic Communication in which a Speaker produces an utterance which tries to elicit some action from the Addressee (but typically not one concerned with providing some piece of information); the framing of the Addressee is an optional feature, but it is important to note that the status between Speaker and Addressee can be one of equality, or of inferiority of the Speaker, but never one in which the Addressee is implied to be in an inferior position. We do not formulate a prototype meaning for BIDDAN-2 but emphasize that there is a good deal of overlap between the two BIDDANs, which might induce one to start looking for a prototype meaning that would cover the two. (As pointed out, however, this would require us to collapse two distinct scenes into one 'hyperscene') The least one can say is that Late Old English biddan does not have a particularly clear meaning center. 4.4. A further diachronic perspective. Without going into very much detail I would like to put our search for a prototype meaning for biddan into a diachronic perspective. Basically I want to make two remarks. First, that an analysis of a mixed Alfredian (and hence late 9th century) sample consisting of 75 instances of biddan and 25 of gebiddan revealed a rather similar situation for gebiddan as for its Late Old English counterpart. However, this analysis shows a considerable difference for biddan: of the 75 instances, the very great majority meant "ask- request" or "beg", only a few could be interpreted as "pray", and there were even two instances that could be paraphrased as "demand" or "order" and one where biddan meant "askquestion". Whatever the exact details may be, it is obvious that in earlier Old English the simplex biddan had a clear center, viz. the prototype meaning formulated for BIDDAN-1 in the preceding section. Secondly, a look at the Middle English lexicon teaches us that biddan got totally 'destabilized* and merged with what used to be Old English beodan "order, command, offer". As a result, the advent of an item from Old French/Anglo-Norman was welcome - preyen. Perhaps most importantly for the general purpose of this paper, it cleared the way for broadening the prototype meaning of asken to what we found to be that of present-day ask.

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5.

Conclusions.

Let me formulate my conclusions in four different points. First, whereas present-day English has one Basic Linguistic Action Verb covering both questioning and requesting (which in one view can be collapsed under one prototype meaning for ask), Old English appears to have two items corresponding to it, acsian, which covers questions, and biddan, which takes care of requests. The overlap between ask , on one hand, and acsian and biddan, on the other, is of course not complete. One reason is that there are a number of differences in the complementation (in a broad sense of the word); another reason is that biddan has a specificity not shared by ask. The latter point makes it more difficult to formulate the prototypical meaning for biddan. Secondly, Late Old English biddan (but not its Early Old English counterpart) has two distinguishable senses actualizing two different, even if related, scenes. As a result it can be said to have an unstable center, which up to a point (but certainly not fully) explains why it went out of use as a Basic Linguistic Action Verb in later English. Acsian, on the other hand, already shows deviations from its prototype meaning which can be regarded as the basis for the broadened meaning which it acquires later on. Thirdly, though there would be no point in repeating the details of the syntactic-semantic analysis here, let me review the most striking differences in complementation in the areas where acsian and biddan correspond to the central meaning of ask Acsian in its (prototypical) question-meaning does not occur with a counterpart for the category label 'question(s)' or for pronominal references to the message in present-day English. This absence is balanced by a higher percentage of topic expressions, including prepositionless (semi-nuclear) genitive NPs. Note also that acsian has less outspoken Addressee focus. For biddan wefindthat it lacks to- infinitive complemen­ tation, which has pæt- clauses containing subjunctives as its counterpart. Some of those pæt- clauses contain a form of the permissive modal motan, which is in line with a specific lexical feature which biddan does not share with ask or acsian, viz. the implication that the speaker assumes an inferior status vis-à-vis the addressee. Again, this addressee is not as much in focus as its counterpart with ask. Fourthly, and finally, from a more theoretical viewpoint this paper may have demonstrated that the complexity of high frequency linguistic action verbs like the ones we have investigated here requires an approach which does justice to this complexity. In the present investigation the combination of a syntactic-semantic analysis in terms of scene-and-frame semantics and elements of the prototype approach to lexical meaning (in which prototypes are

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established on the basis of this syntactic-semantic analysis) may have proved its value as a method for deepening our insight into the ways in which complex lexical items develop. REFERENCES Bosworth, J. & T.N. Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (= BTD. ) Fischer, O. 1989. "The origin and spread of the accusative and infinitive construction in English". Folia Linguistica Historica 8:1-2.143-217. Geeraerts, D. 1985. Review of The Scene of Linguistic Action and its Perspectivization by SPEAK, TALK, SAY and TELL by R. Dirven, L. Goossens, Y. Putseys & E. Vorlat (Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1982). Quaderni di Semantica 6.197-204. Goossens, L. 1985. "Framing the linguistic action scene in Old and presentday English: OE CWEpAN, SECGAN, SP(R)ECAN and present-day English SPEAK, TALK, SAY and TELL compared". Papers from the VIthInter­ national Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by J. Fisiak, 149-170. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Goossens, L. 1987. "Dealing with linguistic action verbs in depth". Linguistic Action: Some Empirical-Conceptual Studies ed. by J. Verschueren, 95-106. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Goossens, L. 1989. "Prototypical and non-prototypical meaning: SAY revisited". Worlds behind Words. Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. F.G. Droste on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday ed. by F.J. Heyvaert & F. Steurs, 155-161. Leuven: Leuven University Press. Healey, A. Di Paolo & R.L. Venezky, compilers. 1980. A Microfìche Concordance to Old English. Toronto: The Dictionary of Old English Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto. Rudzka, B. 1982. The Verb ASK and the Scene of Linguistic Communication. Unpublished paper. Catholic University of Leuven. Toller, T.N. 1921. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Supplement. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (= BTS. ) Verschueren, J. 1984. Basic Linguistic Action Verbs: a Questionnaire. (= Antwerp Papers in Linguistics, 37.) Antwerp: Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen.

LA POLYSÉMIE DE OF EN VIEIL ANGLAIS ET LA MÉTAPHORE SPATIALISANTE MARIE-LINE GROUSSIER Université de Paris VII 1. Introduction. 1.1 La présente contribution est un exposé des principes dégagés et mis en oeuvre il y a quelques années à l'occasion d'une étude exhaustive des prépositions du vieil-anglais (Groussier 1984). Ce travail est fondé au départ sur une double hypothèse: tout d'abord, le problème de la polysémie prépositionnelle (et casuelle) trouve une solution dans une perspective franchement localiste qui fait dériver les indications de relations non-spatiales des indications spatiales selon des processus de nature métaphorique. La deuxième hypothèse est inséparable de la première: elle consiste à poser que le seul traitement valable de la polysémie prépositionnelle est diachronique, les divers emplois attestés étant issus plus ou moins directement d'une signification de base unique, plus ancienne. 1.2 Les prépositions sont des indicateurs de repérage (c'est à dire mise en relation d'un repéré avec un repère). Elles indiquent: — la nature du repérage. Par exemple, to indique la coïncidence visée mais pas toujours atteinte du repéré et du repère; — certaines caractéristiques du repéré: p.ex., dans le repérage indiqué par to, le repéré est un objet en déplacement; — certaines caractéristiques du repère: p.ex., dans le repérage indiqué par to, le repère est l'arrivée du déplacement. 1.3 Le modèle qui sera adopté ici doit beaucoup à celui de la théorie de l'énonciation d'A. Culioli. Ce modèle distingue quatre niveaux de repérage.

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1.3.1 Au niveau NOTIONNEL indépendant des énoncés particuliers, intervient l'organisation et le filtrage de l'univers extra-linguistique par les locuteurs. Cette organisation aboutit à la constitution de NOTIONS, nébuleuses de sens correspondant plus ou moins aux mots au niveau de l'expression. Les notions sont caractérisées par l'association de propriétés primitives (p.ex., /animé/, /discontinu/ etc.). Les propriétés primitives définissent des relations primitives (Culioli 1971:7; 1975-76:36-40, 154-155; v. aussi Paris 1981:430). Au nombre de ces relations sont les relations spatiales, les relations actancielles (= relations procès-actants) et les relations inter-procès.1 1.3.2 Au niveau PRÉDICATIF (1er niveau de constitution d'énoncés particuliers), une notion de procès est associée à des notions d'actants qu'elle met en relation. Le schéma prédicatif, dans les langues indo-européennes actuelles, est de la forme a R b, R étant le prédicat, a et b les arguments (Fuchs & Leonard 1979:262). 1.3.3 Au niveau ÉNONCIATIF, des repérages par rapport à la situation d'énonciation déterminent les termes du schéma prédicatif (Culioli 1975:10). 1.3.4 Le dernier niveau est celui de la chaîne parlée ou écrite, avec certains repérages particuliers comme l'anaphore. (Voir la Fig.l à la page suivante.)

1

Le mot 'actant' est emprunté à Tesnière (1959) avec une acception différente, correspondant en partie aux cas de Fillmore 1968. Les actants sont l'Agent, le Patient, le Bénéficiaire, l'Instrument etc. (cf. Groussier 1984:48-58, Fuchs & Leonard 1979:324).

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NIVEAU NOTIONNEL Relations primitves (repérages spatiaux, actanciels, inter-procès etc.)

↓ NIVEAU PREDICATIF Relations prédicatives (repérages intra-lexis entre arguments et prédicat)

↓ NIVEAU ENONCIATIF Relations énonciatives (repérages de détermination par rapport à la situation d'énonciation)

↓ NIVEAU DE LA CHAINE Relation d'ordre, contiguïté etc. (repérages entre occurrences de mots, groupes, phrases etc.) Figure 1: Les niveaux de repérage

2. La primanté du spatial. 2.1 La référence aux relations dans l'espace occupe, dans le langage, une place privilégiée. Je considère que c'est par une DÉMARCHE MÉTAPHORIQUE que la référence à divers domaines relationnels non-spatiaux emprunte les termes de la référence aux relations spatiales. Cette démarche métaphorique n'a, dans l'ensemble, pas été définie par les linguistes, les uns la traitant comme si elle allait de soi (localistes), les autres comme une dangereuse superstition (anti-localistes). Le premier à l'évoquer clairement en tant que telle a été Whorf.2 Plus près de nous, John Anderson (1971:12-13; 1977:116) 2

Whorf (1956:145): "To fit discourse to manifold actual situations, all languages need to express durations, intensities and tendencies. It is characteristic of SAE and perhaps of many other language types to express them metaphorically. The metaphors are those of spatial extension [...] an almost inexhaustible list of metaphors that we hardly recognise as such, since they are virtually the only linguistic media available."

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s'oriente prudemment dans ce sens, Lakoff & Johnson (1980)3 mentionnant les métaphores spatiales, mais parmi d'autres, sans leur donner la place privilégiée qui me semble leur revenir. L'ouvrage tout récent d'Annette Herskovits place ce point au centre de son traitement des prépositions en évitant toutefois le terme de métaphore (Herskovits 1966:72). 2.2 Les arguments en faveur de la primarité du spatial en tant que source de métaphorisation sont d'ordres divers. 2.2.1 John Anderson a été l'un des premiers à songer à l'argument psychogénétique.4 Le très récent travail d'Herskovits y fait large-ment appel puisqu'il figure jusque dans le titre de son livre, Language and Spatial Cognition. De fait, la référence à des relations totalement étrangères à l'espace en termes de relations spatiales peut, vraisemblablement, être considérée comme un recours à une représentation plus facile parce que plus ANCIENNE dans l'histoire individuelle de chaque locuteur. Piaget a en effet montré que l'accession à la pensée logique passe par une construction de l'espace perceptif étroitement conditionnée par l'activité sensori-motrice et il écrit: "[...] les domaines moteur et perceptif [...] continuent, durant toute l'existence, de constituer la substruc­ ture des constructions représentatives." (Piaget & Inhelder 1972[1947]:526) 2.2.2 La force de l'argument psychogénétique réside évidemment en ce qu'il est de nature à expliquer non-seulement la primarité du spatial telle qu'elle se manifeste dans le langage mais encore les manifestations de celle-ci hors du langage, qui peuvent être considérées comme autant de preuves supplé­ mentaires de ce rôle central de la relation de l'homme à l'espace. En fait, il n'est pas exagéré de parler d'une OMNIPRÉSENCE DE LA SPATIALISATION EXPLICATIVE. Whorf avait remarqué le rôle explicatif joué par les GESTES, en particulier ceux des mains (Whorf 1956:155). Or, on peut considérer que les GRAPHES sont au discours scientifique ce que les gestes sont à la conver­ sation: des spatialisations explicatives. Enfin, depuis l'invention du premier cadran solaire, les horloges sont toutes des machines, non seulement à mesurer 3

Lakoff & Johnson (1980:17): "Most of our fundamental concepts are organized in terms of one or more spatialization metaphors." 4 Anderson (1977:116): "[...] the priority of the concrete uses, in the acquisition of language by the child and as source for the renewal of the abstract [...] would tend to support the proposal that the elements of underlying representations as well as the constraints on the derivation associated with them [...] have a cognitive basis."

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le temps, mais encore à donner une existence spatiale à ce qui est une construction de l'esprit. 2.2.3 On se rend par ailleurs compte que la métaphore à base spatiale comme principe d'explication de la polysémie prépositionnelle et casuelle ne peut se concevoir en synchronie pure, quelle que soit la place qui lui est alors donnée, puisque la métaphore y est conçue comme principe de génération de nouveaux emplois à partir d'emplois existant antérieurement. Hors du domaine des prépositions et des cas, c'est une banalité que de dire que l'on relève, dans l'histoire du développement sémantique des mots, la même généralisation métaphorique de ce qui est initialement référence au domaine spatial. Ainsi, do, qui fonctionne en anglais contemporain comme un indicateur de prédication, est issu d'un radical indo-européen signifiant "placer" (Klein 1966-67 à do) et c'est encore la métaphorisation à partir du spatial qui explique le développement polysémique de verbes comme go et corne (Groussier 1978). 3. Représentation 'généalogique' de la polysémie prépositionnelle. 3.1 Un exemple: l'arbre des emplois de of en vieil-anglais. Faute de pouvoir donner ici le trop long catalogue des métaphores spatiales, je me contenterai de fournir un exemple de 'généalogie d'emplois' où se manifestent certaines de ces métaphores (cf. Fig.2 à la page suivante). A partir d'un sens de base So "repérage du Patient d'un déplacement par rapport au départ LOCo", des générations successives d'emplois sont dérivées selon des processus de dérivation qui se ramènent à quelques types bien connus. Ces types se divisent en deux groupes selon que la modification de l'indication fournie par la préposition provient soit de l'EXTENSION d'un emploi existant soit d'une modification de l'INTERPRÉTATION du locuteur.

Figure 2: Arbre des emplois de of en vieil-anglais

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3.1.1 La dérivation par extension est une modification EN CONTINUITÉ du repérage indiqué qui n'entraîne pas de changement de plan de repérage. 3.1.1.1 Extension par traitement de l'implicite comme de l'explicite. 3.1.1.1.1 Le processus de déplacement qui fonde la définition du repère comme LOCo n'est pas prédiqué en tant que tel mais implicite. C'est le cas pour l'emploi Slc issu de S0: (1) asceacap dust of eowrumfotum. (EC.XA4) "secouez vos pieds pour en faire tomber la poussière." Il en est de même pour S2'a issu de S1' et, par métaphore, de D3'b issu de D2'b. Cas particulier très fréquent: le procès prédiqué est l'état (ici localisation) résultant d'un déplacement, par ex. pour S1d issu de So: (2) Warnian hi eac swyðe georne pœt hi ne leng ut of mynsîre ne beon ponne heom heora ealdor geðafige. (WH. Xa.36-38) "Qu'ils se gardent aussi très scrupuleusement de rester hors du couvent plus longtemps que ne le leur a permis leur supérieur." 3.1.1.1.2 Le repère n'est pas un lieu mais en implique un pour l'emploi S2'b issu de S1': (3) [...] eft gewiton eald-gesiðas, [swylce geong manig of gomenwape... (5.853-854) "Ils revinrent, les vieux compagnons, et aussi maint jeune homme, de la joyeuse chevauchée ..." 3.1.1.1.3 Le repéré n'est pas un objet en déplacement mais un objet coïncidant avec le trajet d'un déplacement, celui-ci étant généralement imaginaire. De l'emploi S1' on passe ainsi à l'emploi S2'c: (4) Affrica7Asia hiera landgemircuonginnaðof Alexandria, Egypta burge...(O.i.i.9) "Lafrontièreentre l'Afrique et l'Asie commence à partir d'Alexan­ drie, la ville des Egyptiens."

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3.1.1.2 Extension logique à l'intérieur d'un même plan de repérage. 3.1.1.2.1 Passage du cas général au cas-limite. C'est ce principe d'extension qui conduit de D3'a, indication du repérage d'une partie par rapport au tout, à D4'b, indication d'identification (cas où la partie est égale au tout): (5) Ac syþþan wœs sio bysen of him ofer ealle world. (O.I.iv.24) "Et depuis, ils furent un exemple pour le monde entier." 3.1.1.2.2 Généralisation, c'est à dire perte d'une partie des spécificités du repérage indiqué par l'emploi initial. Ce cas est bien représenté: c'est ainsi que D3'd vient de A2'a et que D3'a joint à D3'b donnent naissance à l'indication de détermination qualitative D4'c, puis que D3'a, D3'b, D3'c et D3'd convergent pour faire apparaître D4'd, enfin que D4'e dérive à la fois de D3'a et D3'd. Les trois emplois résultants, D4'c, D4'd et D4'e, sont tous trois des indications de qualification: le premier indique la qualification du domaine de validité d'une lexis (schéma prédicatif) prédiquée, le deuxième, celle d'une notion d'actant, le troisième, celle d'une notion de procès: D4'c: (6) wœron gebroðor of fœder 7 of meder. (O.III.xi.83) "Ils étaient frères de père et de mère." D4'd: (7) [...] man of poleburdnesse [...] (TH.XIII.81) "un homme patient" D4'e: (8) his sylena of pam goodum pe he from ricwn monnun onfeng... (J3Etf.III.xix.244) "Les dons qu'il faisait des biens qu'il recevait des hommes riches..." Les occurrences du procès 'donner' sont ici particularisées qualitativement par référence à ce qui est donné, 'les biens'. Dans ces deux derniers emplois, of indique la relation entre les deux termes d'une nominalisation. Dans les trois cas, il s'agit, pour l'emploi 'générateur', d'une perte de spécificité telle que, raisonnablement, on doit faire l'hypothèse d'une convergence de plusieurs emplois qui produit l'emploi dérivé.

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3.1.1.2.3 Modification des propriétés associées soit au repéré seul soit au repéré et au repère sans changement de plan de repérage. Cette évolution conduit au passage de l'emploi D2'b, repérage du Patient d'une transformation par rapport à l'état initial5 à l'emploi D3'x, repérage d'un discours par rapport à son thème (topic). Par exemple: (17) and of pis tocune specð ure helend. (TH.II.5) "et, de cette venue, notre Sauveur parle." 3.1.2 La dérivation par modification de l'interprétation du locuteur peut se faire soit en continuité, soit en discontinuité. Dans ce dernier cas, on dira qu'il y a un SAUT interprétatif. 3.1.2.1 En continuité: le locuteur modifie la pondération des composants sémantiques de la relation indiquée. 3.1.2.1.1 Déplacement du centre sémantique (composant au premier plan). Le locuteur emploie la préposition de telle manière que ce qui n'était qu'une implication ou une connotation devient central. C'est un tel déplacement qui explique la grande division initiale entre l'emploi S1' et les autres emplois de première génération: dans ces emplois, la signification centrale de of devient l'indication de la DIFFÉRENCE entre LOCo et LOC1 respectivement, localisations initiale et finale du Patient du déplacement. Of est donc avant tout interprété comme un indicateur de DISSOCIATION.6 En revanche, dans l'emploi S1', la signification centrale devient l'indication de la COINCIDENCE INITIALE entre le Patient et LOCo, of étant donc avant tout interprété comme un indicateur d'ASSOCIATION. Par exemple: (18) Pœt eac pœî sweflenefyr tacnade, pa hit up of helle geate asprong. "Cela [i.e., l'Etna], ce feu sulfureux, le symbolisait aussi quand il jaillit de la porte de l'enfer."

5

Ex. (16) 7 hy gewurden of englum to deoflum gewordene. (WH.VI.32) "et d'anges qu'ils étaient ils devinrent démons." 6 D'où l'emploi avec des verbes renvoyant à des processus de séparation (S1a) ou de disparition (S1b) etc.

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Il peut arriver que la nouvelle signification centrale finisse par constituer la totalité de la signification comme dans le passage de l'emploi S1' à l'emploi D2'a où seule demeure l'indication de la qualification du Patient par sa relation à LOCo. Par exemple: (19) Severus Casere, se wœs ... of þaere byrig pe Lepti hatte...(BEH.I.v.32) "L'empereur S., qui était originaire de la ville nommée L." 3.1.2.1.2 Modification de l'interprétation en discontinuité. C'est le groupe, très largement représenté, des dérivations par interprétation MÉTAPHORIQUE. Dans le cas de of, ces transferts ont lieu lorsque deux au moins des conditions suivantes sont remplies: (1) Le verbe renvoie à un procès n'ayant aucun rapport avec un déplacement. (2) Le repère n'est pas un lieu, ou même, ne possède pas du tout la propriété /spatialité/. (3) Le repéré n'est pas du tout doté de la propriété /spatialité/. Les conditions (1) et (2) sont remplies pour le passage de So à Al et D1, de S1d à T2, de S1' à D2'b, A2'a et A2'b, de D2'a à D3'a. Les trois conditions sont remplies à la fois pour le passage de S1' à S2'ma et de S2'b à T3' et D3'c. Lorsque sont remplies les conditions (2) et (3) mais pas (1), il y a aussi emploi métaphorique du verbe qui est un verbe de déplacement. C'est le cas pour le passage de S1' à S2'mb. Il semble bien alors que la métaphore soit parfois 'ouverte' (overt au sens de Whorf 1956).7 3.1.2.2.2 Les principales métaphores intervenant ici sont: (1) Métaphore de la représentation du temps. Dans les langues indo-europé­ ennes, il semble que, à l'exception de certains modes d'expression de la relation d'ordre (p.ex. par œr en vieil-anglais), l'expression des repérages temporels soit presque totalement spatialisée. Le temps est représenté comme un espace linéaire non-orienté (une 'route') sur lequel les occurrences de procès définissent des intervalles orientés (des trajets dont la frontière est constituée par deux bornes (début et fin). L'emplois T3' (issu de S2'b et S2'c reflète cette métaphore: c'est l'indication du repérage d'une occurrence de proUne métaphore ouverte est perçue par les locuteurs comme une métaphore.

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cès (ci-dessous l'état de royauté pour Penda) par rapport à son début traité comme le départ d'un trajet: (9) Penda of pœe tide [...] Mercna rice [...] fore wœs. (BEH.II.xvi.148) "A partir de ce moment-là, P. régna sur le royaume de Mercie." Dans l'emploi T2 (issu de S1d), seule la propriété d'espace fermé de ce type d'intervalle est prise en compte à l'exclusion de l'orientation: il s'agit de l'indication de la coïncidence d'un état (la possession de certains droits) avec un extérieur défini métaphoriquement comme un espace avec lequel le repéré coïncide par dissociation avec l'intervalle-repère: (10) ic habbe gegifen him saca7socne [...] inne tid, 7 ut of tid. (ASW.81) "I have given him sake and soke [...] in festive season and out of it." 2) Métaphores de représentation des relations actancielles et des relations inter­ procès. Ce groupe de métaphores dérive du précédent. En effet, toute occur­ rence de procès (en particulier du type /action/) étant assimilée à un trajet, les divers actants sont associés à l'une des trois localisations pertinentes sur un trajet: LOCo ou départ, LOC1 ou arrivée, LOC 1/0 ou localisation intermé­ diaire. On peut ainsi montrer que l'Accusatif est le cas du Patient parce qu'il est d'abord le cas de l'arrivée (Groussier 1980, 1984) et, comme ici, que les repérages par rapport à l'Agent ou à l'Instrument sont assimilés à des repérages par rapport à LOC0. De là, respectivement, les emplois A2'a et A2'b: (11) seo eadige Maria geeacnod wœs of pœm Halgan Gaste. (BH.I.11) "la bienheureuse M. fut rendue grosse par le Saint-Esprit." (12) [...] he of pœm drycrœfte geleornode godcundne wisdom. (0.I.v.23) "[...] grâce à la magie, il avait appris la sagesse divine." La cause et l'état initial sont aussi assimilés à LOCo d'où les emplois S2'mb et P2:

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(13) of ðyson eahta deofles crœftan ealle unpeawas up aspringað. (WH.Xc.65-66) "de ces huit ruses du démon jaillissent tous les vices." (14) Pa aras iosep of swefene. (EC.I.24) "Alors Joseph se leva de son sommeil." 3) Métaphore dereprésentationd'opérations de détermination. L'emploi D3'a issu de D2'a est dû à la métaphore qui représente lerepéragede la partie ou de l'élément par rapport au tout ou à la classe comme un repérage d'un objet antérieurement déplacé par rapport à LOCo. (15) Moyses pa genamode of ðam twelf mœgðumheafodmen. (HS.XX.147) "Alors M. nomma des chefs appartenant aux 12 tribus." Cette métaphore se fonde sur le fait que ce repérage confère à l'élément une qualification en le repérant par rapport à une entité dont il faut, pour cela, d'abord le dissocier. Cette représentation métaphorique joue un grand rôle dans les langues indo-européennes: non seulement elle est à l'origine d'emplois de prépositions comme of le français de etc. mais encore d'emplois majeurs du génitif. Or, ce sont précisément les prépositions of de etc. qui, historique­ ment,relayèrentle génitif là où il cessa d'être employé. 3.2 Problèmes soulevés par le choix d'un sens de base unique. Les deux questions essentielles sont: 'Pourquoi un sens de base unique?' et 'Pourquoi celui-là et non un autre?' 3.2.1 La réponse à la première question est,finalement,banale. L'hypothèse de l'unicité du sens d'origine paraît être la seule façon de rendre compte de l'unicité du marqueur face à la multiplicité des sens dérivés. Or, l'histoire de prépositions de formation récente p.ex., ymbutan ou beheonan montre qu'à leurs débuts, celles-ci n'avaient en tout cas qu'un nombre restreint d'emplois et, parfois, un seul.8 Si, donc, le sens de base doit être un sens DIACHRONIQUEMENT PRIMAIRE, alors on est incité à privilégier l'idée d'un SENS 8

Par exemple beheonan qui n'est attesté dans le corpus Groussier (1984) qu'avec le sens de "en deçà de".

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D'ORIGINE UNIQUE donnant naissance, par différenciations successives, à des significations de plus en plus nombreuses à mesure que l'extension du mot se développe. 3.2.2 Je répondrai à la deuxième question en énumérant les critères de choix du sens du base dans l'étude dont il est question ici. 3.2.2.1 Le sens de base ne peut être un dénominateur commun des sens attestés.9 En effet, s'il en était eu, il ne pourrait en même temps prétendre être un emploi réel, soit attesté, soit reconstruit, parce que cela impliquerait une évolution du général au particulier alors que, au moins pour les mots ayant atteint une grande extension, on sait que c'est l'inverse qui se produit10 3.2.2.2 Selon le principe de la primarité du spatial, le sens de base est spatial chaque fois que cela est possible c'est à dire dans l'écrasante majorité des cas. Les seules exceptions, en vieil-anglais, sont quatre prépostions (sur 90) dont aucune occurrence n'apparaît jamais pour indiquer un repérage spatial. Ce sont: œr, seule prépostion fréquente, qui n'indique que l'antériorité temporelle (c'est à dire fondée sur la relation d'ordre, seule relation temporelle à avoir une expression non-métaphorique) et trois prépostions très marginales: forutan, également indicateur d'antériorité, toeacan "en plus de" et le rarissime wonþe ©excepté". Pour toutes les autres prépostitions, le choix, comme sens de base, d'une indication de repérage spatial n'est jamais entré en conflit avec la nécessité d'ancienneté de cet emploi, fait qui peut être compté comme un argument de plus en faveur de l'hypothèse de la primarité du spatial. 3.2.2.3 On a par ailleurs considéré que le sens de base devait être tel qu'on pût clairement rendre compte de ses rapports avec le sens attribué à l'entité morphologique la plus ancienne dont est issue la préposition, c'est-à-dire, dans le cas présent, une racine ou un radical indo-européen. Ainsi, ce rapport est clair pour of, venant du radical *apo- "loin", c'est-à-dire "à une grande distance de l'énonciateur pris comme LOCo" On retrouve donc l'élément de 9

Comme la 'Grundbedeutung' de Wüllner (cf. note suivante), le 'sens de base' de Hjelmslev (1935), ou même la 'Gesamtbedeutung' de Jakobson (1936). Le terme de 'dénominateur commun' est de Jakobson qui affirme que sa 'Gesamtbedeutung' n'en est pas un. Le parallèle qu'il établit avec le phonème semble pourtant l'en rapprocher. 10 Le XIXe siècle a souvent privilégié les hypothèses dans ce sens. Cf., p.ex., Wüllner (1831) à propos des cas (cité par Hjelmslev 1935:36 et sqq.)

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localisation d'un objet en déplacement par rapport à LOCo qui constitue le sens de base. 3.2.2.4 Dans la majorité des cas, le sens de base a pu être choisi parmi les sens attestés. Parfois, il correspond à un emploi rare comme pour ymb ('les Patients de deux déplacements semi-circulaires symétriques et convergents sont repérés par rapport au centre des trajectoires"),11 parfois, c'est un emploi très représenté comme pour oþ.12 Dans deux cas (œt et geond), on a été amené à faire l'hypothèse d'un sens de base éteint à l'époque historique. Cette solution a été adoptée parce qu'aucun des emplois attestés ne paraissait propre à con­ stituer le chaînon intermédiaire entre l'étymologie et les emplois spatiaux attestés.13 4.

Conclusion.

4.1 Divergence et convergence. Comme on pouvait s'y attendre, l'établissement des généalogies d'emplois a montré que l'évolution d'une préposition de grande extension se fait selon L'ALTERNANCE BIEN CONNUE DE LA DIVERGENCE ET DE LA CONVERGENCE. L'évolution est, d'abord, divergente lorsqu'un même emploi (par ex., l'emploi de base) donne naissance à plusieurs emplois dérivés, ensuite, convergente lorsqu'un emploi dérivé donné se révèle susceptible d'être issu à la fois de deux ou trois emplois antérieurs. Plus l'indication donnée est générale, plus cettefiliationmultiple devient possible. 11

Une seule occurrence dans tout le corpus: BEH.V.xiii.436. Cette indication est: "Le Patient d'un déplacement est repéré par rapport à LOC1 définie spécifiquement comme 2ème borne du trajet." (Groussier 1984:959) 13 Pour œt c'était l'opposition irréductible des deux groupes d'indications spatiales attestées qui posait un problème, celles-ci se divisant en repérages par rapport à LOC1 et repérages par rapport à LOCo. L'étymologie (i.-e. *ad-) a alors fourni les éléments permettant de faire l'hypothèse d'un sens de base propre à avoir produit les deux types d'indication, à savoir: "Repérage d'un objet en déplacement par rapport à une arrivée visée mais non-atteinte" (Groussier 1984:930). Le sens de base de geond, lui, a été reconstruit d'une part à partir de l'étymologie (i.-e. *eno-/*ono-), d'autre part en s'appuyant sur le fait que ce sens existe pour begeondan, dérivé de geond. C'est: "Le repéré coïncide avec un lieu éloigné de l'énociateur par rapport au repère" (Groussier 1984:601). L'existence antérieure d'une telle signification pour la préposition simple geond gagne en vraisemblance quand on se rappelle le principe dégagé par Kurytowicz (1966[1949]: 169) de remplacement des formes primaires par des formations secondaires, précisément dans leurs significations primaires. 12

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4.2 Généalogies d'emplois et datation. Le terme 'génération d'emplois' que j'ai employé (et qui justifie la numérotation) ne doit pas faire illusion: une génération d'emplois ne peut être l'ensemble des emplois apparus à la même date mais seulement l'ensemble des emplois AYANT LE MEME DEGRÉ DE DÉRIVATION par rapport à l'emploi de base. Ceci pour deux raisons: (1) Dans le cas qui nous occupe, l'évolution des prépositions d'une langue comme le vieil-anglais est en grande partie préhistorique: les principales prépositions ont donc déjà de nombreux emplois dérivés dès les premiers textes. Le moment d'apparition d'un emploi ne peut donc être qu'un MOMENT RELATIF et non une date. (2) Certains em-plois vont disparaître très vite, d'autres se perpétuer très longtemps, une coupe synchronique fera donc apparaître la coexistence à un moment donné d'emplois de diverses générations. 4.3 Le rôle central joué par la primarité du spatial. Celle-ci apparaît bien comme une primarité chronologique aussi bien que logique. L'hypothèse se vérifie en ce sens que (1) chaque fois qu'une préposition a des emplois spatiaux, ceux-ci apparaissent toujours dans les textes les plus anciens alors que certains emplois dérivés se manifestent tardivement; (2) on peut alors parler d"âge' d'une préposition: plus une préposition est 'vieille', plus elle a d'emplois dérivés non-spatiaux. Parmi les prépositions de grande extension donc 'vieilles' à un moment donné, on distingue deux types: — premier type: les prépostions n'ayant conservé ni leur emploi de base ni aucun de leurs emplois spatiaux, p.ex., mid au XIIe siècle. — deuxième type: les prépositions ayant conservé un ou plusieurs em­ plois d'indicateur de relations spatiales bien vivants: p.ex., to, in ou on. Il semblerait alors que les prépostions du premier type résistent moins bien à la concurrence (mid va disparaître au cours du moyen-anglais) parce que la perte des emplois spatiaux entraîne celle, dans la compétence collective des locuteurs, du facteur de préservation de l'identité de la préposition le plus

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propre à combattre les effets de l'amoindrissement de la spécificité dans les emplois dérivés.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE A) Textes en vieil-anglais cités ASW = Anglo-Saxon Writs. Ed. by F. E. Harmer. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1952. B = Beowulf with the Finnsburg Fragment. Ed. by C. L. Wrenn. London: G. Harrap, 1953. BEH = The Old-English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History etc. Ed. by Th. Miller, 95-96. London: E.E.T.S., 1890. BH = The Blickling Homilies. Ed. by Richard Morris. (E.E.T.S., Original Series, 58-63). London, 1874-1880. (Reprinted as one volume, London: Oxford Univ. Press. 1967.) CP = King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care. Ed. by Henry Sweet, (= E.E.T.S., 45, 50). London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1871-72. CPK1 = 1ère Partie (jusqu'en 892) de la Chronique Parker, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. by J. Earle & C. Plummer. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1892-99. EC = Version Corpus (west-saxon, fin l0ème s.) de l'Evangile selon Matthieu. The Holy Gospels in the Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian Versions, ed. by Walter W. Skeat, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1871-87. EL = Glose de Lindisfarne (northumbrien, début Xème s.) de l'Evangile selon Matthieu. Ibid. HC = Ælfric, Sermones Catholici. Ed. by Benjamin Thorpe. The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, London: printed for the Ælfric Society, 2 vols. 1844. (Repr., New York & London: Johnson, 1971.) HS = Homilies of Æfric, A Supplementary Collection, ed. by J. C. Pope, 2 vols. (= E.E.T.S., Supplementary Series, 259-260.) London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967-68. O = The Old-English Orosius. Ed. by J. Bately. (= E.E.T.S., Supplementary Series, 6.) London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980.

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TH = Old-English Homilies II. Ed. by Richard Morris from MS Trinity College, Cambridge B. 1452. E.E.T.S., 53, 1873. WH = The Homilies of Wulfstart. Ed. by D. Bethurum. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1957. B) Ouvrages

théoriques

Anderson, John M. 1971. The Grammar of Case. (= Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 4.) Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. . 1977. On Case Grammar: Prolegomena to a theory of grammatical relations. London: Croom Helm. Culioli, Antoine. 1971. "A propos d'opérations intervenant dans le traitement formel des langues naturelles". Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines 34.716. 1975. "Note sur 'détermination' et 'quantification'; définition des opérations d'extraction et defléchage".Projet Interdisciplinaire de Traitement Formel et Automatique des Langues et du Langage 4. Paris: D.R.L., Univ. de Paris VII. Tiré en offset. Fillmore, Charles J. 1968. "The Case for Case". Universais in Linguistic Theory ed. by Emmon Bach & Robert T. Harms, 1-88. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Fuchs, Catherine & Anne-Marie Leonard. 1979. Vers une théorie des aspects. Paris: Mouton. Groussier, Marie-Line. 1978. "Sur les verbes come et go en anglais contemporain". TA. Informations, llème Année, 1ère partie: 1.22-41; 2ème partie: 2.33-56. . 1980. "Processus de déplacement et métaphore spatio-temporelle". Modèles Linguistiques 2:1.57-106. . 1984. Le système des prépositions dans la prose en vieil-anglais. Thèse de Doctorat d'Etat, Univ. de Paris. Tiré en offset Hamp, Eric, Fred W. Householder & Robert Austerlitz, eds. 1966. Readings in Linguistics II. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Hjelmslev, Louis. 1935. La Catégorie des Cas. (= Acta Jutlandica, 7.) Copen­ hague: E. Munksgaard. Herskovits, Annette. 1986. Language and Spatial Cognition: An interdis­ ciplinary study of the prepositions in English. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

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Jakobson, Roman. 1966 [1936]. "Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre: Gesamtbedeutungen der russischen Kasus". Hamp et al. 1966.51-89. Klein, Ernest. 1966-67. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Amsterdam-London-New York: Elsevier. Kurytowicz, Jerzy. 1966 [1949]. "La nature des procès dits analogiques". Hamp et al. 1966.158-174. Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Paris, Marie-Claude. 1981. Problèmes de syntaxe et de sémantique en linguistique chinoise. (= Mémoires de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chi­ noises, 20.) Paris: Inst. de l'Inst. des Hautes Études Chinoises. Piaget, Jean & Barbai Inhelder. 1972 [1947]. La représentation de l'espace chez l'enfant. 2ème éd. Paris: P.U.F. Tesnière, Lucien. 1959. Eléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck. (2ème éd., 1966.) Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1956. Language, Thought and Reality. Ed. with an introduction by John B. Carroll. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Wüllner, Franz. 1831. Die Bedeutung der Sprachlichen Casus und Modi. Münster.

ANNEXE Descriptions etou exemples d'emplois de of non fournis dans l'article So:

Pa eode Petrus of pam scype. (EC.XIV.29) "Alors, Pierre quitta le bateau." Sla: Repérage du Patient 1 d'un processus de séparation par rapport au Patient 2 avec lequel cesse la coïncidence. Me pyncep unscyldiglicre pœt him man heafod of aceorfe buton oðrum witum. (BH.XV. 189) "Il me paraît moins criminel de leur couper la tête sans autres supplices." Slb: ...ðœtte œlc mon adryge of oðerra monna mode Bone wenan...(CP.LlXA5l) "que chaque homme assèche dans l'esprit des autres l'idée ..." Slc: Cf. exemple (1) dans le texte.

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Sld: Cf. exemple (2) dans le texte. Al: Repérage de la relation Patient-processus de privation (sans déplacement effectif) par rapport au Bénéficiaire détrimentaire. genumen biðofiuih ric godes. (EL.XXIA3) "le royaume de Dieu vous sera ôté." D1: Repérage d'une occurrence d'un processus quelconque par rapport à l'état initial du Patient. Nu us is tima [...] ðœt we onwœcnen of slœpe. (CP.LXIII459) "1 est maintenant temps pour nous de nous réveiller de notre sommeil." S1': Cf., note 6. T2: Cf. exemple (10) dans le texte. P2: Cf. exemple (14) dans le texte. D2: Repérage d'un état négatif par rapport à ce dont l'absence le définit comme tel. Clene ben of synne. (TH.V.24) "Ils sont exempts de péché" S2'a: Repérage de la relation Patient-processus de déplacement implicite par rapport à LOCo interprété positivement. God sylf spœc [...] of Sinai munte. (WH.Xc.20-21) "Dieu lui-même parla, du haut du mont Sinai." S2'b: Cf. exemple (3) dans le texte. S2'c: Cf. exemple (4) dans le texte. S2'ma: Répérage d'un animé par rapport à un parent (père ou mère) représenté comme LOCo. of heom twœm is eall manncynn cumen. (WH.VI.52) "De ces deux-là est issue l'humanité entière." S2'mb: Repérage d'une occurrence de procès par rapport à une Cause représentée comme LOCo; cf. ex. (13) dans le texte. D2'a: Cf. exemple (19) dans le texte. D2'b: Cf. exemple (16) dans le texte. A2'a: Cf. exemple (11) dans le texte. A2'b: Cf. exemple (12) dans le texte. T3': Cf. exemple (9) dans le texte. D3'a: Cf. exemple (15) dans le texte. D3'b: Repérage d'un objet par rapport à la matière dont il est constitué. cynehelm of pornum. (EC.XXWll.29) "une couronne d'épines."

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D3'c: Cf. exemple (17) dans le texte. D3'd: Repérage du résultat d'un processus par rapport à un déclencheur quelconque. Ælc bletsung is of Gode. (HC. VI. 100) "Toute bénédiction vient de Dieu." D4'a: 7 œtan ofðamforbodenan wœstme. (WH. VI.47-48) "et ils mangèrent du fruit défendu" D4'b: Cf. exemple (5) dans le texte. D4'c: Cf. exemple (6) dans le texte. D4'd: Cf. exemple (7) dans le texte. D4'e: Cf. exemple (8) dans le texte.

LE CADRE DES CHANGEMENTS PHONÉTIQUES DANS LES LANGUES ROMANES MOT ET 'SYNTAGME PHONÉTIQUE*1

CATHERINE HOLM Copenhague Autonomie phonétique du mot et phonétique syntaxique. Il est notoire que l'autonomie phonétique du mot est moins marquée dans les langues romanes que dans les langues germaniques — où, du moins, dans celles des langues germaniques dont la structure phonétique n'a pas subi l'influence des langues romanes. Les cas de sandhi sont beaucoup plus nombreux dans les langues romanes (ainsi que dans les langues, comme l'anglais ou les dialectes alémaniques, qui semblent avoir été influencées par les habitudes phonétiques des langues romanes). Derrière ces cas de sandhi se cache un phénomène de plus grande envergure: on retrouve les mêmes assimilations en position interne qu'aux frontières du mot. Tant que les facteurs morphologiques n'exercent pas d'action perturbatrice sur les données phonétiques, les assimilations se déroulent dans une unité qui va d'une pause à une autre. On pourrait désigner ce phénomène par le terme de 'phonétique syntaxique' — peut-être par extension, ce terme n'ayant jamais été défini explicitement à notre connaissance — et l'unité qui fonctionne comme cadre des assimilations, le 'syntagme phonétique'. Nous nous proposons, dans ce qui suit, d'établir un contraste typologique (Ternes 1985:554) entre, d'un côté un type comme les langues romanes, où les changements phonétiques n'ont pas été bloqués par lesfrontièresd'unités significatives — avec d'importantes exceptions auxquelles nous reviendrons — et, d'un autre côté, un type dont les changements ne peuvent être décrits que dans le cadre du mot2 — ou du 1

Je tiens à remercier Madame Henriette Walter et Monsieur Elmar Ternes qui ont bien voulu lire une première version de cet exposé, ainsi que Monsieur J0rgen Schmitt Jensen pour des éclaircissements de certains points touchant les dialectes italiens. 2 Il s'agit ici du mot traditionnel, unité non définissable, mais que l'on doit reconnaître étant donné qu'elle fonctionne comme cadre des changements phonétiques dans bien des langues. Il

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morphème intraverbal, tant que les usagers sont conscients d'une unité significative.3 On a donc d'un côté un type de langue où les 'pauses virtuel­ les', entités psychologiques, n'ont pas eu de conséquences phoniques, et, de l'autre, un type où les usagers traitent le mot comme une entité isolée. Il en résulte synchroniquement que la démarcation du mot est très faible dans le premier type, alors que les signes démarcatifs abondent dans le second. Tout essai de classification typologique est, on le sait, problématique et celle que nous proposons ici peut paraître d'une simplicité naïve. Nous essayerons toutefois de démontrer pourquoi les faits, simples au départ, ont tendance à être obscurcis pour diverses raisons, et comment on peut rendre compte des exceptions. D'autre part, en interprétant les faits à la lumière de cette classification, il est possible d'élucider certains des problèmes que pose la phonétique historique des langues romanes. C'est ainsi par ex. que Lausberg résout de façon convaincante la question de savoir pourquoi s final de mot latin passe à j en roman oriental (cf. plus bas, Les consonnes finales du latin vulgaire). Le mot: cadre traditionnellement choisi. Il est exceptionnel que la phonétique syntaxique d'une langue donnée ait été décrite de manière aussi systématique que dans la description qu'a donnée Moulton (1986) des dialectes alémaniques (elle est également relevée très clairement dans Herman 1965 et dans Herslund 1986:506). Ceci est dû est vrai que l'on peut, dans ce type de langue, observer certaines assimilations aux frontières de mot dans le cadre souvent plus large de l'unité accentuelle, cf. danois ha[ŋ] gâr à côté de ha[n] går, "il marche" (Basbøll 1986:23). Mais ces assimiliations sont facultatives et le resteront sans doute tant que les unités en question ne sont pas ressenties par les usagers comme un seul mot. Quoi qu'en dise Basb0ll, le syntagme phonétique n'est pas le 'maximal domain' des assimilations en danois: il n'y a jamais assimilation du n dans deux unités accentuelles Jan gârå, "Jan marche", même sous 'low formality conditions'. 3 Dans ce type de langues, les changements sont souvent bloqués entre les préfixes et les morphèmes lexicaux et entre les membres de composés. D'après Andersen (1986:606), c'est la syllabe et non le mot qui a été le cadre du dévoisement des consonnes finales en allemand. Les autres évolutions s'étant produites dans le cadre d'unités significatives, cette exception est surprenante. En fait, les morphèmes de cette langue sont, en grande majorité, monosyl­ labiques, ce qui explique pourquoi le cadre du dévoisement semble être la syllabe. Si c'était effectivement le cas, comment rendre compte de formes comme Hal[p]insel et A[p]art? Ce sont les frontières de morphèmes qui déterminent le [p] et le [k] de o[p]liegen et de we[k]reisen9 le [b] et le [g] de Kuh\b]lume et de be[g]reifen. Comme le morphème coïncide avec la syllabe dans la majorité des cas, le [k] d'une forme monomorphémique comme Wa[k]ner doit être mise au compte d'une extension analogique.

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moins à la nature des langues décrites qu'à un parti pris méthodologique, bien des linguistes ayant le sentiment que le mot est le cadre normal des changements phonétiques. Pour décrire la structure phonologique de l'italien par ex., on relève souvent que les nasales et les liquides sont les seules consonnes à apparaître à la finale de mot. Cette description est évidemment correcte, mais elle a l'inconvénient de ne pas rendre compte d'un fait plus important: lorsque les groupes nasale ou liquide + consonne apparaissent aux frontières de mot, comme dans il bagno par ex., ils n'ont pas de valeur démarcative, étant donné que ces groupes peuvent apparaître en position interne de mot, comme dans alba. Il serait donc plus suggestif de décrire les faits en partant du syntagme phonétique et de relever qu'un groupe hétérogène comme 1 + C ne connaît pas de restriction dans le cadre de cette unité. Sa distribution rappelle celle des géminées qui apparaissent, elles aussi, tant aux frontières de mot ('renforce-ment syntaxique') qu'en position interne. Comparaison d'évolutions romanes et germaniques. Pour illustrer notre propos, nous comparerons quelques cas bien connus d'assimilations, identiques dans les langues romanes et dans les langues germaniques, mais qui se sont déroulées, les unes dans le cadre du syntagme phonétique, les autres, dans le cadre du mot: On trouve, à différentes époques, des affaiblissements consonan-tiques en position intervocalique dans les langues romanes, affaiblissements qui n'ont pas été bloqués par les frontières de mot (peu importe pour l'instant la réalisation phonétique de ces affaiblissements). On les observe tant dans la pénisule ibérique que dans de nombreuses régions de l'Italie centro-méridionale (Sardaigne, Corse, Ombrie, Latium, etc.), sans mentionner la 'gorgia toscana'. On retrouve un affaiblissement des occlusives intervocaliques en vieux-haut-allemand et, à date plus récente, en danois (en position postvocalique également). Toutefois, dans ces langues, l'affaiblissement a été bloqué aux frontières de mot.4 On a donc d'un côté, pour l'italien standard il pelo, [su bilu]: pause ou C + [pilu] en sarde (Rohlfs 1972:247) et, d'un autre côté, danois ska[b]e en face du suédois ska[p]a "créer", mais danois pause, C ou V + [p]ind "baguette". 4

Selon la loi dite "Notkers Anlautgesetz", les obstruentes initiales de mot en vieux-hautallemand étaient sujettes à des alternances contextuelles. Il faut toutefois noter que Notker pratiquait un dialecte alémanique sans aucun doute influencé par les parlers romans avoisinants.

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Les groupes consonantiques peuvent avoir été modifiés, par assimilation ou par réduction, tant dans les langues romanes que dans les langues germaniques. En italien, la majorité de ces groupes ont été assimilés sans égard aux frontières de mot; on trouve tant sissignore < sic senior que dissi < dixi. En ancien français, on a réduction des groupes consonantiques par la chute de la première (ou des premières) consonne d'un groupe, sans égard aux frontières de mot: cf., par ex., lat. est + C > [è], est, tout comme mast(i)care > mâcher, et, plus tard, [a] + C < [an] < annum, comme [plãtə] < [plãntə], plante, avec, à l'origine, maintien de la consonne à la finale du syntagme phonétique, cf. encore aujourd'hui [siz] + V, [si] + C, [sis] à la pause, six. Les grammairiens du moyen français sont formels quant au cadre de cette réduction: elle se déroulait d'une pause à une autre (Thurot 1881 §3). En provençal, les groupes consonantiques secondaires n'ont pas été réduits. H est caractéristique qu'ils se maintiennent tant aux frontières de mot qu'en position interne, cf. set mans < septem manos et setmana < *settimana < septimana (Lausberg 1967:74). À ces phénomènes, on peut comparer la simplification des géminées de la majorité des langues germaniques, qui a été bloquée aux frontières de mot. Le français classique: type idéal de langue non-démarcative. Nous avons reconnu ci-dessus que tout essai de classification typo­ logique était problématique: quels que soient les critères de classification, il est rare qu'une langue se conforme parfaitement au modèle proposé. Il est donc d'autant plus remarquable de relever que le français classique représente un type idéal de langue où la démarcation est inexistante. On connaît la rareté des signes démarcatifs en français moderne. Cependant, les descriptions phonolo­ giques relèvent deux restrictions importantes: [é] + C et [ò] n'apparaissent pas à la finale de mot. Ceci n'est toutefois pas tout à fait exact, puisqu'on trouve, dans le syntagme phonétique, des variantes comme [méz] dans mais alors, mes amis, [trò] dans trop tôt. Tout porte à croire qu'il en était de même pour des formes plus lourdes à une époque antérieure (ceci sera développé dans une publication ultérieure). D'une manière générale, le français classique ne connaît aucune restriction: il n'y a pas d'accent de mot (Thurot 1881:732), l'ensemble des phonèmes vocaliques et consonantiques (qui apparaissent à la chute du schwa postconsonantique) se trouvent dans toutes les positions, et les variantes

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ou les produits de neutralisation ne sont pas déterminés par les frontières de mot. Dérèglement: analogies morphologiques et emprunts. Dans la plupart des langues romanes, le tableau est toutefois moins clair. L'influence de la graphie qui, pour des raisons évidentes, se fait plus sentir aujourd'hui qu'autrefois a invalidé les données d'origine. D'autre part, les analogies morphologiques ont également brouillé le tableau. Un phéno­ mène comme la réduction des groupes consonantiques en français s'était déroulée à l'origine dans tout le syntagme phonétique (Thurot 1881:7). Cette modalité de la phonétique syntaxique avait provoqué d'innombrables alternances morphologiques (cf. [si], [siz], [sis], six) et on a tendance à généraliser une des formes.5 Il est légitime de vouloir décrire systématiquement le cadre de ce qu'il reste des alternances (cf. l'unité dite 'phrase phonologique'), mais le processus de généralisation ne présente aucune régularité (variations indivi-duelles, de registre, etc.).6 Il est important de se rappeler qu'on a ici affaire à un phénomène qui ne provient pas d'une évolution phonétique régulière. Tout essai de systématisation est, de ce fait, voué à l'échec. Ceci vaut aussi pour le renforcement syntaxique italien. A leur début, les assimilations des langues romanes se font d'une pause à une autre et non dans une unité plus petite. Ceci est confirmé: par la description d'Oftedal (1985:109) du voisement des consonnes intervocaliques en espagnol insulaire, développement sans aucun doute assez récent qui va d'une pause à une autre; par la description que donnent les grammairiens du moyen français du cadre de la réduction consonantique et des liaisons (cf. cidessus); enfin, par le fait que le syntagme phonétique est encore aujourd'hui le cadre des enchaînements, communs à toutes les langues romanes. Dans ce dernier cas, il ne peut pas être question de généralisations analogiques, ce phénomène n'entraînant pas d'alternances morphologiques.

5

En raison de la réduction consonantique (et vocalique, cf. [ut] pour août et les élisions), le syntagme phonétique de l'ancien français présentait la structure ...CVCV(C). À la chute du schwa postconsonantique apparaissent de nouveaux groupes consonantiques en toutes positions. Ce facteur a contribué de façon décisive à la généralisation de formes prévocaliques comme [i] + C (pronom pers.), [fis] + C (fils) < ancien fr. [i] + C, [fi] + C, les groupes consonantiques étant de nouveau tolérés. 6 Dans un même registre, un même locuteur pourra, pour est allé par ex., prononcer [étalé] ou [èalé].

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Les emprunts. Le facteur qui perturbe le plus profondément le contraste typologique que nous proposons ici est l'influence de langues démarcatrices sur la structure phonétique de langues non démarcatrices (et vice versa). À la période pré­ littéraire, sur le territoire du roman occidental, le cadre des changements phoné­ tiques a été non le syntagme phonétique, mais le mot. Il nous semble évident que l'on a ici affaire à une influence germanique. On sait que les Longobards n'ont pas eu d'influence décisive en Italie centro-méridionale et les habitudes articulatoires de ces régions en sont sorties indemnes. Explication traditionnelle du maintien des consonnes initiales en roman occidental. Du Ve au VIIe siècle env., les affaiblissements des consonnes intervocaliques sont bloqués aux frontières de mot en roman occidental. Comme ce phénomène semble normal à la plupart des linguistes, il est rare que l'on se soit étonné du contraste qu'il représente avec les données en italien centroméridional et en espagnol moderne. Les linguistes que ce contraste a frappés7 supposent un affaiblissement de l'initiale de mot à l'ouest comme à l'est. Puis ils constatent qu'alors que les affaiblissements de l'est n'ont pas eu de conséquences phonologiques ([X] dans [Xasa] par ex. ne serait qu'une vari­ ante de /k/), ils en ont eu à l'ouest où les consonnes affaiblies sont voisées. On aurait donc eu, à l'initiale de mot, des alternances phonologiques comme, pour lat. femina par ex., *la vernina: *las feminas. Pour rétablir l'identité phonologique du mot à l'initiale, les locuteurs auraient restitué *lafemina à *la vernina par analogie avec *las feminas. Cet argument se heurte au fait que dans bien des dialectes italiens (cf. Rohlfs 1972:247 et Ternes 1977:34 et suiv.), les affaiblissements aboutissent, comme en roman occidental, à des alternances phonologiques, cf. pour lat. panem, pause ou C + /pane/ : V + /bane/ en logudorien. Ceci vaut aussi en espagnol insulaire (Oftedal 1985, chap.8), ainsi que pour le renforcement syntaxique italien (Ternes 1977:42) et pour la 'gorgia toscana' (Walter 1966). On s'attendrait dans tous ces cas à une restitution qui, cependant, n'a pas lieu. D'autre part, les extensions analogiques n'ont pas le caractère d'une loi phonétique. On devrait donc 7

Cf. Lausberg (1967:93 et suiv.) et Weinrich (1968, chap.III) qui s'inspire d Martinet (1955, chap.IX). Notre aperçu, nécessairement très bref, rend mal compte de l'argumentation de Weinrich.

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trouver à l'ouest quelques formes alternantes conservées aux moins dans les premiers textes et dans les groupements de haute fréquence; il n'y en a pas. Le témoignage de graphies des Ve et VIe siècles montre que /b/ affaibli à l'intervocalique, était maintenu sans exception en Gaule à l'initiale de mot (Herman 1965:64). Autonomie phonétique du mot en roman occidental prélittéraire. Nous mettons donc le maintien des consonnes initiales de mot en roman occidental prélittéraire au compte d'un traitement du mot comme une entité isolée. Ceci nous semble d'autant plus légitime que les autres change­ ments phonétiques de cette époque ont lieu dans le cadre du mot. Par quelle autre explication peut-on rendre compte de la désonorisation des obstruentes finales de mot à l'ouest après l'apocope, cf. gallo-roman *[grant] < grandem, *[vif] < vivimi, qui a lieu même dans des groupements syntaxiques très serrés comme * [grant ómnə] < grandem hominem par ex.? On doit comparer à ce dévoisement ancien français [viv] + V < *[vif] (Thurot 1881:135), cf. encore aujourd'hui neu[v] hommes/heures. Illustrations des traitements divergents à l'est et à l'ouest. En dehors des cas exposés plus haut où les mêmes sons ont subi des traitements divergents dans les deux zones du territoire roman, on peut relever les phénomènes suivants: À l'est, les consonnes initiales de mot reçoivent le même traitement que les consonnes intérieures. En revanche, à l'ouest, on trouve des indices d'un renforcement des consonnes initiales. Il ne s'agit pas seulement du renforce­ ment du r initial en espagnol qui est attesté un peu partout à l'ouest (Thurot 1881:269, et Martinet 1955:281), mais des autres consonnes également. D'une manière générale, les consonnes initiales ont tendance à se com-porter comme les géminées. En portugais par ex., /- et n- et -//- et -nn- > l et n, alors que -/- et -AI- disparaissent. Les fricatives intervocaliques de l'ancien français se voisent en position interne et finale de mot dans le syntagme phonétique, cf. [plyz] + V < gallo-roman *[plus], [viv] + V < *[vif] < vivum (cf. la prononciation homme d'esprit nai[v], inventi[v] et résolu attestée en moyen français, Thurot 1881:135), et [pózé] < pausare. Par contre, les consonnes initiales reçoivent le même traitement que les géminées correspondantes, cf. la soie < seta, comme passer < passare. Le [s] non voisé de la soie en français

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mododerne est donc un indice d'un renforcement des consonnes initiales à époque ancienne. Le renforcement est attesté par les graphies de l'ancien français quitto pour qui lo, appresent, affaire, etc. La voyelle prosthétique qui, à l'origine du moins, soutenait le groupe latin s + C a fonctionné comme voyelle d'appui en italien. Par contre, elle est devenue un élément stable, non soumis à la phonétique syntaxique dans la majeure partie de la Romania occidentale. Dans certains dialectes de l'Italie centro-meridionale, un t transitoire est apparu entre l/n et s tant à l'intérieur des mots qu'aux frontières, cf. toscan [pentso] pour penso et [in tsale] en face de [di sale] (Rohlfs 1972:281, 444; Bourcieux 1967:486). À l'ouest, il n'y a pas de trace, à l'initiale, des con­ sonnes transitoires que l'on trouve en position interne de mot. En raison des assimilations des groupes consonantiques, ceux-ci ne délimitent pas le mot en italien centro-méridional. À l'ouest, en revanche, on ne trouve pas de groupes consonantiques à l'initiale de mot, le groupe occlusive + liquide excepté, alors qu'ils sont nombreux dans les autres positions. Le sarde a conservé -s final latin. D est caractéristique que quand il forme groupe avec une consonne suivante, il ne se maintient tel quel que dans les cas où le groupe en question existait à l'intérieur du mot. Sinon, il est assimilé ou il passse à r, cf. [sòs panèzè] < ipsos panes, cf. latin asper, mais [sar manòzò] < ipsas manos (Contini 1986 §3): s + m n'existait pas en latin en position interne, alors qu'on avait -rm-, cf. arma. À l'ouest, l'-s n'est pas assimilé. Un groupe comme -s + m- constitue une démarcation. Les consonnes finales du latin vulgaire dans les deux zones. D'une manière générale, la non-assimilation des consonnes finales du latin vulgaire en roman occidental doit être interprétée comme un effet de l'autono-mie phonétique du mot à l'époque sur ce territoire. En effet, en Italie, les consonnes ne tombent pas à proprement parler, mais sont maintenues sous une autre forme (assimilation à la consonne suivante ou s > i ). Le déve­ loppement -s > 7 semble, à première vue, avoir lieu dans le cadre du mot. Mais Lausberg (1967:83), se basant sur le développement sarde, y voit un développement de phonétique syntaxique: -s préconsonantique aurait eu la variante (*z) > 7 lorsque le groupe s + C n'apparaissait pas à l'intérieur du mot — c'est à dire dans tous les cas où la consonne quit suit le s est voisée — pour

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être généralisé par la suite. Il est probable que le même développement s'est produit en roumain. On pourrait peut-être, dans cette langue aussi, supposer une assimilation des consonnes finales de mot à la consonne suivante. Si l'on n'en a pas de trace, cela pourrait être que les géminées qui en découlent se sont simplifiées dans cette position comme ailleurs. Contraste typologique entre roman occidental et roman oriental. Pour distinguer entre Romania occidentale et orientale, on a coutume de partir du sort du s final et du traitement des consonnes intervocaliques. Mais nous désirons souligner que ces traits ne sont qu'une modalité d'un phénomène de portée plus générale et qu'il s'agit, ici encore, d'une différence typologique: les changements phonétiques se déroulent à l'est dans le cadre du syntagme phonétique, trait qui semble continuer une vieille tendance latine. Cet état de choses est contrarié à l'ouest, où c'est le mot qui, pour une période d'un ou deux siècles, fonctionne comme cadre de ces changements. L'anéantissement des signes démarcatifs dans la zone ouest. Le développement ultérieur des langues occidentales accuse une tendance frap-pante à se débarrasser des signes démarcatifs qui s'étaient formés à la période prélittéraire. Nous comparerons.ici brièvement la structure du mot en gallo-romasn à celle du français classique et jetterons un coup d'œil sur le développement intermédiaire. Gallo-roman / h , k w , g w , t / e t dz/ ainsi que les six consonnes palatalisées (t, d, s, r, l , n) présentaient des distributions lacunaires: h n'apparaissait qu'à l'initiale de mot; kw, gw, et les affriquées manquaient à l'intervocalique et à la finale; les consonnes palatalisées manquaient à l'initiale. Les autres phonèmes étaient réalisés, en diverses positions, par des variantes ou des produits de neutralisation perceptiblement différents dans les diverses positions du mot; cf., par ex., A / : /d/ [T-,8 D-, - 3 - , - e , -Ct]; /m/ [M-, -m-, -n]. Il n'y avait qu'une seule V/diphtongue par mot et qu'une seule V pleine en syllabe ouverte, toujours placée à l'initiale. Ces restrictions sont autant d'indices démarcatifs. Le français classique ne connaît aucune de ces restrictions: quatre des consonnes palatalisées, qui manquaient à l'initiale de mot, avaient dégagé un i Les majuscules indiquent les consonnes renforcées.

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et se confondaient avec leurs partenaires non-palatalisés. D'autre part, cette évolution a aussi eu pour conséquence qu'on pouvait, dès lors, avoir deux V/diphtongues par mot, cf. [maizūn kw et gw > k et g. h tombe en moyen français. Les consonnes intervocaliques affaiblies qu'on ne trouvait pas à l'initiale, disparaissent. Il est caracté­ ristique que [-V-], qui figurait à l'initiale, reste stable. À la réduction des groupes consonantiques, les occlusives apparaissent à l'intervocalique; à la chute du schwa en moyen français, occlusives voisées et chuintantes apparaissent à la finale du mot. On a donc par ex. [d-, -d-<-Cd-, -d<-də] et (cf. dent, soudain, aide; jour, manger, âge); n et / palatalisés manquaient à l'initiale. X > ;, que l'on trouve dans hier, nj, qui apparaît à l'initiale, et ŋ sont neutralisés de bonne heure dans de nombreux idiolectes (Nyrop 1967[1904]:334). Les nouveaux groupes consonantiques qui apparaissent à la chute du schwa ne délimitent pas le mot, étant donné qu'ils apparaissent en toutes positions, cf. [fnètr] fenêtre, ainsi qu -/+ n-, -t + r- aux frontières. On trouve tant tr- que rt- (cf. [rtrèt], retraité), tant -rt que -tr ([fnètr]), alors que le gallo-roman n'avait que tr- et -rt. L'évolution des autres langues et dialectes occidentaux présente une tendance analogue. Nous nous contenterons ici de relever comment certaines langues de l'ouest se sont débarrassées de la restriction phonotactique que représentait la dentale intervocalique affaiblie que l'on ne trouvait qu'en position interne de mot: [51 rhéto-romane s'est durcie en [d]; en Italie du nord, elle tombe ou se durcit; dans la péninsule ibérique, elle n'a pas totalement disparu, mais l'affaiblissement a atteint aujourd'hui les occlusives voisées dans le cadre du syntagme phonétique, de sorte que [5] n'a plus de valeur démarcative. C'est dans cet ordre d'idées qu'il faut interpréter la désonorisation des sibilantes en espagnol du XVIe siècle.9 Lausberg (1967:407) rend compte de -n/rdz- > -n/rts- en ancien espagnol et portugais en invoquant une "strukturelle Phonemkombinationsanalogie": en effet, dz n'apparaît pas à l'initiale. La restitution de bien des voyelles finales, labiles en ancien espagnol (cf. puent, diz, faz > puente, dice, hace), fait disparaître la démarcation que provoquaient, à l'époque, les groupes consonantiques aux frontières de mot (cf. plus haut). 9 L'influence du basque a joué un rôle certain (Martinet 1955 chap.2), mais elle a été, si l'on peut dire, bienvenue.

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Exceptions. Selon le raisonnement de cet exposé, l'évolution phonétique de l'italien centro-méridional devrait, en principe, n'avoir jamais eu lieu dans le cadre du mot (il est difficile de se prononcer au sujet du roumain qui a été soumis à des influences extérieures massives). Il y a des exceptions: (a) Les nombreux cas de métaphonie, dont on peut cependant rendre compte en supposant que ce phénomène avait (et a peut-être toujours) lieu dans le cadre du syntagme phonétique et n'a laissé de traces solides que dans les cas où il pouvait avoir des conséquences morphologiques régulières, comme le renforcement de l'opposition de nombre ou de genre, cf. dialecte de Rieti [niru] < nígr-u : [néer-a] < nígr-a (Tuttle 1985:35). Il semble donc qu'il s'agisse plutôt d'une assimilation de morphème à morphème que d'une assimilation dans le cadre du mot. (b) Le maintien de l'accent de mot qui est responsable de certaines restrictions phonotactiques, comme celles des 7 / diphtongues.10 Quelles que soient les conséquences que peut avoir l'accent de mot, il faut noter qu'il n'est pas démarcatif en italien (ni d'ailleurs dans les autres langues romanes) et surtout, qu'en opposition à l'accent des langues germaniques, il ne bloque jamais les enchaînements (Holm 1986:26), ni les assimilations. (c) Le dévoisement des consonnes finales de mots dans certains dialectes de l'italien centro-méridional (Rohlfs 1972:488-490). Il faudrait examiner si ce phénomène a réellement lieu dans le cadre du mot, ou s'il ne s'agit pas plutôt de la finale absolue. S'il s'agit de la finale de mot, on a sans doute affaire à une influence moyenâgeuse d'un dialecte de l'ouest Cependant, dans bien des cas, les exceptions sont plus apparentes que réelles et sont le fait d'une erreur méthodologique, les chercheurs ayant tendance à décrire le mot dans sa forme isolée. Ce procédé est presque général et nous relevons ici un exemple moins connu: la chute des voyelles fermées entre obstruentes en français québécois est décrite dans le cadre du mot, cf., par ex., [ts0s] pour tisseuse (Gendron 1966:251). Nous avons cependant relevé dans ce dialecte la prononiciation [il è dzœr é dmi] pour il est dix heures et demi en débit normal. 10

Herslund (1986:510) relève qu'en portugais /z/ tombe à la finale du mot (en l'occurrence, des articles) devant consonne de mot suivant, alors qu'il reste stable en position interne (dans les préfixes). Il pourrait s'agir ici d'une différence d'accentuation entre les articles, qui sont inaccentués, et les préfixes, qui reçoivent un accent secondaire.

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Le contraste typologique que nous avons établi ici entre les langues romanes, type non-démarcatif, et le type démarcatif comme les langues germaniques ne peut guère être un effet du hasard. La persistance avec laquelle les usagers du français se sont débarassés des signes démarcatifs du galloroman le montre bien. Cela vaudrait sans doute la peine de chercher à savoir si cette divergence se reflète sur d'autres niveaux. Il se pourrait, en effet, que la syntaxe du mot et/ou de la phrase dans une langue donnée ait des répercussions sur la manière dont le mot est traité phonétiquement et vice versa.

RÉFÉRENCES Andersen, Henning. 1986. "Appendix: Guidelines for sandhi surveys". Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe ed. by Henning Andersen, 605-609. Berlin-New York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Basb0ll, Hans. 1986. "A Note on Ternes' Paper". Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe ed. by Henning Andersen, 23-25. Berlin-New YorkAmsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Bourciez, Edouard. 1967. Eléments de linguistique romane. 5e éd. Paris: Klincksieck. Contini, Michel. 1986. "Les phénomènes de sandhi dans le domaine sarde". Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe ed. by Henning Andersen, 519-550. Berlin-New York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Gendron, Jean-Denis. 1966. Tendances phonétiques du français parlé au Canada. Paris: Klincksieck; Québec: Les Presses de l'Université de Laval. Herman, József. 1965. "Aspects de la différenciation territoriale du latin sous l'empire". Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 60:1:53-70. Herslund, Michael. 1986. "Portuguese Sandhi Phenomena". Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe ed. by Henning Andersen, 505-518. BerlinNew York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Holm, Catherine. 1986. "Quatre fonctions de l'accent avec illustrations empruntées au danois". La linguistique 22:2.21-41. Lausberg, Heinrich. 1967-1969. Romanische Sprachwissenschaft. 2 vols. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Martinet, André. 1955. Economie de changements phonétiques. Berne: A. Francke. (3e éd., 1970.) Moulton, William G. 1986. "Sandhi in Swiss German Dialects". Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe ed. by Henning Andersen, 385-392. Berlin-New York-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Nyrop, Kristoffer. 1904. Grammaire historique de la langue française. Voli. Copenhague: Gyldendal. (Reimprimé, 1967.)

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Oftedal, Magne. 1985. Lenition in Celtic and in Insular Spanish. Oslo. Bergen-Stavanger-Troms0: Universitetsforlaget. Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1949. Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache. Vol.1. Bern & München: Francke. (Ré-imprimé, 1972.) Ternes, Elmar. 1977. "Konsonantische Anlautveränderungen in den keltischen und romanischen Sprachen". Romanistisches Jahrbuch 28.19-53. . 1985. "Typologie des langues romanes du point de vue phonétique et phonologique". Actes de XVIIème Congrès International de Linguistique et Philologie Romane, vol.II, 541-554. Aix-en-Provence: Univ. de Provence. Thurot, Charles. 1881. De la prononicatìon française depuis le commencement du XVIe siècle. Vols.II/III Paris. (Réimprimé, Genève: Slatkine, 1966.) Tuttle, Edward F. 1985. "Editor's Note: Morphologization as redundancy in central Italian dialects". Romance Philology 39.35-43. Walter, Henriette. 1966. La "gorgia toscana". Thèse de Doctorat de IIIème Cycle, Sorbonne, Paris (non publiée). Weinrich, Harald. 1958. Phonologische Studien zur romanischen Sprachgeschichte. Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung

LE ROLE DU SYSTEME DANS L'EVOLUTION D'UN VERBE EN GREC ANCIEN* BERNARD JACQUINOD Université de Saint-Étienne La conjugaison du verbe "dire" en grec ancien est tout à fait singulière. Par définition, un verbe inégulier ne respecte pas intégralement le système vivant et productif de la conjugaison à l'époque donnée. Mais son évolution se fait nécessairement par une adaptation à ce système ou à un modèle existant. Or notre verbe semble échapper complètement à cette règle; en effet, fhmi est en grec classique (Ve-IVe s. avant J.C.) un verbe dont la con­ jugaison est isolée en ce sens qu'à aucun autre indicatif présent en -mi en de­ hors de lui ne correspond un participe présent en -skont- (thème [phaskont-]) ni un infinitif présent en -ske.n [phaske:nl), alors que ces dernières formes sont des créations récentes, inconnues de la langue archaïque. Homère (VIIIe?-VHe? s. avant J.C.) les ignore complètement (il a, au présent, des formes nominales sur le thème [pha-]), tandis que Démosthène (IVe s. avant J.C.) ne connaît plus qu'elles.

Tableau 1 Le tableau 1 montre que les formes nominales se sont entièrement renouvelées entre Homère et Démosthène. Ce que je voudrais expliquer, c'est pourquoi ce * On trouvera un exposé plus complet, mais conçu pour des spécialistes de grec ancien dans Jacquinod (1978). Nous n'entrons pas ici dans le détail des faits et la bibliographie est volontairement sommaire.

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verbe a évolué en créant des formes qui le rendaient morphologiquement de plus en plus irrégulier. Mon hypothèse est que la structure aspectuelle a été déterminante et l'a emporté sur la tendance à l'alignement morphologique. Pour aller vite dans un problème terriblement difficile, je m'en tiens aux positions de Ruipérez (1954) sur l'aspect du verbe en grec ancien. Mis à part le futur qui est la formation la plus nettement temporelle, le système aspectuel du verbe s'organise sur 3 thèmes de parfait s'oppose l'ensemble formé par le thème : authème dit de présent et le thème dit d'aoriste; en l'absence de forme de parfait pour notre verbe, seul cet ensemble nous intéresse. Le thème de présent est duratif en face de celui d'aoriste qui est non duratif. Cette opposi­ tion fonctionne très bien dans les formes nominales (participe et infinitif). Les faits sont plus complexes dans les formes personnelles. L'opposition duratif/ non duratif fonctionne pour les temps passés de l'indicatif. Ces formes ont en commun une marque (obligatoire dans la prose classique, facultative en poésie) appelée augment, qui est une voyelle [e] ajoutée devant le thème du verbe. Les désinences appartiennent à la série dite secondaire, avec création d'une série propre pour une partie des aoristes (type en -0). Ces marques du passé sur un thème de présent produisent un imparfait. L'imparfait est par définition une forme bâtie sur un thème de présent et pourvue de désinences secondaires (-n à "je fuyais" la le sg) et éventuellement d'un augment; par exemple [é - pheugo - n] [augment-thème-dés.sec.] ou "je plaçais" sont bâtis sur les thèmes de présent [pheugo-] et [tithε:-]. L'aoriste est, lui, toujours bâti sur un thème particu­ lier, en l'occurrence [é-phugo-n] et [é-thε:k-a]. Aux temps passés de l'indi­ catif, la langue oppose donc un imparfait duratif à un aoriste non duratif. Mais au temps présent, il n'existe pas de forme sur thème d'aoriste; il n'y a qu'un présent, qui est formé sur le même thème que l'imparfait Le présent reçoit des désinences dites primaires, par exemple à la le sg. soit -mi soit o long ouvert. D'où, par exemple:

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Tableau 2 Revenons à Ce verbe est bâti sur une racine alternante, qui dans les dialectes que nous considérons ici, est de la forme [phε:] / [pha]. A l'époque archaïque, chez Homère par exemple, ce verbe n'a qu'un thème de présent, c'est-à-dire qu'il a, à l'indicatif, un présent et un imparfait (le sg. mais pas d'aoriste. Cet imparfait devrait avoir, d'après le système, une valeur durative, mais, en l'absence d'un aoriste, cette valeur ne peut exister; elle est neutralisée. Cette neutralisation est si manifeste dans les textes que, depuis l'Antiquité, on a souvent cru que cet imparfait était un aoriste; cette vue, pourtant contraire à la définition morphologique de l'imparfait, a été adoptée par des philologues éminents, d'Hérodien (IIe s.) à Wackernagel (XXe s.). C'était mal poser le problème. Fournier, qui reconnaît que,fhn est un imparfait, admet qu'il joue le rôle d'un aoriste (1946:21), mais ne donne pas d'explication satisfaisante. Rappelons encore un fait. Il a existé en indo-européen un suffixe verbal -sko- qui donnait des thèmes de présent. En outre, il s'est développé en ionien un itératif-intensif à l'aide de ce suffixe et des désinences secondaires, formation qui fournit des doublets à l'imparfait; ces formations, en principe, sont dépourvues d'augment (par ex. Sur notre racine, il existe chez Homère (et en attique classique) une forme [éphaskonl, seule forme de ce groupe d'itératifs en -skon à être pourvue d'un augment, mais qui a en commun avec eux de toujours avoir des désinences secondaires et donc de ne pas fournir de présent de l'indicatif. Nous avons désormais tous les éléments pour proposer une solution. - [phasko-], sans fournir de L'époque classique montre que le thème

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présent de l'indicatif,1 devient pourtant le thème de présent sur lequel on bâtit le participe et l'infinitif. Cela suppose que la forme , qui est probablement archaïque, ne s'est pas limitée à fournir un itératif, mais est devenue un véritable imparfait, ce que manifeste la présence de l'augment en ionien et l'existence de cette forme en dehors de l'ionien.2 Mais alors, on peut se demander pourquoi ce verbe, qui avait un imparfait à qui il manquait un aoriste, s'est d'abord doté d'un second imparfait (plus tard seulement d'un aoriste en -a). A mon avis, à l'époque archaïque, c'est la structure aspectuelle qui a été le moteur du changement. morphologiquement un imparfait, voyait sa va­ leur durative neutralisée du fait de l'absence d'un aoriste; par conséquent, pour la fonction, il jouait le rôle d'un aoriste non duratif et donc, fonctionnellement, ce qui manquait, c'était un temps qui exprime positivement la durée: c'est la forme en -sko- qui a été appelée à jouer ce rôle et à fournir le vrai imparfait du point de vue de l'aspect Cette hypothèse explique aussi que le thème - ne fournisse pratiquement jamais un présent de l'indicatif, alors qu'on l'attendrait. La valeur durative du thème de présent était neutralisée à ce temps (il n'y a pas de présent de l'indicatif sur le thème de l'aoriste, cf. le tableau 2 supra): il était sans intérêt de remplacer l'ancienne forme fhmi [phε:mi] par une nouvelle forme typiquement durative dans un temps qui annulait immédiatement cette valeur. Au contraire, dans les formes nominales, où l'opposition aspectuelle présent / aoriste jouait à plein, on voit chez Démosthène les formes duratives en -sko- éliminer complètement les anciennes formes bâties sur le thème [pha]. L'évolution de ce verbe est donc cohérente et compréhensible si l'on admet qu'elle résulte à la fois du caractère particulier de ce verbe et de l'organisation aspectuelle du verbe en grec ancien. On doit alors se demander pourquoi ce phénomène semble si limité, alors que d'autres racines fournissaient un présent, mais pas d'aoriste. La rai­ son en est le recours au supplétisme pour compléter les paradigmes verbaux. Le verbe "être" (racine LE. *es) est un cas intéressant en ce sens qu'il amorce 1

Il n'y aurait qu'une forme sûre de présent de l'indicatif sur ce thème (Isée 6,16 — Fournier 1946:37), alors que ce verbe est un des plus fréquents dans les textes grecs — le 6e d'après le Vocabulaire de base du grec de G. Cauquil & J.Y. Guillaumin (Besançon: ARELAB, 1985)— plus de 400 formes d'indicatif présent chez Démosthène. 2 Cette formulation me paraît préférable à celle qui voit deux formes génétiquement différentes, selon qu'il y a ou non l'augment (voir Giacalone Ramat 1967:122).

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la même tentative que notre verbe et que celle-ci avorte. La racine *es ne fournit pas d'aoriste en indo-européen; les langues ont fait appel au supplétisme (d'où fr. estlfut, angl. is/was, all. ist/war, etc.). Comme pour le verbe fhmi [phε:mi], l'imparfait du verbe "être" (qui est radical) ne peut exprimer positivement la durée, faute d'une forme d'indicatif passé non durative (aoriste). Pour la même raison, une forme à suffixe a fourni un indicatif passé duratif3 dans la langue archaïque (Homère). Cette forme n'est pas attestée dans la prose attique de l'époque classique et, en outre, la forme apparaît en général sans augment, ce qui indique qu'elle ne s'est pas vraiment intégrée, en tant qu'imparfait, à la conjugaison. Pourquoi ce qui s'est passé pour notre verbe "dire" ne s'est-il pas produit pour le verbe "être"? C'est manifestement parce que la langue grecque a, par un fait de supplétisme, associé à la conjugaison du verbe "être" des formes d'un verbe bâti sur la racine I.E. *gen "engendrer, devenir". Pour des raisons qui tiennent elles aussi à l'organisation aspectuelle du grec ancien, l'aoriste de cette racine, dont le sémantème était transformatif, était apte à fournir un aoriste à la racine *es, dont le sémantème était, lui, non-transformatif. Selon Ruipérez, l'aoriste se réalise comme finitif dans les sémantèmes transformatifs et comme initif dans les sémantèmes non-transformatifs. Or il y a coïncidence entre la valeur finitive de la notion d'engendrer ("arriver à la fin de l'engendrement") et la valeur initive de la notion d'être ("commencer à être"). Dans ces conditions, l'imparfait radical du verbe "être", qui était l'imparfait morphologiquement attendu, retrouvait sa place dans le système et la forme faisait double emploi avec lui; devenue inutile, la forme était vouée à disparaître en tant qu'imparfait Il resterait à se demander pourquoi notre verbe n'a pas eu recours au supplétisme. Cela demanderait un exposé trop long et nous devons renvoyer au travail de Fournier (1946). Disons seulement ceci: la racine *wekw "parler" fournissait un aoriste, mais plusieurs présents étaient candidats pour compléter le paradigme. φhmi, qui signifiait à l'origine "proclamer, affirmer", à partir du sens de "briller", fut sur les rangs, mais il a cédé la place à (racine *leg), qui, à partir de l'idée d'énumérer, passait au sens de dire. Notre verbe a dès lors dû se doter d'un paradigme plus complet fondé sur sa seule racine.

3

Sur la valeur durative d'skon voir Chantraine (1963:320-321) et Giacalone Ramat (1967:119). Sur l'histoire de cette formation dans les diverses langues indo-européennes, on consultera Keller (1985).

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L'étude de l'histoire archaïque de fhmi rejoint une des préoccupations de la Morphologie Naturelle. Pour Dressier (1985:41), un des buts stratégiques de la Morphologie Naturelle à l'étape actuelle de son développement doit être d'affronter les phénomènes morphologiques les'moins naturels', qui semblent offrir de scandaleux contre-exemples à toute théorie du naturel morphologique qui est extrêmement peu ou très peu naturelle ...

Notre présentation a combiné la méthode structuraliste et la perspective diachronique et Dressier reconnaît que, pour le supplétisme, l'explication génétique "est absolument nécessaire dans le cadre de la Morphologie Naturelle" (1985:48). Mais il ne voit dans le supplétisme verbal des langues indo-européennes qu'un archaïsme qui se maintient parce que les langues flexionnelles sont moins réfractaires à ce type d'opacité morphotactique. Or il apparaît que, dans les verbes "être" et "dire" étudiés ici, le supplétisme, tel qu'il se présente à l'époque classique, est une innovation du grec, et non un fait de l'indo-européen commun. Du point de vue de la Morphologie Naturelle, le supplétisme dans le verbe "être" est un cas de "suppléance forte", puisqu'il associe deux racines entièrement différentes (*es et *gen). Ce supplétisme relève d'un type de raison qui n'apparaît pas dans l'article de Dressier consacré à ce sujet (il n'utilise pas les exemples grecs, pourtant plus probants que les exemples latins) et qui est le système aspectuel du verbe grec qui oppose fortement le thème de présent et le thème d'aoriste. Cette opposition aspectuelle est évidemment fort différente de celles du slave, mais elle fut assez puissante pour non seulement conserver des faits de supplétisme indo-européen, mais encore en faire naître de nouveaux. Et cette opposition aspectuelle a été assez vivace pour s'introduire en grec moderne dans le futur: à la différence du grec ancien, le grec moderne a deux futurs, un futur continu sur le thème de présent et un futur momentané sur le thème d'aoriste. Nous avons souligné le caractère insolite de fhmi en attique classique; ce verbe présente deux formes pour le thème de présent alors qu'habituellement, en indo-européen ancien, le supplétisme existe entre les thèmes verbaux (et non à l'intérieur de thèmes verbaux). Du point de vue de Dressier, nous aurions affaire à une "suppléance faible", car, d'un côté, aucune règle ne permet de passer d'un thème [phε:] / [pha] pour l'indicatif à un thème [phasko-] pour le participe et l'infinitif, mais, d'un autre côté, l'identité de racine est évidente et le suffixe -sko- de présent est bien connu. Aussi, le présent de cette

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conjugaison en grec classique me semble-t-il mieux placé sur l'échelle de la diagrammaticité que sur l'échelle de la transparence morphotactique (Dressier 1985:41-42). Il m'a paru intéressant de faire connaître aux spécialistes de la naturalité et de l'iconicité mon explication de ce cas très surprenant, et je leur laisse le soin de décider s'il relève d'une certaine manière de l'iconicité diagrammatique par isomorphisme (Haiman 1980), dans la mesure où en grec archaïque un thème mieux marqué comme duratif a tendu à s'installer dans les formes de présents où la valeur durative n'était pas neutralisée, laissant la forme radicale dans les formes où cette valeur était neutralisée. Ce système n'a pas triomphé complètement, car le grec classique, sous la pression de l'analogie, s'est doté d'un thème d'aoriste morphologiquement non duratif (ligne 3 du tableau 1) et la somme de ces deux tentatives successives d'aménagement a produit une conjugaison tellement irrégulière qu'elle n'a pas survécu en grec moderne.

RÉFÉRENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES Chantraine, Pierre. 1963. Grammaire homérique. Tome II: Syntaxe. Paris: Klincksieck. Dressier, Wolfgang U. 1985. "Sur le statut de la suppléance dans la Morpho­ logie Naturelle". Langages 78.41-56. Fournier, Henri. 1946. Les verbes 'dire' en grec ancien: Exemple de conju­ gaison supplétive. Paris. Klincksieck. Giacalone Ramat, Anna. 1967. "La funzione del suffisso -sk- nel sistema verbale greco". AGI 52.105-123. Haiman, John. 1980. "The iconicity of grammar: isomorphism and moti­ vation". Language 56.515-540. Jacquinod, Bernard. 1978. "L'évolution de fhmi en grec ancien". Mémoire 1.45-52. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'Univ. de Saint-Etienne. Keller, Madeleine. 1985. "Latin escit, escunt a-t-il des correspondants?" Revue de philologie 59:1.34-38. Ruipérez, Martin Sanchez. 1954. Estructura del sistema de aspectos y tiempos del verbo griego antiguo. Salamanca: Univ. de Salamanca. (Trad, française de M. Plenat & P. Serça, Structures du système des aspects et des temps du verbe en grec ancien. Besançon: Univ. de Besançon; Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1982.)

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE ABLAUT NOUNS IN ENGLISH - AND WHY DID IT NOT HAPPEN IN GERMAN? DIETER KASTOVSKY Institut fürAnglistik und Amerikanistik Universitat Wien

In the Germanic languages, ablaut or gradation, i.e. the vocalic alternation present in, for instance, (1) is usually associated primarily with the signaling (1)

a. English

b. German

c. Old English

d. Old High German

sing ride shear break

-

sang rode shore broke

-

sung ridden shorn broken

-

gesungen geritten geschoren gebrochen

singen reiteri scheren brechen

sang ritt schor brach

singan rìdan scieran brecan

sang rad scær bræc

sungon ridon scæron bræcon

-

gesungen geriden gescoren gebrocen

sang reit scar brach

sangum ritum scãrum bnaāchum

-

gisungan giritan giscoran gibrochan

-

singan rìtan scëran brëchan -

-

of the categories Preterite and 2nd Participle within the class of strong verbs. It is generally assumed that this is a characteristic feature of the Germanic languages and that it resulted from a gradual functionalization of a previously non-functional, and to a certain extent purely phonologically conditioned morphophonemic alternation originating from the variable stress of the IndoEuropean parent language.1 1 This functionalization, however, was only partly successful, since it was impaired by over- and underdifferentiation. Thus, the vocalic alternation of 1st, 3rd sg. vs. 2nd sg., 1st 3rd pl. pret. (e.g. rad : ridon ) in classes I-V is non-functional, whereas in classes I, II, partly

254

DIETER KASTOVSKY

But ablaut alternations are not restricted to verb inflection; they also occur in various deverbal word-formation patterns, cf. the Old English examples in (2): (2)

a. Deverbal nouns: singan: sang (m.) "song, singing" ridan: rad (f.) "riding", gerid (n.) "riding", ridda "rider", forridel (m.) "fore-rider" scieran: scear (m., n.) "ploughshare", scearu (f.) "shearing" brecan: bræc (f.) "breaking", gebrecness (f.) "breach", brecpa (m.) "broken condition", broc (n.) "fragment, breach", (ge-)bryce (m.) "breach, breaking" leogan: lyge "lie", lygen "lie", lygness "lie" fricgan: friht "divination", frig(e)ness "question", fregen "ques­ tion", gefræge "hearsay" bindan: bend "bond", bund "bundle", gebundenness "obligation" b. Deverbal adjectives: brecan: bryce "fragile" fricgan: gefræge "well-known, celebrated" leogan: lyge "lying" onion: ond-fencge "receptive" findan: eap-fynde "easy to find" c. Deverbal causatives: sitian "to sit": settan "to place" drinkan "to drink": drencan "to give a drink" cwelan "to die": cwellan "to kill" nsan "to rise": næran "to raise"

Similar examples can also be found in Old High German and other Germanic languages. This phenomenon is, in fact, so pervasive in the Germanic languages that Robert Hinderling (1967) in his study of the strong deverbal abstract nouns in Germanic places the strong verb at the center of the Germanic word-formation system.2 Moreover, ablaut is only one type of morphophonemic alternation characterizing both inflection and derivation. Umlaut phenomena at various stages in the development of the Germanic languages, West Germanic consonant lengthening and the palatalization of velar stops have added III (type bindan ) the pret. pl. and the 2nd part., and in classes V, VI and VII the infinitive and the 2nd part, have the same vowel. 2 "So muß die germanische Wortbildungslehre ihren Ausgangspunkt beim starken Zeitwort nehmen" (Hinderling 1967:2).

ABLAUT NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN

255

numerous further, non-functional alternations to the inflectional and derivational system, some of which were also subsequently functionalized. Therefore, it is hardly an exaggeration to claim that on account of this pervasiveness of morphophonemic rules, the 'strong', i.e. non-linear modification of stems is a characteristic feature not only of Germanic verbal inflection but also of Germanic word formation, as has been suggested by Hinderling. 3 The Old English examples quoted above corroborate this assessment, and they can easily be matched by similar examples from Old Norse or Old High German and, for that matter, Modern High German, which has preserved this characteristic feature to quite a remarkable extent, cf. (3). (3) a. Deverbal nouns: binden: Band (m., n.), Bund (m., n.), Binde (f.), (n.), Bündel (n.), Bandel (n.) singen: Sang (m.), Gesang (m.) scheren: Schur (f.), Schere (f.) brechen: Bruch (f.) helfen: Hilfe (f.), Gehilfe (m.) trinken: Trank (m.), Trunk (m.), Getrank (n.) schreiben: Schrieb (m.), Schrift (f.), Schreibe (f.)

Gebinde

b. Deverbal adjectives: beissen: bissig flüssig fließen: streiten: strittig gestehen: gestandig Ziehen: (frei)zügig (sich) erbieten: erbötig süffig saufen: c. Deverbal causatives: trinken: tranken versinken: versenken sitzen: setzen saugen: saugen liegen: legen This does not mean that all the alternations involved are still productive in Modern High German. Thus umlaut, although it has become functionalized in inflectional patterns, cf. Mutter : Mütter, is not really fully predictable in 3"

Die Unerläßlichkeit morphophonemischer Regeln macht außerdem deutlich,daßdie 'starke', nichtlineare Veranderung der Wortstamme nicht nur einen Grundzug der germ. Verbalflexion, sondem auch der germ. Wortbildung ausmacht" (Hinderling 1967:2).

256

DIETER KASTOVSKY

derivation, cf. rot : roten vs. blau : blauen/bläuenvs. faul : faulen. And ablaut as a derivational principle was probably dead already in Old High German, if not earlier. Nevertheless, any synchronic description of Modern High German will have to account for these alternations, i.e. both for what Grimm (1878:1, 4ff.) had called "innere Ableitung" (cf., for instance, also Fleischer 1976:72ff., 204ff.) and for the alternations due to umlaut because they permeate the German lexicon and are, therefore, part of its morphophonemic system. While the same also holds for Old English, as the examples in (2) indicate, it is already no longer true for Middle English and even less so for Modern English. Already in Middle English the overwhelming majority of ablaut nouns and ablaut adjectives had disappeared from the lexicon, so that in Modern English only sporadic traces of this once widespread pattern can be found, such as song, drove, writ. It is therefore not surprising that Old English grammars contain references to this type of formation, cf. Pilch (1970:109ff., 117ff., 130ff.), while Middle English grammars do not, cf. Fisiak (1965, 1968), where we find a fairly extensive description of Middle English word formation but no reference whatsoever to ablaut nouns. It is true that a greater number of these formations have survived in dialects, but in most cases the relationship between verb and noun isratherobscured, while it is still quite transparent in Modern High German. It is of course not possible in this connection to trace the fate of all the ablaut formations recorded in Old English, although this in itself might be an interesting task. Suffice it to say that of the roughly 270 suffixless simple Old English ablaut nouns documented in my dissertation (Kastovsky 1968:100ff.) that are not derived from the infinitive stem, at best some 10% to 15% have survived into Modern English. Ablaut adjectives are even rarer, and the umlaut alternations have also been analogically leveled in the majority of instances. The succinct answer to thefirstpart of the question raised in the title of this paper is therefore simply: The ablaut nouns disappeared in the course of the Middle English period, more precisely in Early Middle English, being either replaced by derivatives based on the infinitive stem or lost completely together with the verbal base. The remainder of this paper will be devoted tofindingan answer to the second part of its title which, I think, is much more interesting. Why, in fact, should this type of word formation and the morphophonemic alternations characterizing it disappear almost completely from English but remain a conspicuous feature of German, when Old English in this respect was so similar to Old High German and Modern High German. Also, German and

ABLAUT NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN

257

the Nordic languages demonstrate that these formations were really wellentrenched in the lexicon, so that their loss in English seems rather surprising. The following considerations are based on one crucial assumption: the centrality of verbal ablaut in the lexical system of the older Germanic languages. As long as this is fairly systematic and transparent, the ablaut nouns can easily be related to the verbal bases and will therefore survive. The greater the disruption of the ablaut patterns in the verb, the looser the connection between noun and verb will become, and the greater the tendency will be to idiomatize the noun or lose it altogether, and replace it by a corresponding 'regular' formation without vowel alternation. Now, it seems to me that in the English language three independent, but interacting factors have 'conspired' to bring about the demise not only of the ablaut formations, but also of the whole set of morphophonemic alternations characterizing the Old English inflectional and derivational system. These three factors are: (a) phonological change; (b) morphological leveling in conjunction with interdialectal borrowing; and (c) a general typological reorientation of inflection and word formation where changes in the inflectional system had far-reaching consequences for word formation. Thefirsttwo factors are well-known and have at least occasionally been mentioned in the classical handbooks. The third factor, however, has to my knowledge not been considered so far in this connection. It involves a shift from stem inflection and stem derivation to word inflection and word derivation with a tendency away from stem variability and towards an invariable base form. This made ablaut nouns typologically unsuitable and therefore particularly vulnerable to lexical loss. And while thefirsttwo factors were also operative in German, although less radically so, the typological change mentioned above did not take place, as we shall see. Consequently, ablaut derivatives were also not eliminated, although their morphophonemic transparency had been reduced considerably in the course of time as well. I shall now briefly take up these three factors in turn and investigate their impact on the development of ablaut verbs and their derivatives in both English and German. The history of verbal ablaut in the Germanic languages is characterized by an earlier stage of systematization and functionalization followed by a later stage of progressive disruption mainly due to phonological changes which, however, progressed at different rates in the individual Germanic languages. In both Old High German and Old English, the original system has become somewhat fractionized, i.e. the major classes have been split up into subclasses due to certain sound changes. The Old English system, moreover, already deviates more from the original Proto-Germanic system than the Old

DIETER KASTOVSKY

258

High German system, although the basic ablaut system is still synchronically reconstructible, as has been demonstrated by Lass & Anderson (1975). The somewhat greater opacity of the Old English system is due to sound changes such as Anglo-Frisian brightening, breaking, palatalization of velars, "Verdumpfung" and monophthongizations, which did not affect Old High German, or did not affect it to the same extent. The Germanic ablaut system is based on an Indo-European e/o ablaut, manifest in strong verb classes I-V, and an Indo-European a/o ablaut, manifest in strong verb class VI. Class VI can be related to thefirsttype of ablaut on the basis of the laryngeal theory. To this has to be added strong verb class VII in the Northwest Germanic languages which seems to go back to originally reduplicating verbs. The ablaut pattern of classes I-VI in ProtoGermanic was as follows: (4)

I

n m

IV V VI

e+i e+u e+RC e+R e+C a+C

(C = consonant,

a+i a+u a+RC a+R a+C ō+C

i u u+RC ē+R ē+C ō+C

i u u+RC u+R e+C a+C

R = liquid or nasal)

This fairly regular picture is already somewhat distorted in Old High German where, due to the i/e, u/o splits and the monophthongization of /ei/ before /x/, a number of subclasses have to be distinguished. Moreover, class VII, the originally reduplicating verbs, has to be added. (5)

Ia

Ib Ila lib

ma mb

IV V Via Vlb

Vila

vnb

VEc

vnd

rĩtan zĩhan liogan biotan rinnan wërfan stëlan gëban faian beffen haltan lazan skeidan huían

wit zēb loug

bōt ran

warf stal

gab fuor huob hialt liaz skiad liof

ritum zigum lugum butum runnum wurfum stālum gābum fuorum buobum hialtum liazum skiadum liofum

giritan gizigan gilogan gibotan girunnan giworfan gistolan gigëban gifaran gibaban gihaltan gilazan giskeidan giloufan

ABLAUT NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN VIIe VIIf

mofan stõzan

riof stioz

riofum stiofum

259

gimofan gistōan

Old English basically shows a similar picture, but class III is even more heterogeneous due to breaking. Nevertheless, the ablaut patterns still strike one as fairly systematic. (6)

I

II IIIa IIIb IIIc IIId IVa

IVb

V VIa VIb VIIa

VIIb VIIc VIId VIIe

VIIf VIIg

ndan bēōdan rínnan helpan weorpan berstan stelan nirnan metan faran hebban healdan blāwan hleapan bannan blōtan batan lætan

rād bead rann healp wearp bærst stasi nōm mæt fōr hōf hēōld blēōw blēōp heônn blëôt bet let

rìdon budon ninnon hulpon wurpon buTSton station nõmon mascón fõron hōfon hēōldon blēōwon hlēōpon beonnon blêõton beton lêton

geríden geboden gerunnen geholpen gewoipen geborsten gestolen genumen gemeten gefaren gehafen gehealden geblãwen gehlēāpen gebannen geblōten gebãten gelæten

The Middle High German patterns manifest little change; the only major simplification is the merger of the preterites of class VII in . (7)

Ia Ib IIa

IIb

IIIa

IIIb IV V VI

VII

rîten zîhen biegen bieten rìnnan werfen stelen geben faren X

reit zêh bouc bot rann warf stal gap fuor ie

ritten zigen bugen buten runnen wurfen stâlen gâben fuoren ie

gerìtten gezigen gebogen geboten gerrunnen geworfen gestolen gegeben gefaren X

(a,ou,ei,ù )

The subsequent development towards Modern High German is also fairly straightforward. On one hand, the different stem nuclei in the preterite were analogically leveled either in favor of the singular or the plural form, cf. bieten

DIETER KASTOVSKY

260

- bot vs. reiten - ritt. On the other hand, lengthening in open syllables and certain monophthongization and diphthongization processes modified the quantity and quality of the vocalic nuclei. Nevertheless, the Modern High German ablaut verbs still reflect the original pattern to a considerable extent, cf. (8). (8)

Ia Ib

II IIIa

IIIb

IIIc IV V VI VIIa

VIIb VIIc VIId

schreiben reiten biegen rinnen binden werfen stehlen geben fahren halten scheiden laufen stoßen

schrieb ritt bog rann band warf staili gab fuhr hielt schied lief stieß

geschrìeben geritten gebogen geronnen gebunden geworfen gestohlen gegeben gefahren gehalten geschieden gelaufen gestoßen

As a consequence, the correlation between verbal and nominal ablaut is still fairly transparent, despite cases such as (9) Ziehen - zog: Zug giessen - goB: Guß triigen - trog: Trug where the nominal vowel has no direct counterpart in the verbal system. But even in these instances the alternation is not felt as irregular, because alternations of this kind are typical of the system as a whole. When we now turn to the development in English, we are confronted with a rather different situation. Already for Middle English no such simple paradigm can be established as was possible for Middle High German. First of all, the monophthongization of the Old English diphthongs ēō , ēā and le further distorted the ablaut patterns. Secondly, the Late Old English lengthening and shortening of vowels before certain complementary consonant clusters impaired the ablaut correlations still more, in particular in class m , cf. (10)

bind- bound vs. ran - run

and produced extensive allomorphy which in turn led to large-scale but unsystematic analogical leveling. Thirdly, Middle English lengthening in open syllables caused further opacity in these patterns. And, fourthly, there was a

ABLAUT NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN

261

growing tendency to level the vowel differences in the preterite, which started in the North and gradually spread to the South. This not only resulted in morphological differences between the dialects; the disruption of the ablaut patterns was also increased by unsystematic leveling within one and the same dialect, i.e. sometimes the preterite singular prevailed (sing-sang), sometimes the plural (fling-flung) and sometimes neither (tear-tore-torn). Given that Standard English evolved in an area where dialect mixture was the rule, viz. London, it is not surprising that the Old English ablaut system should have broken down more or less completely by the end of the Middle English period in the evolving standard language. Thus, although the traditional handbooks of Middle English still try to classify the Middle English verbs in terms of the Old English ablaut series, Jacek Fisiak is probablyrightwhen he argues that because of the phonetic and phonemic changes which took place in Late Old English and Early Middle English, and the levelling tendencies operating throughout the Middle English period, it is most convenient to group Middle English strong verbs in three major thematic classes on the basis of the number of vowel alternants, and next to subdivide these into subclasses according to the shape of the alternants (Fisiak 1968:106).

In other words, the historical ablaut series no longer provide a basis for the description of Middle English verb morphology. It is therefore not surprising that more and more verbs went over to the weak - or as it should be called now - regular verb inflection. Their number is actually far greater than in German, where a similar shift is observable. This also means, of course, that the relationship between ablaut nouns and ablaut verbs must have become more and more erratic. But this phonological-morphological development is hardly sufficient to explain why English should have lost the overwhelming majority of the ablaut nouns. After all, they were part of the English lexicon, were established lexical items and could have remained so. Why should they be lost as a category? This now brings me to the third factor involved, the typological aspect of this development. First of all, ablaut nouns originally were part of a productive wordformation system, the majority of them representing action nouns, but agent nouns and other semantic types (instrumental, locative, result nouns) also being fairly common. As has been pointed out repeatedly (cf. Motsch 1979, 1987; Kastovsky 1982, 1986), word formation serves two complementary functions, that of creating new lexical items serving as labels for some 'nameworthy' segment of extralinguistic reality and that of recategorization or transposition of certain types of syntactic phrases. Deverbal nouns of the type at issue here, and in particular action nouns, typically serve the function of

262

DIETER KASTOVSKY

recategorization, although the naming function is never completely excluded. Optimal recategorization, however, presupposes optimal transparency with regard to the base that is recategorized. Now as long as the category to be transposed, in this case the verb, exhibits stem variability, in particular if this is more or less systematic, the noun resulting from the recategorization may also exhibit morphophonemic alternation, especially if this follows the alternation pattern of the verb. The crucial property of word formation morphosemantic transparency or motivation - is not affected. But if these alternations become erratic, then morphosemantic transparency is jeopardized because the deverbal nouns are liable to formal isolation. Analogical re­ formation with the effect of reestablishing transparency will be the result. This will be even more likely if it coincides with a more general trend in the development of the language in question, which was the case in English. In order to see this, a brief look at the typological status of Old English inflection and derivation is necessary. As I have pointed out in a recent paper (Kastovsky 1987), the Old English morphological system is typologically heterogeneous. The basic inflectional type is stem inflection, i.e. the inflectional endings are added to a bound stem that does not have word status without them. This holds for verbs and part of the nouns. Some part of the nouns, e.g. strong masculines and neuters, and the adjectives, on the other hand, are characterized by word inflection, i.e. the inflectional endings are added to an unmarked base form representing the lexical item that occurs as a word without any inflectional ending. This is the nominative-accusative singular form, and it is this principle that is generalized in Middle English for the whole inflectional system, verbs included. With the verbs in Old English, however, there is a residual system that, at least originally, can be characterized as root inflection, viz. the strong verbs, where the root vowel alternation has morphological significance. It is even likely that the infinitive stem, which in Old English is already interpreted as a kind of base form in analogy with the weak verbs, did not originally have this privileged position but was an inflectional form like any other. This would in fact go well with the analysis of ablaut in Lass & Anderson (1975), who start from an unspecified vowel and derive all ablaut series by phonological rules. Be that as it may, this remnant of root inflection together with the new morphophonemic alternations due to umlaut, etc., are the reason for the assumption that Old English is basically characterized by stem variability. This carries over to word formation. The dominant type is stem formation, in particular with deverbal derivatives. But with certain denominai and deadjectival derivations we alreadyfindword derivation, i.e. derivation from a free base, the type that becomes characteristic of Modern English. And the

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263

ablaut nouns might be interpreted as representing an old stratum of root derivatives, matching the type of root inflection characterizing the strong verbs. As has already been mentioned, the subsequent development, viz. the progressive loss of inflectional endings also in the verbal paradigm, established an unmarked base form in all word classes as the starting point of inflection. This was automatically accompanied by the replacement of stem variability by stem invariability as the dominant inflectional type. And again this was carried over to word formation. The dominant type of English word formation is word-based, and without alternations. The alternations that occur today, e.g. edify - edification, sane - sanity, produce - production, are characteristic of the non-Germanic vocabulary, i.e. are a later development. And it is this typological reorientation, which did not affect the German language, where verbal inflection and deverbal derivation are still stem- and not word-based, that was probably the additional, but crucial final nail in the coffin in which the Old English ablaut nouns are now buried. In the emerging Middle English system there was no longer any room for root derivation of this kind. The infinitive had become established as an unmarked base form which served as a starting point for both inflection and derivation, and both operated basically without morphophonemic alternations. At the same time, the ablaut alternations had become more or less completely irregular. Many verbs were lost or became regular, and the ablaut nouns were replaced by nonalternating re-formations to safeguard morphosemantic transparency. None of this happened in German, where this typological reorientation only affected nouns and adjectives, but not verbs. At the same time, ablaut verbs remained remarkably systematic and therefore morphophonemically transparent. Moreover, stem variability in verb, noun and even adjective inflection is still a prominent morphological feature. Ablaut nouns, therefore, are in no way typological misfits and have thus survived in German while they were lost in English.

REFERENCES Fisiak, Jacek. 1965. Morphemic Structure of Chaucer's English. (= Alabama Linguistic and Philological Series, 10.) Birmingham: University of Alabama Press. Fisiak, Jacek. 1968. A Short Grammar of Middle English. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Fleischer, Wolfgang. 1976. Wortbildung der deutschen Gegenwartssprache, 4th rev. ed. Leipzig: UEB Bibliographisches Institut.

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Grimm, Jakob. 1878. Deutsche Grammatik, 2.T. Neuer vermehrter Abdruck. Besorgt durch W. Scherer. Gütersloh. Hinderiing, Robert. 1967. Studien zu den starken Verbalabstrakta des Germanischen. (= Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, Neue Folge, 24.) Berlin: de Gruyter. Kastovsky, Dieter. 1968. Old English Deverbal Substantives Derived by Means of a Zero Morpheme. University of Tübingen Ph.D. dissertation. Esslingen: Bruno Langer. Kastovsky, Dieter. 1982. "Word-formation: a functional view". Folia Linguistica 16.181-198. Kastovsky, Dieter. 1986. "Diachronic word-formation in a functional perspective". Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries ed. by Dieter Kastovsky & Aleksander Szwedek, 409-421. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kastovsky, Dieter. Forthcoming. "The typological status of Old English word-formation". Paper read at the 5th ICHEL, Cambridge, 1987. Lass, Roger & John Anderson. 1975. Old English Phonology. (= Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 14.) Cambridge: Cambridge Univer­ sity Press. Motsch, Wolfgang. 1979. "Zum Status von Wortbildungsregularitáten". DRLAV-Paper 20.1-40. Motsch, Wolfgang. 1987. "On inactivity, productivity and analogy in derivational processes". Paper submitted to the Round Table Meeting The Contribution of Word Structure Theories to the Study of Word Formation, XIVth International Congress of Linguistics, Berlin, August 10-15, 1987. Pilch, Herbert. 1970. Altenglische Grammatik. (= Commentationes Societatis Linguisticae Europaeae, I, 1.) Munich: MaxHueber.

SOURCES NÉGLIGÉES DANS L'HISTOIRE DU VOCABULAIRE LES DICTIONNAIRES BILINGUES DU XVIe SIÈCLE*

DOUGLAS A. KIBBEE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dans l'histoire du vocabulaire, nous disposons de trois sortes d'oeuvres de référence: les dictionnaires étymologiques, les dictionnaires décrivant la langue d'une certaine époque, et plus récemment, les fonds informatisés. Pour l'histoire du français, le premier genre est représenté par le Gamillscheg, le Franzôsisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch; le deuxième par le Godefroy, le Tobler-Lommatzsch, le Huguet; le troisième par les fonds pour l'histoire du vocabulaire du CNRS. Dans la préparation de tels ouvrages, les auteurs ont dépouillé de nombreux textes littéraires et non-littéraires, mais une sorte de texte n'est que très rarement consulté: les dictionnaires bilingues des époques passées. C'est une lacune importante, une lacune qui laisse échapper plusieurs aspects très intéressants de l'histoire du vocabulaire. Je voudrais d'abord présenter un résumé de ces aspects négligés et ensuite montrer comment l'étude des dictionnaires bilingues du seizième siècle nous permet d'illuminer ces recoins obscurs. Enfin, je vais suggérer un nouveau type d'ouvrage de référence qui promet de combler ces lacunes. Dans un dictionnaire étymologique, on trace l'histoire d'un mot à partir de sa source, c'est-à-dire, à partir d'une forme dans une autre langue jusqu'à sa première attestation dans une deuxième langue. Les meilleurs dictionnaires considèrent également la première attestation d'un certain sens. Mais souvent, si le mot ne fait plus partie du vocabulaire actif de la langue, le dictionnaire étymologique l'omet. Plus important encore, les collocations ordinaires du mot manquent dans les dictionnaires étymologiques. Dans un dictionnaire limité à une certaine époque du passé, on ne considère normalement que les mots ou les sens qui diffèrent de l'emploi moderne. Dans un dictionnaire * L'auteur tient à remercier Jean-Philippe Mathy et Alain Fresco de leurs suggestions.

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étymologique, on perd donc de vue les mots qui n'ont pas survécu à l'époque moderne, et on a très peu de renseignements sur les collocations usuelles du mot à une époque déterminée. Dans un dictionnaire d'une époque précise, on ne voit pas les rapports entre les mots ou les sens qui ont survécu (et ne sont donc pas répertoriés) et les mots et les sens désuets: l'évolution en est perdue, ainsi que les oppositions ressenties par ceux qui parlaient la langue à l'époque en question. Ce qui est impossible, dans ces deux grands ouvrages de réfé­ rence dont nous disposons, c'est de voir la langue à certaines étapes dans toute sa complexité. Or, voilà exactement ce que nous fournissent les dictionnaires bilingues composés au cours des siècles. Reste la troisième source pour l'histoire du vocabulaire, les fonds informatisés tels ceux de M. Quemada, source remarquable mais qui, encore une fois, laisse de côté ces dictionnaires bilingues, et omet ainsi les renseignements morphologiques, syntaxiques et surtout sémantiques fournis par les dictionnaires bilingues. Dans l'histoire du français, ces dictionnaires bilingues publiés hors de France constituent un trésor inexploité pour combler les lacunes des diction­ naires étymologiques et historiques. Le seul dictionnaire étymologique ou historique du français à citer ces dictionnaires est le Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuchde von Wartburg. Chez von Wartburg, on cite Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530) de John Palsgrave; n'y figure aucun des dictionnaires bilingues ou plurilingues publiés en Angleterre entre Palsgrave et Cotgrave (1611). Or, entre ces deux dates les lexicographes anglais (et les refugiés français en Angleterre) n'ont pas cessé de travailler. Au contraire, les huit ouvrages suivants en sont témoins: Estienne/Veron (1552), de Sainliens (1570, 1580, 1593), Baret (1573, 1580), Higgins (1572, 1585). Des renseignements sur l'histoire du français abondent dans ces diction­ naires, renseignements concernant sa morphologie aussi bien que sa séman­ tique. Je vais montrer certains exemples de ces renseignements, en vue de créer une nouvelle sorte de dictionnaire historique. Pour déterminer l'utilité d'un de ces dictionnaires bilingues dans l'histoire de la langue française, j'ai étudié les mots qui se rapportent à la religion dans le dernier dictionnaire de Claude de Sainliens, publié en 1593. La religion sem­ blait un champ sémantique prometteur à l'époque des Guerres de Religion dans un dictionnaire composé par un réfugié protestant; les résultats ne m'ont pas déçu. En effet, on trouve dans cet ouvrage une bonne indication des lacunes notées ci-dessus. Les dictionnaires étymologiques omettent régulièrement les mots qui n'ont pas survécu. Ainsi, nous ne trouvons dans aucun des diction­ naires étymologiques le mot gobe-quinault, depuis longtemps disparu de la

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langue française, mais qui figure dans le dictionnaire de 1593. Par contre, ce mot se trouve dans le Huguet, mais avec les équivalents: 'bélître', 'gourmand', 'affamé'. Ceci n'est pas du tout le sens que lui donne de Sainliens: "The priest swallowing his god made of wafer." Robert Estienne, dans son dictionnaire français-latin de 1549 inclut ce mot, mais il ne fournit pas d'équivalent latin. Serait-ce un cas de censure, ou d'auto-censure? Bien d'autres mots dans ce champ sémantique révèlent des changements de signification similaire. L'attitude des Protestants vis-à-vis de la communion dans le culte catholique se manifeste aussi dans l'emploi du mot jean-le-blanc (normalement un oiseau rapace) pour désigner l'hostie: Ian le blanc, or l'oiseau Saint-Martin, a ravening birde or a kinde of Hauke killing hennes in the countrey houses: the Protestants doe call the God of the Papiste made of paste, Ian le blanc. De même, le mot réveille-matin, une nouvelle invention allemande à cette époque, prend un sens particulier chez le Sainliens, où il semble dénoter un livre décrivant les événements de la Saint-Barthélemy: Le réveille matin des Francoys, the booke shewing the falshood of the authors of the massaker or slaughter traitrously committed on the persons of the most noble & faitful christians of Fraunce, Anno 1572. Le réveille-matin, dans ce sens-là, désigne plutôt un appel à la guerre. Dans d'autres cas, le changement est moins spectaculaire. Le mot agios se retrouve dans notre langue d'aujourd'hui et possède selon le TLF deux sens: 1) colifichets, affiquets, parure; 2) discours, façons, prétentions, manières. On y trouve une citation du XVe siècle, où Greban semble employer le mot dans le sens "manières cérémonieuses d'agir": "Faut-il faire tant d'agios?" demande un personnage. Dans le Huguet, la définition est "cérémonies, pratiques extérieures du culte". Mais il faut préciser: extérieures à quel culte? Toutes les citations révèlent qu'au seizième siècle ce mot a toujours désigné les cérémonies du culte catholique, et de Sainliens fournit les précisions nécessaires: Agyos, or agios, blessings and crossings which the papisticall priests doe use in their holy water, to make a mearlew muse. Parfois, les changements ne sont pas tant dans le sens que dans la connotation. Un mot assez neutre à l'époque où il n'y avait qu'une Église

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prend un sens plutôt négatif (au moins dans le vocabulaire des Protestants) après la Réforme. Ainsi 'pontifical', adjectif signifiant 'relatif aux pontifes romains' 'relatif au souverain pontife', ou bien substantif désignant lerituelde l'ordination des évêques, devient, chez les Protestants, un mot négatif, comme nous le voyons dans le Dictionary French and English: pontifical, costlie, pontificali, sumptuous pontificallement, sumptuously

Cette nuance négative, dont la première attestation signalée dans nos diction­ naires modernes (dans l'article "pontifier") date de Cotgrave 1611, est déjà évidente ici en 1593. On trouve la définition identique dans le Treasurie of the French Tong de 1580, 30 ans avant Cotgrave. Un autre exemple du même genre est le définition de 'porteur de rogatons' dans les dictionnaires du XVIe siècle. Dans le dictionnaire français-latin de 1549, Robert Estienne note simplement: "porteur de lettres de remission, ou pardon" et c'est exactement le ton neutre pris par Huguet: "porteur de requêtes, de reliques et d'indulgences." Mais dans de Sainliens, l'auteur protestant remarque l'abus pratiqué par ces porteurs: "Rogatons, un porteur de rogatons, a bearer of the Popes bulles, or relickes of martyrs to bee worshipped, and so to get money". La même façon de profiter des os des martyrs se révèle dans les articles sur reliquaire, défini dans le Huguet comme "lieu où sont des objets sacrés". Mais le culte des saints n'est pas très développé chez les Protestants, comme nous l'indique la définition de de Sainliens: "Reliquaire, a place where the relickes of Saints be kept, as the Papists doe use". D'ailleurs, John Higgins, dans son remaniement du Nomenclator de Hadrianus Junius, le définit non pas comme un objet, mais comme une personne, et une personne très malhonnête: "Reliquaire. A bearer about of relicks: a iuggler: a deceiver: a counsener of plaine countrie folkes, as begging friers did with guilefull words, pretending devotion". Pour beaucoup d'autres mots, bien qu'il n'y ait pas de sens négatif donné au mots concernant l'église catholique, il est clair que ces mots appartiennent à un culte, le culte catholique, et non pas au culte protestant, distinction qui est devenue très importante au XVIe siècle. Puisque cette distinction est moins importante dans la France du XXe siècle, nos dictionnaires modernes omettent souvent ce qualificatif, ce qui nous donne un portrait faux de ce que ces mots signifiaient aux époques passées. Par exemple, tous les mots concernant les vêtements écclésiatiques témoignent de cette lacune:

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Chasuble, a Massing Priests vestement Corporali, the fine linnen whereupon the Romish Priest putteth his sacrament. (Fr mod: corporal) Une estole, a Stole as Priests have about their neckes in the Romish Church. Vestiaire, the versterie, where the papisticall Priests doe laye up all their church appareil. De même pour les mots désignant certaines pratiques de l'église catholique: Indulgences, as gaigner les indulgences, such pardons as the Pope giveth. La Neufaine, a vowe among the Papistes during nine dayes ceremonies. Ondoyer un enfant nouveau né, a manner of speech among the papists, when the Midwife christeneth a childe new borne, when hee is in danger of death. Ceux qui portent la poille, when the Papists doe carrie their with foure staves a cloth or like fine cloth square, to shadow such as be under it, a Canapie. Les recommendances, praises for the dead: also praiers to God at a mans buriall, in the Romish church. Il pisse pour les tres-passex, Rabelais, doubtfully spoken, for it may be taken as it is pronounced, he pisseth for the dead, alluding to the custom of the papists, sprinkling the graves of the dead with holy water to clense their soules... Ainsi que ceux qui désignent certains officiers du pape: Inquisiteur de la foy, an officer among the Papists, that inquireth of ones beliefs. Penencier, ou penitencier, he that appoynteth a punishment for offences committed towards God appointed by the Pope in churches in Rome, as in Santa Maria Maiore and others.

Dans tous ces cas, un mot qui se rapportait antérieurement à un aspect de la seule église, est marqué, dès le début de la Réforme, pour l'église catholique, et prend ainsi une nuance politique dans la lutte parfois sanglante entre les Catholiques et les Protestants. Il reste le cas des deux mules, les deux appartenant au pape. Mule a deux sens en français moderne: (1) "l'animal, hybride femelle de l'âne et de la jument ( ou bien du cheval et de l'ânesse); (2) "pantoufle de femme à talon assez haute ou à semelle compensé, et sans quartier". Comme extension de cette deuxième définition, nous trouvons "la mule du pape" une pantoufle blanche brodée d'une croix. Or au quatorzième siècle ainsi qu'au seizième siècle, nous trouvons une troisième définition: "engelure au talon". Les trois

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définitions se retrouvent dans une seule locution, selon l'explication que nous fournit Claude de Sainliens: "Il va sur mule aussi bien que le pape, he rideth upon a mule as the Pope: this is spoken in mockerie by those who have kibes". La traduction littérale se rapporte à l'animal, mais la moquerie de la deuxième explication repose sur un jeu de mots entre la deuxième définition ("pantoufle") et la troisième ("engelure"), ce qui démontre assez nettement le rapport historique entre ces deux sens. Et la moquerie repose également sur la méfiance envers le pape partagée par tous les Protestants. Dans les diction­ naires étymologiques et les dictionnaires de la langue au moyen âge on trouve toutes les trois définitions. Chez Huguet, on ne trouve que 'engelure', puis­ que les autres sens ont survécu. On ne trouve dans aucun de ces dictionnaires la locution citée, ni aucune référence à une nuance religieuse (ou moqueuse). C'est une autre perle qui a glissé entre les doigts des lexicographes, et qui restera inconnue jusqu'à ce que nous dépouillions ces ouvrages d'une façon systématique. Reste à déterminer la meilleure façon d'étudier ces textes, et les autres textes plus connus, pour nous donner une meilleure idée de l'histoire de la sémantique. Ce que j'ai essayé de démontrer ici, ce n'est pas seulement les cas individuels où un certain mot ou une certaine locution manque dans une source ou l'autre dont nous disposons aujourd'hui. Il est plus important de considérer comment ces oeuvres de référence nous fournissent un portrait inexact du vocabulaire de n'importe quelle époque. Mais ce qui importe le plus est de considérer les possibilités de rectifier ces problèmes offerts par la nouvelle technologie. J'ai présenté des cas où le mot, ou un sens d'un mot, ou une nuance négative ou politique d'un mot manque dans un de nos dictionnaires de référence. Une telle lacune est sérieuse, mais les problèmes des dictionnaires étymologiques ou historiques ne seraient pas corrigés par le simple dépouille­ ment de tous les dictionnaires bilingues cités ci-dessus. Dans les dictionnaires étymologiques nous ne trouvons que la citation de la première attestation de chaque sens qui a survécu jusqu'à l'ère moderne. Cette citation ne comportera qu'une de plusieurs collocations possibles, collocations qui ont peut-être changé au cours des siècles, sans que le sens représenté ne change. La nuance positive ou négative du mot a peut-être changé sans changer le sens. Les rapports existant à un moment assez précis entre ce mot et les autres mots dans le même champ sémantique se perdent également. Même dans un dictionnaire qui ne traite qu'une époque, tels nos dictionnaires du vieux français ou du français du seizième siècle, le vocabulaire est trop étendu pour fournir une idée

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exacte du vocabulaire disponible aux auteurs. Dans les dictionnaires de l'ancien français, le vocabulaire disponible à l'écrivain du XIVe siècle, est-il pareil à celui qui était à la disposition du clerc du neuvième? Pas du tout, pas plus que le vocabulaire du XIVe est celui d'aujourd'hui. Même dans le Huguet, où la période de temps est moins longue, on trouvera une différence énorme entre le vocabulaire des premiers textes dépouillés et celui des derniers. Nous possédons actuellement les moyens de remplacer ces portraits inexacts de l'histoire de la sémantique et les lexicographes des dictionnaires bilingues sont les photographes qui vont corriger ces fausses images. Leur dictionnaires sont comme des instantanés du vocabulaire, pris au moins tous les dix ans depuis la fin du moyen âge. Le recueil de mots équivalents dans la deuxième langue est le cliché négatif de la première langue. Ensemble ils nous permettent de voir les rapports sémantiques avec une clarté jusqu'ici inégalée. Mais comment garder ces caractéristiques et en même temps tous les aspects positifs des dictionnaires déjà élaborés au cours du siècle passé? Ici, l'ordinateur, le lecteur optique, et le CD-ROM promettent une solution qui combine la facilité et la rapidité (en tout cas, par rapport au temps et au travail nécessaires pour élaborer les dictionnaires étymologiques et historiques mentionnés ci-dessus). On finirait par exemple avec un article tel que:

PATENOSTRE 1480 Caxton

Wautier lo paternostrier Vend a le dedicasse Paternosters de cristal, Par dousaines en gros Dambre, de voire, et de cornes. Walter the paternoster maker Solde at the dedicacion Bedes of cristall, By doseyns in grete, Of Ambre, of glas, and of homes.

1530 Palsgrave

[paternostre] bede of stone or wode [paternostre] a payre of beedes

1573 Baret

A payre of Baríes

1580 De Sainliens

beades, the lordes prayer

1585 Junius

Beades to praye upon, called in poperie the rosarie or pater noster

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Et, dans le sens inverse des séries d'équivalents tels que: slapsawce: lecheplat,friand,friole,frigalet,lecheur de plat, gourmand greedigut: glouton, bauffrer, gourmand, glout, goulu, grand mascheur ou mangeur. suckspigget: yvrogne, subiect au vin, grand buveur, bon biberon C'est une sorte de dictionnaire analogique des années 1580. Comment produire un tel dictionnaire? Aujourd'hui nous avons les moyens technologiques pour le faire. D'abord il faut informatiser le contenu des dictionnaires bilingues, ce qui peut aller assez vite avec un lecteur optique. Ensuite il faut passer ces dictionnaires par un programme de concordance, pour alphabétiser les articles, et pour trouver les emplois des mots cachés dans des expressions à l'intérieur des articles. Ensuite il faut marquer par la date de composition tous les articles qu'on va garder dans le dictionnaire final pour faciliter le triage chronologique après qu'on aura rassemblé plusieurs dictionnaires. Après avoir réuni l'ensemble des dictionnaires bilingues, et après avoir organisé les articles, il faut trouver des moyens d'accès plus souples que le dictionnaire imprimé. Je suggère l'emploi des disques ROM, ce qui nous permettrait de réorganiser le contenu selon notre volonté. Si nous voulions imprimer tous les mots se terminant en -eresse entre 1560 et 1585, on n'aurait qu'à le demander à l'ordinateur. Le résultat sera un dictionnaire qui nous montre quels mots étaient assez importants à une date très précise pour être inclus dans un dictionnaire; quels étaient les rapports entre un mot et d'autres à une époque précise; quelles étaient toutes les formes d'un mot à l'époque visée. Nous avons la technologie et les textes pour le faire; c'est à nous de le réaliser. RÉFÉRENCES A. Sources primaires, présentées en ordre chronologique Estienne, Robert & Jean.Veron. 1552. Dictionariolum puerorum tribus linguis latina anglica & gallica conscriptum. London: Wolf. [de Sainliens, Claude?]. 1570/71. Dictionarie French and English. London: H. Bynneman for L. Harrison. Higgins, John. 1572. Huloet's Dictionary, corrected and amended [...]. London: Thomas Marshe. Baret, John. 1573/74. Alvearie or Triple Dictionary in Englishe, Latin and French. London: Henry Denham.

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de Sainliens, Claude. 1580. A Treasurie of the French Tong. London: Bynneman. Baret, John, 1580. Alvearie or quadruple dictionary, containing foure sundrie tongues. London: Henry Denham. Higgins, John / Hadrianus Junius. 1585. The Nomenclator or Remembrancer of Adrianus Junius...Written by the Said Adrianus Junius in Latine, Greek, French and other forrein tongues, and now in English by John Higgins. London: Newberie & Denham. de Sainliens, Claude. 1593. A Dictionary French and English. London: Thomas Woodcock. B. Sources modernes, présentées en ordre alphabétique Gamillscheg, Ernst. 1966-69. Etymologisches Wõrterbuch der französischen Sprache. Heidelberg: C. Winter. Godefroy, Frédéric Eugène. 1881-1902. Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française. Paris: F. Vieweg. Huguet, Edmond. 1925-67. Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle. Paris: H. Champion. Imbs, Paul. 1971- . Trésor de la langue française: Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècles. Paris: Editions du CNRS. Tobler, Adolf & Erhard Lommatzsch. 1925- . Alfranzôsisches Wõrterbuch. Berlin: Weidmann. Wartburg, Walther von. 1928- . Französisches etymologisches Wõrterbuch. Bonn: Klopp.

SHALL OR WILL ? CHOICE OF THE VARIANT FORM IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH, BRITISH AND AMERICAN MERJA KYTÖ University of Helsinki 1.

Introduction.

The well-known rivalry between shall and will offers an attractive topic to a student of diachrony working with the variational approach and within the framework of sociohistorical linguistics. In this paper I shall look into a number of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that influenced the use of shall and will during the 16th and 17th centuries, a period of drastic change in the development of the two verbs. Before presenting my main findings, which will be based on a study of 1935 attested instances (in declarative sentences), I shall briefly discuss my corpus of texts and the criteria applied when classifying the data. 2.

Texts.

Data drawn from a variety of texts selected to represent different modes and levels of spoken and written expression yield empirical evidence which gives us grounds to make claims about the factors accounting for variation in the choice of the form and for the changes that take place in the structure of the variant fields in the course of time (Romaine 1982; Kytö & Rissanen 1983:470-475; Rissanen 1986). A meaningfully balanced and structured corpus of texts, no matter how deficient because of the scarcity of certain types of texts, will be of great help when the extra-linguistic factors influencing the development are being investigated. The data sampled for this study derive from the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts: Diachronic and Dialectal, a twomillion-word computer corpus being compiled at present under the supervision of Professor Matti Rissanen in the Department of English of the University of Helsinki (Ihalainen, Kytö & Rissanen 1987: 21-25). The British English material selected for the purposes of this study from among the good half a million words of Early Modem British English included

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in the Helsinki Corpus forms a sub-corpus of, all in all, nearly 250,000 words. 1 Texts in the sub-corpus, in order to offer a solid basis for comparisons through the different stages of English, represent text types (history writing, travel narratives,fiction,correspondence and sermons) which offer material from successive periods of time or are of interest in that counterparts can be found in the early American English part of the Corpus (diary writing, trials). The extra-linguistic factors taken into consideration in this study are date, text type, relationship to spoken language and style (with reference to the formal/informal axis). The British English texts consulted are listed in the Appendix.2 The American English texts, 150,000 words in total sampled from the writings left by the early New England colonists, form a supplement to the Helsinki Corpus. The selection, while faithful to the special characteristics relevant to the study of arisingregional variety, remains reduced in quantity and restricted in diversity, as only certain types of text remain from the harsh conditions of settlement (Kytõ & Rissanen 1983:476-485). Distinguishing between text types and time divisions will help us organize the data for statistical purposes. There is, again owing to the history of settlement, a discrepancy between the sub-periods distinguished for the British and American varieties. The two centuries of British English are divided into three periods covering a span of 70 years each (henceforth referred to as BrA, BrB and BrC periods). Thefinaltwo periods run, by and large, parallel to the two 50-year periods in the New England texts (AmB and AmC periods). The date of the first permanent settlement in the Plymouth Colony marks the starting point of the period. The 1670s, on the other hand, are taken to set the early settler generation apart fromlaterAmerican-born generations. Juxtaposing the different periods for comparison is justified in that the language of the first settler generation clearly reflected that of the Jacobines rather than that of their successors. The time gap must, of course, be kept in mind when looking into

1

The Early Modern British English texts included in the Helsinki Corpus have been selected mainly by Miss Terttu Nevalainen and Mrs. Helena Raumolin-Brunberg; the selection of early American English texts is, by and large, based on Kytõ & Rissanen (1983). 2 Detailed bibliographical information on the sources will be included in a manual which will accompany the Helsinki Corpus. The words given in the Appendix were counted with the Word Count (WC) program (Holder 1982:30); the examples were obtained, partly, with the Linus mainframe package compiled by Dr. Kimmo Koskenniemi at the University of Helsinki and, partly, with the WordCruncher program devised for microcomputer use (WordCruncher 1987). I am grateful to Mr. Visa Rauste, Mr. Hannu Hartikka and Mr. OlliMatti Penttinen for kindly advising me how to work with the programs and how to operate the machines.

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the figures obtained. The New England texts studied are listed in the Appendix. 3.

Method.

Shall and will originally had independent meanings, shall referring to 'Obligation' and will to 'Volition'.3 They appeared as full verbs and could be used as auxiliaries to denote a more or less obligationally or volitionally colored or utterly "pure" or non-colored notion of futurity. Shall appeared earlier than will as an auxiliary of the future (Molloy 1897:64) and was the future auxiliary when will was still mainly being used as a full verb expressing volitional overtones. Both shall and will could appear in all persons. In the late Middle English period will developed into a real auxiliary of the future, and for a time shall and will existed side by side freely in all persons as markers of the future. A great change took place in the course of the 17th century. In declarative sentences will displaced shall in the cases of "pure" future in the second and third person, and shall, conversely, ousted will from the first person in cases of future reference. The well-known exceptions to this rule were Scottish, Irish and other extra-British varieties, in which will became the form preferred in all persons. In American English this tendency has been attributed to Irish and Scottish immigrants who flooded into the country in the 19th century (Moody 1974:70 and passim ). In 1653 John Wallis was the first to state clear rules in his Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae, and his words were widely acclaimed by subsequent grammarians until the further elaborations of Dr. Johnson in 1755: Q. What is the difference between the Auxiliaries, shall, and will? A. Shall, in the first Persons barely foretells, in the second and third Persons it promises or threatens. Will in the first Persons promises or threatens, in the second and third persons it barely foretells. (A. Lane, A Key to the Art of Letters, London, 1700, p. 45, cited by Tieken-Boon van Ostade 1985:126).

Working with historical data requires particular alertness when assigning meanings to previously semantically independent, but now more or less grammaticalized items. Encouraged by my previous work on the early development of can, may, could and might (Kytö 1987), I shall largely follow the guidelines presented by Coates (1983). Modais will be regarded as 3 Owing to the limits set to this paper, discussion of the previous scholarship on shall and will will be kept to a minimum. For a helpful introduction to both diachronic and synchronic studies on the topic, see Wekker (1976:23-26, 31-33); see, also, Weida (1975).

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of inherently fuzzy and polysemic nature. The pigeon-holing of examples, necessary for statistical purposes, will be based on context-sensitive and pragmatically motivated readings. Blanket terms 'Epistemic', 'Root' and 'Indeterminate' (between 'Epistemic' and 'Root') will be used when classifying the data according to the basic modal notions. Examples with 'Root' shall will be, further, defined as cases of 'Obligation' or 'Intention'. With cases of 'Root' will I found it increasingly difficult to distinguish, right away and reliably, between 'Willingness' (taken as a state of mind of the subject), 'Intention' (taken as a single dynamic event in future) and 'Indeterminate' cases, which allow both readings. I will resort to the more flexible blanket term 'Volition', which at this stage of analysis is taken to cover a gamut of finer shades of meaning. Examples (1), (2) and (3) are given to illustrate the main categories distinguished. (1) 'Epistemic' I hope you will honer poor salem and vs with your presence when our howes is but habitable, for handsom it will not be this year (AmB/Private Letters) (2) 'Volition' ('Willingness') I have muche difficultye to keepe John Galloppe heere by reason his wife will not come. I mervayle at the womans weaknesse, that she will live miserably with her children there, when she might live comfortably heere with her husband. (AmB/Official Letters) (3) 'Indeterminate' ('Volition'/ 'Epistemic') L. C. J. Did you lie with them? Dunne. No, my Lord, I did not. L. C. J. Well, I see thou wilt answer nothing ingenuously, therefore I will trouble my self no more with thee: Go on with your Evidence, Gentlemen. (BrC/Trials) 4.

Data.

4.1. Overall view. The distribution of the instances attested in the three main categories distinguished is given in Table 1. The figures show that shall and will appear in 'Epistemic' use in the majority of cases (the number of 'Indeterminate' cases is very small and further discussion of the category will be omitted). The distributions of the forms in diachrony will be looked into after distinguishing, further, between cases of 'Obligation' and 'Intention' with shall and sorting out the data

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SHALL OR WILL ?

shall

will

Epistemic

Root

Indeter­ minate

Total

BrE %

320 67.1

155 32.5

2 0.4

477 100.0

AmE

186 71.3

71 27.2

4

%

JL5

261 100.0

Total

506

226

6

738

BrE %

475 67.1

206 29.1

27 3.8

708 100.0

AmE %

393 80.4

87 17.8

9 1.8

489 100.0

Total

868

293

36

1197

Table 1. 'Epistemic', 'Root' and 'Indeterminate' shall vs. will in declarative sentences. according to the first, second and third person uses. The categories where the two forms meet can be seen in Table 2. Root Volition

Obligation

Person

Epistemic Prediction I II III

I

II III

I

II III

shall

+

+

+

+

-

-

+

+

+

will

+

+

+

+

+

+

—

__

—

Table 2. Shall vs. will and modal sub-categories. Shall expectedly, is used to express 'Volition' (in cases of 'Intention') with first person subjects only. Shall, contrary to modern usage, appears in epistemic meaning with both second and third person subjects. Cases of 'Obligation' (with shall only) and cases of 'Volition' with second and third person subjects (with will only) can thus be omitted from the discussion on variation in the Early Modern English use of the forms.

MERJA KYTÕ

280

4.2. Epistemic meaning. The overall figures obtained for 'Epistemic' uses (see Table 3) show that will gains ground steadily from the 1500s on. The corresponding figures obtained for British and American varieties do not differ much, which would indicate that the material sampled gives grounds for further comparisons. shall

will

Total

Epistemic BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710 Total

135 (58.2%) 116(38.8%) 69(26.1%) 320 (40.3%)

97(41.8%) 183 (61.2%) 195 (73.9%) 475 (59.7%)

232 299 264 795

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720 Total

110(41.0%) 76 (24.4%) 186(32.1%)

158 (59.0%) 235 (75.6%) 393 (67.9%)

268 311 579

Table 3. 'Epistemic' shall vs. will. It should be pointed out that the eight cases with contracted forms such as those given in example (4) are, to be on the safe side, excluded from these figures.4 (4) I this Deponent saw the Deputy comming up the Streete towards M r Usher's, vpon which I saide looke yonder comes the Deputy hee'le end the buisness presently, come quoth M r Saffine to M r Hodges goe with mee to the Deputy & wee'le aske him whether it bee soe or noe (AmCXDepositions) The breakdown figures obtained for the first, second and third person uses point to the BrB period from 1570 to 1640 as the onset period for the influx of willy most clearly shown with the third person subject. The corresponding figures obtained for American English go along with this tendency, and will becomes firmly established in both second and third person uses from the 1640s on (see Table 4). 4 Contractions 11 and 'd are generally held to derive from will and would rather than from shall and should (e.g., Quirk et al 1985:228), but doubts have been raised on the status of these forms on the basis of Modern English usage (cf. I'd like to/I should/would like tn).

SHALL OR WILL ?

shall

281

will

Total

Epistemic - First Person BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710

27 (58.7%) 21 (52.5%) 42 (80.8%)

19(41.3%) 19 (47.5%) 10(19.2%)

46 40 52

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720

31 (77.5%) 35 (85.4%)

9 (22.5%) 6 (14.6%)

40 41

Epistemic - Second Person BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710

24(61.5%) 27 (57.4%) 3 (15.8%)

15 (38.5%) 20 (42.6%) 16 (84.2%)

39 47 19

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720

17 (63.0%) 11(20.0%)

10 (37.0%) 44 (80.0%)

27 55

Epistemic - Third Person BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710

84(57.1%) 68(32.1%) 24 (12.4%)

63(42.9%) 144(67.9%) 169 (87.6%)

147 212 193

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720

62 (30.8%) 30(14.0%)

139 (69.2%) 185(86.0%)

201 215

BrA 1500-1570 84(57.1%) 63(42.9%) 147 BrB 1570-1640 68(32.1%) 144(67.9%) 212 BrC 1640-1710 24(12.4%) 169(87.6%) 193 AmB 1620-1670 62 (30.8%) 139 (69.2%) 201 AmC 1670-1720 30 (14.0%) 185 (86.0%) 215 Table 4 . 'Epistemic' shall vs. will in the first, second and third person . This makes sense as volitional overtones understandably remain less accentuated when stated about the more distant third person than when the first or second person is the source of the modal color (volitional second person uses can, in fact, be expected with any frequency only in interrogative sentences). 'Epistemic' first person shall starts gaining ground later on from the 1640s on. Again, I/we will is more aptly felt to refer to the subject's will than would be the case with the more remote third person. In Early American English, I/we shall, on the contrary, was already established when the first generation of permanent settlers arrived in the New England colonies. One must, again, keep in mind that the first period of American English reflects later usage in that it includes a span of 30 years from the BrC period.

282

MERJA KYTÕ

Also, for the sake of the prestige held by the mother country, immigrants were probably keener to stick to what was increasingly considered as correct usage. In early American English the figures for the second and third persons hold close to those obtained with British English texts. The use of will is by no means excluded from the first person and both forms may occur in related contexts, as in example (5): (5) Ka. Where shall we lye the next night. Jo . In our own house that will be the best, and therefore we must furnish it before, and lay in some Ale, that we may be able to invite all the wedding people to drink with us, and then we shall have good handsel indeed, and we will also have a good Gammon of Bacon, and that will make the drink go down merrily. (BrC/Fiction) The breakdown figures obtained for the first and second person subject with different text types and sub-periods remain too scattered to draw conclusions. With the third person instances attested in private and official letters it is possible to see that colloquial registers favor the rise of will: while shall was still the form preferred in formal style (official letters) in the BrA period, will was already used in half the instances attested in more informal contexts (private letters; see Table 5). British English fiction offers further evidence pointing to colloquial registers as an environment favoring the use of will (with the exception of odd instances, most examples are cases of 'imagined speech' (as in example (5), above) with colloquial everyday language put into the mouth of a speaker, see Table 6). 4 . 3 . Root meaning. As mentioned above, the study of variation between the two forms used to express 'Root' meaning is restricted to the first person uses referring to 'Volition'('Intention' or 'Willingness'). The rise of Root' will in the BrB period is dramatic, followed by a drop in the BrC period (see Table 7). The eleven cases of contracted forms, if taken to represent will, would further accentuate the figures. Shall never disappears this dramatically from the corresponding AmB period texts. The BrB period seems to represent a kind of upheaval stage, followed by a pendulum swing to the opposite direction. In American English, besides the discrepancy between the subperiods, it could be suggested that the distinction between 'Epistemic' and

SHALL OR WILL ?

shall

28 3

will

Total

Epistemic - Third Person - Private Letters BrA 1500-1570 AmA

18 (47.4%)

20 (52.6%)

38

BrB 1570-1640 AmB 1620-1670

18 (26.9%) 8 (15.7%)

49(73.1%) 43 (84.3%)

67 51

BrC 1640-1710 AmC 1670-1720

7 (12.3%) 5 (7.2%)

50 (87.7%) 64 (92.8%)

57 69

43 (26.5%) 13(10.8%)

119(73.5%) 107 (89.2%)

162 120

BrE Total AmE Total

Epistemic - Third Person - Official Letters BrA 1500-1570 AmA

18 (81.8%)

4(18.2%)

22

BrB 1570-1640 AmB 1620-1670

10 (43.5%) 7(31.8%)

13 (56.5%) 15 (68.2%)

23 22

BrC 1640-1710 AmC 1670-1720

5 (15.6%) 16 (20.3%)

27 (84.4%) 63 (79.7%)

32 79

BrE Total AmE Total

33 (42.9%) 23 (22.8%)

44(57.1%) 78 (77.2%)

77 101

Table 5. The third person 'Epistemic' shall vs. will in correspondence.

shall

will

Total

Epistemic - Third Person - Fiction BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710 Total

11(42.3%) 2 (8.0%) 2 (5.3%) 15 (16.9%)

15 (57.7%) 23 (92.0%) 36 (94.7%) 74(83.1%)

26 25 38 89

Table 6. The third person 'Epistemic' shall vs. will in fiction.

MERJA KYTÕ

284

shall

will

Total

Root Volition (Intention/Willingness) - First Person BrA 1500-1570 AmA -

26(44.8%)

32(55.2%)

58

BrB 1570-1640 AmB 1620-1670

1(1.4%) 11 (57.9%)

73(98.6%) 8 (42.1%)

74 19

BrC 1640-1710 AmC 1670-1720

18(29.5%) 35 (39.3%)

43(70.5%) 54 (60.7%)

61 89

BrE Total AmE Total

45 (23.3%) 46 (42.6%)

148 (76.7%) 62 (57.4%)

193 108

Table 7. First person 'Root' shall vs. will. 'Root' meanings became neutralized when the speakers clung to shall, again, according to what was thought to be good usage on the basis of 'Epistemic' uses of I/we shall. The breakdown figures obtained for speech-based and non-speech-based texts show, further, that I/we will was already established in British English from the 1500s on in speech-based contexts (trials, sermons) and in cases of 'imagined speech' (most cases, again, from fiction), while shall was the form used in non-speech-based texts (see Table 8). While both forms can still be attested in parallel contexts, as in examples (6a) and (6b), will is the form used in spoken language in the vast majority of cases, see example (7): (6) a. I shall now say no more then b. I will say noe more the lorde that no man can have a more dericke you for the best {idem ) real heart toward any then hath to Thee and Thine BrC/Private Letters) (7) one may the 24 mary waren being in afeet and grevosly aflectted then was in atranc for sum tim we hard her say who ar ye what is your name and agin she said what toth aker Doktr toothekers wiffe wee often herd her say I wont i wonte i will not touch that book (AmC/Depositions)

SHALL OR WILL ?

shall

285

will

Total

Volition - Speech-Based Imagined Speech - First Person BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710 Total

11 (28.2%) 8(21.6%) 19(15.2%)

28 (71.8%) 49(100.0%) 29(78.4%) 106(84.8%)

39 49 37 125

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720 Total

4 (44.4%) 4(13.8%) 8(21.1%)

5 (55.6%) 25(86.2%) 30(78.9%)

9 29 38

Volition - Non-Speech-Based - First Person BrA 1500-1570 BrB 1570-1640 BrC 1640-1710 Total

15(78.9%) 1(4.0%) 10(41.7%) 26(38.2%)

4(21.1%) 24(96.0%) 14(58.3%) 42(61.8%)

19 25 24 68

AmB 1620-1670 AmC 1670-1720 Total

7 (70.0%) 31(51.7%) 38(54.3%)

3 (30.0%) 29(48.3%) 32(45.7%)

10 60 70

Table 8. First person shall vs. will of 'Volition' in speech-based and non-speech-based texts. 5. Final remarks. In this study evidence was found pointing to the rise of will in both 'Epistemic' and 'Root' ('Volition') uses in the British and American varieties of Early Modern English. The grammatical person of the subject was seen to influence the structure of the variant fields. Similarly, among the extralinguistic factors studied, text type, relationship to spoken language and level of formality of the text could be seen to influence the process of change. Further studies of the corpus material and a closer look at other linguistic factors thought to build up co-occurrence patterns with 'Epistemic' or 'Root' uses (questions, if-clauses, passive vs. active voice, progressive form, perfective form, stative vs. agentive main verb, etc.) should reveal further aspects of the motivation behind the rise of will and the mechanisms of linguistic change in progress.

286

MERJA KYTÖ

REFERENCES Coates, Jennifer. 1983. The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries London & Canberra: Croom Helm. Holder, Wayne. 1982. The WORD Plus, Version 1.2 Manual. San Diego: Oasis Systems. Ihalainen, Ossi, Merja Kytõ & Matti Rissanen. 1987. "The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts: Diachronic and Dialectal. Report on work in progress". Corpus Linguistics and Beyond ed. by Willem Meijs, 21-32. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Kytö, Merja. 1987. "Can (could) vs. may (might) in Old and Middle English. Testing a diachronic corpus". Neophilologica Fennica ed. by Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, 205-240. (= Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, 45.) Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. Kytõ, Merja & Matti Rissanen. 1983. "The syntactic study of early American English: the variationist at the mercy of his corpus?" Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 84.470-490. Molloy, Gerald. 1897. The Irish Difficulty, Shall and Will. London, Glasgow & Dublin: Blackie & Son. Moody, Patricia A. 1974. "Shall and will: the grammatical tradition and dialectology". American Speech 49.67-78. Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London & New York: Longman. Rissanen, Matti. 1986. "Variation and the study of English historical syntax". Diversity and Diachrony ed. by David Sankoff, 97-109. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Romaine, Suzanne. 1982. Socio-Historical Linguistics; Its Status and Methodology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid. 1985. "I Will Be Drowned and No Man Shall Save Me: the conventional rules for shall and will in eighteenthcentury English grammars". English Studies 66.123-142. Weida, Gudrun. 1975. DerGebraucb von Shall/Should und Will/Would in Englischer Prosa am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Augsburg: Blasaditsch GmbH. Wekker, H. Chr. 1976. The Expression of Future Time in Contemporary British English. Amsterdam, New York & Oxford: North-Holland. WordCruncher. Text Indexing & Retrieval Software. 1987. Provo: Brigham Young University & Electronic Text Corporation.

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287

APPENDIX The BritishEnglishTexts studied: Text type

Period

History

BrA BrB BrC

Travel

BrA BrB BrC

Fiction

BrA BrB BrC

Diaries

BrA BrB BrC

Private Letters

BrA BrB BrC

Official Letters

BrA BrB BrC

Sermons

BrA BrB BrC

Trials

BrA BrB BrC

Author/Text

Words

Sir Thomas More; Robert Fabyan 14,000 John Stow; Sir John Hayward 10,100 11,700 Guilbert Burnet; John Milton Subtotal - 35,800 John Leland; Richard Torkington 14,300 John Taylor, Robert Coverte 14,900 Celia Fiennes; John Fryer 10,500 Subtotal - 39,700 11,700 The 100 Merry Tales; Thomas Harman Robert Armin; Thomas Deloney 12,500 Penny Merriments; Mrs. Behn 8,700 Subtotal - 32,900 Henry Machyn; King Edward the Sixth 10,500 Lady Margaret Hoby; Richard Madox 12,400 Samuel Pepys; John Evelyn 10,600 Subtotal - 33,500 6,000 Various writers idem 6,000 idem 6,000 Subtotal - 18,000 Various writers 3,000 idem 3,000 3,000 idem Subtotal - 9,000 Subtotal - Non-speech-based 168,900 John Fisher; Hugh Latimer Richard Hooker; Henry Smith John Tillotson; Jeremy Taylor Subtotal-33,100 Sir Edward Throckmorton Earl of Essex; Sir Walter Raleigh Titus Oates; Lady Alice Lisle Subtotal-41,100 Subtotal - Speech-based Total - Non-speech-based & speech-based

NB: BrA = 1500-1570

BrB = 1570-1640

BrC = 1640-1710

9,900 10,400 12,800 12,500 14,800 13,800 74,200 243.100

288

MERJA KYT6

The Arnerican English Texts studied: Text~

Period

History Travel Diaries Apology Narrative

ArnB

Essays Appeals & Answers Private Letters

ArnC ArnC

Authorrrext

ArnB

William Bradford Sarah Kemble Knight Samuel Sewall Robert Keayne Mary Rowlandson; Increase Mather; Cotton Mather Cotton Mather Various writers (educated and uneducated) Various writers

ArnC

idem

Official

ArnB

Various writers

Letters

ArnC

idem

ArnC ArnC

ArnB Arne

Words 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 18,000 6,000 12,000 10,400 10,800

Subtotal - 21,200 6,100 13,600 Subtotal- 19,700 Subtotal - Non-soeech-based 100,900 Sermons Depositions

Meeting Records

ArnB ArnB

John Cotton

ArnC

Suffolk County Court; Salem Trials Subtotal - 24,200 Boston First Church Meetings Salem Trials Subtotal - 15,000 Subtotal - S~h-based

ArnB ArnC

Witchcraft Annals

Total - Non-sQ!:!ech-based & sQeeeh-based NB: AmB = 1620-1670

ArnC = 1670-1720

10,000 6,200 18,000 5,000 10,000 49,200 150,100

LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DE CE QUE EN FRANÇAIS ET L'ÉVOLUTION DU RELATIFINTERROGATIF-EXCLAMATIF JEAN-MARCEL LÉARD Université de Sherbrooke 1. Généralités: l'explication en diachronie. 1.1 Il existe bien des choses que l'on peut attribuer au hasard, dont on dit qu'il les fait bien: nous sommes deux à parler de ce que dans ce congrès; nous ne parlons pas tout à fait du même ce que et on vous a gardé le meilleur vin pour la fin. J'espère que le mien n'en paraîtra pas trop plat Mais il faut aussi savoir s'arrêter, et au bon endroit, pour tirer une ligne de partage entre ce qui est aléatoire et ce qui a une cause: nous parlons dans la même salle et successivement. Un hasard pas trop complice nous aurait mis à parler dans des salles différentes, peut-être en même temps. Trop complice, il nous aurait fait parler dans la même salle et en même temps ... Ce que vous auriez ri! 1.2 Tout cela pour dire qu'il est bon de chercher une explication à l'ordon­ nance de certains faits, en particulier en linguistique historique, mais qu'il faut aussi savoir se limiter. Ce n'est pas nécessairement notre fort, et nous voulons tout expliquer. Je fais sans doute partie des naïfs, puisque je voudrais expli­ quer le développement d'une forme aussi bizarre et polyvalente que ce que par un principe unique. Dans le domaine de la morpho-syntaxe, le recours à une cau-salité physique est exclu (heureux les phonéticiens!) et les causes sociolo­ giques ou externes peu convaincantes: elles peuvent surtout expliquer l'exten­ sion. J'aurai donc une explication inhérente au système, ou interne, et je vais jouer ma naïveté jusqu'au bout: je fais comme si la cause était unique et comme si le relevé ou le classement des données était effectué. Si je n'adoptais pas ces principes, vous penseriez que je vais chercher mes idées chez les autres (Wunderli 1987; Price 1986). En réalité, ils ont profondément raison et je propose mon hypothèse avec l'espoir qu'elle peut en susciter d'autres,

290

JEAN-MARCEL LÉARD

concurrentes, et qu'elle fournira les nécessaires principes de classification, en même temps qu'une justification aux relevés: seuls les emplois relatifs ont été abondamment étudiés. 1.3 Par rapport à une étude récente publiée sur ce que (Léard 1986), cette communication va tenter de résoudre quelques problèmes historiques et théoriques. En rédigeant ma première étude, j'avais le sentiment d'un développement continu de ce que, dont je voyais partout l'expansion au détriment de que, quoi, comme, combien. Or, il est probable que l'évolution n'a pas été aussi ordonnée: il y a d'abord eu une période d'extension de ce que dans les emplois relatifs, interrogatifs et quantitatifs. Cela a coïncidé avec une stabilité dans le système de la subordination complétive et circonstancielle. Cette extension maximale dans le système s'est réduite au XVe siècle, et ce que devient plus local. L'évolution n'est donc pas en droite ligne. Me voilà à nou­ veau dans les plates-bandes de quelqu'un (Walter 1987). D'un autre côté, la coupure entre les emplois quantitatifs et les emplois relatifs de que/ce que, formes de QUOI et COMBIEN me semble moins nette, ce qui pose des problèmes d'ordre synchronique et diachronique. 2.0 Les emplois de ce que. 2.1

L'ancien français. Décrivons simplement et clairement la situation de l'ancien français et du moyen français. Le système du relatif-interrogatif est constitué de formes simples jusqu'à la fin du XIIe siècle: pas de ce que, de qu'est-ce que, de qui que, de lequel que, de qui c'est que. Au contraire, l'emploi de ce que à la place de que dans les subordonnées complétives sujet ou objet (1), dans les complétives indirectes (2), dans les subordonnées circonstancielles (3), est fréquent Cette situation dure jusqu'au début du XVe siècle sans repli notable. (la) Ço sent Rollant que la mort le tresprent (Roland, 2355) (1b) Ge li dis ce qu'il s'en alast (Béroul, 435) (lc) Et ce que trouver ne puis mire [...] C'est ce dont je plus me merveil (Mir. de N.D., IV, 127, No 25,78) (2) Si ay grant pitié de ce qu'il convient que je t'ocie (Bérinus, 297) (3) Après ce que mestres Gautiers Map ot mis en escrit... (La mort le roi Artu, 1, 1)

LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DE CE QUE EN FRANÇAIS

291

On pourrait même parler de gain, puisque dans les comparatives (4a, 4b) que ce que apparaît au XIVe siècle. Brunot (1966 I, 478) donne deux exemples, que nous nous garderons bien comme lui d'assimiler: le premier a disparu avec les emplois complétifs de ce que, le second au contraire me semble maintenu dans des emplois quantitatifs, sur lesquels nous reviendrons. (4a) Il n'estoit rien au monde dont le Roy eust plus grand paour que ce qu'i uy eschappast quelque mot (Commynes 1, 322, M.)"que le fait que" (4b) J'ay plus chier, a brief parler Pourrir en ceste maladie Et mourir que ce que je die (Mir. de N.D IV, 306, No 27, 1907) "que je ne le dis" 2.2

L'évolution. Ces exemples ne sont donnés qu'à titre indicatif, mais ils couvrent bien l'entier des emplois de ce que en ancien français dans la subordination non relative et non interrogative. Il est frappant de noter que l'extension de ce que est moindre en français moderne. Au XVe siècle, puis au XVIe, apparaît un repli, noté en touches discrètes par les grammaires: d'abord pour les com­ plétives du type ce dist il que (Martin &Wilmet 1980:224-225), puis pour les circonstancielles, car dès ce que disparaît au XVIe siècle (Gougenheim 1951:175) et enfin pour avec ce que et sans ce que au XVIIe siècle (Haase 1969:377). L'explication de ce déclin, s'il y en a une, n'est pas vraiment mon projet. Ce n'est sûrement pas un refus de la combinaison ce + que. Dès le XIIIe siècle, elle est en nette expansion dans l'autre partie du système de la subordination. On la trouve dans trois types de relatives (5): relatives indéfinies marquant l'identité qualitative ou quantitative, relatives sans antécédent, relatives à antécédent phrastique; dans les interrogatives indirectes (6), et accessoirement dans les comparatives de quantité (7). Ces emplois se sont maintenus, à l'exception de (7), dont nous donnons un exemple daté. (5a) (5b) (5c) (6) (7)

Je mange ce que tu manges Je mange ce que tu m'as donné Il a plu, ce que les gens attendaient depuis longtemps Je demande ce que tu fais J'estime que nos ames sont desnouées à vingt ans, ce qu'elles doivent estre (Montaigne, apud Huguet II,138)

292

JEAN-MARCEL LEARD

"autant que" Par ailleurs, les combinaisons vont parfois se maintenir hors des circon­ stancielles avec des valeurs différentes, relatives et/ou quantitatives: sans ce que, avec ce que, par ce que. C'est donc le déplacement des valeurs de ce qu'il convient d'expliquer. 2.3 Le statut de ce. Ce étant souvent facultatif en ancien français, il n'a pas le statut grammatical qu'il a de nos jours. D'un autre côté, c'est, jusqu'au XVe siècle, un élément qui a un statut lexical, soit déictique (anaphorique ou cataphorique: "ceci à savoir que"), soit comme substitut d'un nom ("chose que, le fait que"). Ce sont les valeurs appelées aphoriques par Wunderli (1978:221, 238), où ce est encore perçu comme un élément nominal ou une proforme nominale. Les paraphrases proposées ici sont lourdes, mais rarement impossibles en ancien français, et souvent encore existantes en français moderne. La perte du statut prédicatif ou autonome de ce va changer les données du problème: ni déictique, ni représentant nominal, ni prédicatif, ce va se loger dans certaines autres parties du système, conserver quelques anciennes positions, mais aussi en perdre. Par l'examen de ces nouvelles combinaisons, nous allons pouvoir avancer une hypothèse sur le statut morpho-syntaxique de ce, réduit à /s/ en réalité, et obligatoire ou interdit, sauf dans des emplois exclamatifs où il peut encore être faculatif {(Ce) que c'est beau!). Une explication de l'indice morphologique /s/ a été proposée par Guillaume (1978:164-167) et reprise par Wunderli (1978:237-238). J'adopte sans peine la première formulation de Guillaume: ce comble l'incomplétude de par, associé au nominalisateur de proposition que. Cette incomplétude est pour moi syntaxique (3.1), et je refuse les glissements successifs de Guillaume: ce apparaît avec par, car il introduit une cause réelle, mais non avec pour, qui donne une cause prospective. Ce n'est déjà plus l'incomplétude de par, et l'explication devrait valoir pour les autres circonstancielles (or on a vu que) et pour les complétives indirectes (or on a à ce que, de ce que). Guillaume ne parle pas de ces autres prépositions, mais applique son hypothèse du ce déterminant nominal à des relatives de statut adjectival et à des exclamatives, prenant pour acquis que le que y est nominalisateur. Qr cela est peu évident, et il s'agit plutôt d'un quantificateur ((Ce) qu'elle est jolie!), comme le suggère Guillaume lui-même plus loin (1978:214).

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Même si de bons esprits acceptent l'hypothèse du ce déterminant propositionnel, j'hésite à l'accepter pour deux autres raisons: (a) L'hypothèse est trop forte en ce qu'elle ne peut expliquer l'absence de ce dans tout le champ où elle s'applique, c'est-à-dire dans des subordonnées circonstancielles, des complétives indirectes, des relatives. On trouve des exemples, en (8) et en (9), de la distribution complémentaire à expliquer: (8a) J'aimerai qui tu voudras que j'aime "les gens que" (8b) J'aimerai ce que tu voudras que j'aime "les choses que" (9a) Il a beaucoup plu, ce que les gens ont regretté "chose que" (9b) Il a beaucoup plu, d'où les gens ont conclu à une malédiction "chose à partir de laquelle" (9c) Il a beaucoup plu, ce dont les gens se sont plaints "chose dont" Il resterait de toute façon à expliquer en quoi une phrase relative, en principe adjectivale, aurait besoin d'un déterminant. Ce, déterminant-article, devrait avoir ce statut avec des complétives de statut substantival seulement, introduites par que. (b) L'hypothèse est trop faible en ce qu'elle néglige beaucoup d'em­ plois: les emplois interrogatifs, les emplois comparatifs notés en (7), mais aussi en (4b). Il faut aussi l'élargir pour qu'elle puisse s'appliquer aux exclamatives, où ce que se développe au XIXe siècle, en particulier pour concurrencer comme et aussi que. Or rien ne prouve la nouveauté totale du ce que quantitatif, même s'il y a un hiatus au XVIIIe siècle. Ce que comparatif de quantité est encore signalé chez Corneille (attestation dans le Grand Larousse de la langue française) et les relatives indéfinies, que je sépare des relatives définies sans antécédent, sont des relatives à valeur quantitative. Je n'ai évidemment pas le temps d'argumenter,1 mais je crois que ce que et que ont toujours appartenu, ainsi que comme, au système de la quantité, et j'en donne 1

L'influence des formes interrogatives sur les formes exclamatives n'est pas un facteur négligeable, mais il ne peut être exagéré: les formes de l'exclamation directe {ce que c'est beau!) peuvent-elles être influencées par celles de l'interrogation indirecte? C'est loin d'être un évidence. Une fois ce que installé, il a pu, au 20e siècle, être remplacé par qu'est-ce que, sous l'influence de l'interrogation cette fois.

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trois séries d'exemples: comparatifs (10), prépositionnels (11), et relatifs à valeur quantitative indéfinie (12). Les exemples (4b) et (7) attestent de l'ancienneté de ces valeurs quantitatives, mais pour (11), je n'ai pas encore de date à proposer. (10a) Rouge que sang (apud Huguet VI, 272) "comme" (10b) Il gagne plus que ce qu'il dit "la quantité que" (10c) Il ne mérite pas plus que ce qu'il a eu (11) Avec ce que tu manges "la même quantité/la même qualité" Vu ce que tu manges Pour ce que ça rapporte (d'argent/comme argent) "la quantité d'argent que" (12a) J'irai où tu iras "partout où" (12b) Je ferai ce que tu feras "les mêmes choses, la même quantité" "comme, la même qualité" (12c) Je répéterai ce que tu diras (12d) Combien as-tu pris? — Ce que j'ai trouvé 3.0

Vers une explication.

3.1 Examinons d'abord ce que avec préposition dans les complétives et les circonstancielles. C'est peut-être par l'examen du cas le plus banal que la solution générale peut être entrevue: ce s'est maintenu dans la subordination complétive et circonstancielle en suivant un critère fort mécanique: les prépositions les moins prédicatives (sans emploi autonome possible) ont conservé ce: il s'agit de par, en, de, à. Il y a une seule exception avec dès, dont le statut prépositionnel est douteux (dès avant ton rétour). L'indice /s/ est donc là pour régler un problème de prédicativité ou d'autonomie: l'importance de l'alternance /±prédicatif/ en morphologie synchronique ou en diachronie n'est plus à montrer, lefrançaisayant partout dédoublé le système latin. 3.2 Mais comment appliquer ce principe ailleurs, et montrer que c'est encore un problème de prédicativité qui est en cause dans les autres emplois de ce quel

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Rien évidemment ne saute aux yeux. C'est qu'il ne suffit pas toujours d'établir deux groupes de monèmes en se basant sur les propriétés syntaxiques. Il faut parfois considérer la prédicativité comme un investissement sémantique particulier, la spécialisation syntaxique est associée à une spécialisation séman­ tique de chaque paradigme. Si l'on examine les exemples (13), (14) et (15), on voit vite que la syntaxe n'est pas seule en cause, mais qu'il y a une spécialisation des formes. Dès qu'il y a interrogation, à distribution égale, la forme prédicative est acceptable: les formes prédicatives se sont réservé les emplois interrogatifs (nous les notons en majuscules). (13a) Je pense à ce que tu penses Je pense à ce que tu m'as dit (13b) (Je te demande) à quoi tu penses (*ce que) (14a) C'est fou ce qu'il y a du monde ici (14b) Je sais combien il y a de monde (*ce que) (14c) Combien as-tu dépensé? / Je sais combien tu as dépensé (14d) J'ai dépensé ce que j'avais (*combien) (15a) J'ai vu avec combien de tact tu l'as éconduit (15b) Avec ce que tu as de tact, tu t'en tireras comme (15c) Que d'hommes sont morts pour rien! (15d) *Que d'hommes sont morts pour rien? (—> combien) Or il est facile de voir d'où résultent ces cas extrêmes en synchronie: toute l'histoire du relatif-indéfini-quantitatif, qui met en cause QUOI et COMBIEN et leur correspondant non prédicatif que est un resserrement des emplois des formes prédicatives dans l'interrogation. Ce qui au départ (XIe siècle) n'était régi que par des lois syntaxiques doit aussi obéir à des lois sémantiques sim­ ples: interrogatif ou non. Je n'entre pas le détail, mais je donne pour mémoire les éléments suivants: — que a fortement reculé dans l'interrogation directe et indirecte (il est replacé par ce que, qu'est-ce que). Non prédicatif, ses positions dans le relatif ou l'exclamatif paraissent au contraire stables; — dont, devenu non prédicatif, a perdu ses emplois interrogatifs; — où interrogatif est stable et prédicatif. Comme relatif, il est fortement concurrencé par que;

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JEAN-MARCEL LÉARD — quoi, prédicatif a perdu ses emplois relatifs, au profit de lequel. Or lequel ne concurrence pas que, adéquat. Préposition ou pause expliquent lequel; — comme a perdu ses emplois interrogatifs, et ne concurrence pas COMBIEN, COMMENT. Il est en concurrence avec que, ce que dans l'exclamation.

Une fois acceptée la spécialisation sémantique des formes, il reste à en prévoir les conséquences, c'est-à-dire le coût morphologique: deux lois devant être appliquées, il peut y avoir convergence entre la valeur de la forme et la distribution, ou divergence. Ainsi une forme interrogative en position postverbale ou post-prépositionnelle est acceptable sans difficulté: il y a convergence en (16a) et (16b). (16a) Tu fais QUOI (16b) Je te demande à QUOI tu penses Lorsqu'il n'y a pas convergence, ce apparaît pour donner à une forme non prédicative un statut neutre sur le plan de la prédicativité, et il est donc accouplé seulement aux formes non prédicatives. Cependant, il faut noter l'exception constituée par qui, ambigu. Ce ôte à qui son statut prédicatif, et partant, sa valeur animée. 3.3

Les contraintes syntaxiques. Il y a trois raisons distributionnelles pour justifier l'apparition d'une forme non attendue, et je hiérarchise: — la présence de la prépostion qui exclut la forme non prédicative que; — la position préverbale ou postverbale; — la pause, au début d'une proposition ouverte par un relatif. Appliquons ces règles de spécialisation sémantique et ces règles syntaxiques, pour vérifier si leur rencontre valide nos hypothèses. (a) Après préposition en (17a) et (17b), on trouve dans l'interrogation la forme prédicative attendue (QUOI ou COMBIEN). Avec la relative sans antécédent, ou l'indéfinie, on trouve que, renforcé par ce en (18a) et (18b). Même situation dans l'exclamation en (18c) et (18d), où ce accompagne que derrière préposition.

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A quoi penses-tu? Combien d'efforts faut-il pour réussir? Je pense à ce que tu penses Je pense à ce que tu m'as dit Que d'efforts il faut pour réussir! Quand je pense à ce qu'il faut d'efforts pour réussir!

(b) Derrière le verbe, une forme non prédicative du relatif-exclamatif est exclue. Cela entraîne la présence de QUOI (19a), dans l'interrogation, mais le refus de que remplacé par ce que (19b, 19c) dans la relative et l'exclamative. (19a) On fait quoi ce soir? (19b) On fait ce que tu veux (19c) C'est fou ce qu'il faut d'efforts! ce que les gens racontent de bêtises! Devant le verbe, la forme prédicative est en principe cliticisée. On a encore parfois Que fais-tu? Cependant, en position pré et post-verbale, caractéristique de l'interrogation indirecte, que est exclu et ce que apparaît. (19d) Je te demande ce que tu fais là (c) Sans doute plus délicate est l'apparition de ce avec certaines relatives à antécédent propositionnel, et ici une loi rythmique a pu jouer, en début de proposition, pour le relatif comme pour le pronom personnel. Ce raisonnement par analogie est peu convaincant s'il ne trouve des appuis internes. J'en vois trois: — les formes prédicatives n'exigent pas ce, ou même le refusent (20a, 20b); (20a) A quoi il a répondu que... "chose à laquelle, ce à quoi" (20b) D'où il ressort que — lequel, relatif, ne s'est maintenu que dans certaines positions: là où la forme prédicative était exigée par la syntaxe, après préposition {sur lequel), ou lorsqu'une forme non prédicative, après pause, faisait difficulté. On op­ posera (21a) et (21b); (21a) Le chat, lequel était méfiant

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(21b) *Le chat lequel est là. — la phonologie n'invite pas à traiter de la même manière ce que, ce qui qui donnent /skə/, /ski/ et ce sur quoi, ce à quoi. Difficile de toute façon de faire de ce un déterminant: nous en ferions un vrai nom (chose, fait), suivi d'une relative. On constate en effet l'émergence possible du nom avec la pause. (22a) J'ai vu Pierre, individu qui séduit (22b) *Le garçon individu qui parle 4.0

Conclusion.

4.1 H resterait à faire beaucoup d'analyses secondaires: l'extension de ce que exclamatif se fait parfois aux dépens de comme (derrière le verbe) mais pas toujours (derrière la préposition, on a seulement ce que). Combien a gardé quelques emplois exclamatifs: il remplace que denière la préposition quand un nom suit, au lieu de ce que attendu. En effet ce que ne peut quantifier un nom (*Ce que d'hommes sont venus!). Mais mieux vaut revenir à la question de base: l'émergence d'un nouveau ce, indice morphologique de prédicativité moyenne. Il est difficile de contester, au vu des contraintes distributionnelles, que l'extension de ce dans le courant du moyen français soit liée à un problème de prédicativité, concept important s'il en est en diachronie du français. Le concept de prédicativité éclaire non seulement ce, mais aussi le recul de que interrogatif, remplacé par ce que ou qu'est-ce que; le recul de QUOI relatif, remplacé par lequel; la spécialisation de dont, relatif et non prédicatif. Il n'est pas facile de trouver la cause de tous ces bouleversements, mais la spécialisation des formes prédicatives dans l'interrogation nous paraît être l'élément moteur, l'ensemble des bouleversements étant des effets. Cette hiérarchisation est fondamentale en diachronie. L'autre aspect est qu'un développement local, et sémantique en l'occurrence, porte en lui des germes de mutations morphologiques et syntaxiques. Ces développements peuvent aller loin et l'extension des formes complexes — qu'est-ce que surtout — est avancée désormais. Peut-être un moyen pour réunifier un système autrefois simple morphologiquement, et qui s'était diversifié à outrance?

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4.2 Notre interprétation historique suppose que ce que soit parfois un quantificateur: il élimine les autres quantificateurs du nom et les intensificateurs des autres catégories. Comme si, c'est un quantificateur déplacé. Toutes les études fouillées adoptent cette position (Milner 1978; Moignet 1981:183, 203; Henry 1977; Gérard 1980), et ce que est en rapport direct et précis avec COMBIEN et comme. Le recours au contexte pour expliquer la valeur quantitative est inutile dans ce cas. Dans les autres emplois, assertifs, l'interprétation quantitative de ce que peut être débattue. Eclairons le débat, au moins pour les relatives, ce qui sera utile pour les comparatives. Certains emplois de ce que sont des emplois de relatifs sans antécédent: il n'y a pas de SN dans la proposition, et ces emplois correspondent à un mouvement d'identification retrouvé avec celui que, ceux que ("chose(s) que" pour ce que, "objet(s) que, personne(s) que" pour celui que, ceux que). Si le SN apparaît, il sera apposition. (23a) J'ai pris ce que tu m'as amené hier (23b) Avec ce que tu m'as amené, on va faire un bon repas Avec ce que tu m'as amené, des pommes mûres, on va.(≠24a) Mais ce que a une autre valeur, quantitative, et la paraphrase est "la quantité que". Elle apparaît déjà dans les relatives indéfinies. La syntaxe est différente: on a un SN, nombrable ou non, qui n'a pas d'article, comme dans les exclamatives: ce que le quantifie à distance (24a). On peut aussi avoir un adjectif ou un verbe qui ne sont plus intensifiables, situation des exclamatives à nouveau (24b). (24a) J'ai pris ce que tu m'as amené de/comme pommes (*des) Avec ce que tu m'as amené de/comme farine, ça va (*de la) (24b) Pour ce qu'il marche,... (*il marche beaucoup/peu) Pour ce que c'est beau,... (*très beau) Avec de au moins, on est sûr de l'interprétation quantitative. Il reste deux arguments indirects: sans n'est pas compatible avec l'interprétation quantitative puisqu'il a une valeur négative (24c); celui que élimine l'interprétation quantitative ou partitive de ce que ("la partie/la quantité") et la présence du SN quantifié (24d). On a même ces valeurs avec ce qui (24e). Ce est donc loin de celui sur tous le plans (24d). Les verbes exigent aussi une quantification du SN (sous-catégorisation) donnée par ce que: donner peulbeaucoup.

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(24c) *Sans ce que tu m'as donné d'argent... Avec ce que tu m'as donné d'argent, je peux m'acheter ça. Sans ce que tu m'as donné, j'aurais manqué d'argent [relative, comme en (23b)] (24d) Avec ce que tu vois de l'arbre, tu imagines le reste. Avec celui que tu vois, imagine les autres arbres. *Avec celui que tu vois d'/comme/de l'arbre ... (24e) Avec ce qui traîne de feuilles, on imagine le désordre. Avec ce qui est arrivé de personnes, on peut commencer. Cette valeur quantitative apparaît aussi dans les interrogatives devant le verbe par cliticisation de COMBIEN sans doute. (24f) Je voudrais savoir ce que je dois amener comme argent. combien d'argent que dois amener. 4.3 Le grand absent des études est le ce que comparatif, oublié malgré son ancienneté. Muller (1983:282-293) détient sans doute la clef du problème. La comparaison phrastique, opposée à la comparaison nominale, contient dans la seconde proposition un élément vide (quantification ou adverbe). Si l'on admet pour ce que l'interprétation "la manière que/de la manière que" (= comme, comment) ou l'interprétation "la quantité que/qui" (= comme, com­ bien), on retrouve la quantité ou la manière évoquée de façon neutre. Cela n'est pas possible dans les comparatives d'égalité, où le comparatif est plus explicite (comme, autant que, ainsi que) et interdit le rappel de la quantité. (25a) J'ai plus d'argent que tu n'en as (en = d'argent; SN non quantifié) (25b) J'ai plus d'argent que je ne le dis (le = [que je dis] que je n'ai d'argent; SN non quantifié) (25c) Il agit autrement qu'on ne l'avait prévu (le = [qu'on avait prévu] qu'il agirait; SP vide: *adroitement) (25d) Il agit différemment de ce qui était prévu (ce qui: = de la manière qui; qualification vide: *bien, *bonne manière) (25e) Il dépense plus que ce que je croyais (ce que = la quantité que; quantification vide, *grande quantité, *beaucoup) Dans tous ces contextes, comme dans les emplois du type Avec ce que tu m'as donné/Pour ce que tu rapportes, la sous-catégorisation exige une quantifi­ cation, que la comparaison, ou ce que, permet de combler. Serait-ce un relatif?

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Le sens ne l'indique pas et le ce que relatif semble se comporter diffé-remment avec la préposition. (26a) Il pense à autre chose qu'à ce qui était prévu / ce que je croyais. (26b) Il pense à plus de choses que (ce qui était) prévu (?à) (26c) Il travaille pour un montant moindre que (ce que j'avais) prévu (*pour). Bref, l'histoire de ce que, quantificateur indéfini et comparatif, ne semble pas finie.

RÉFÉRENCES Brunot, Ferdinand. 1986. Histoire de la langue française. Vol.I. Paris: Armand Colin. Gérard, Josselyne. 1980. L'exclamation en français: La syntaxe des phrases et des expressions exclamatives. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. Gougenheim, Georges. 1951. Grammaire de la langue française du XVIe siècle. Lyon & Paris: IAC. Guillaume, Gustave. 1978. Leçons de linguistique de Gustave Guillaume 1948-1949. Publiées par Roch Valin. (Série C: Grammaire particulière du français et grammaire générale.) Québec: Presses de l'Univ. Laval; Paris: Klincksieck. Haase, Adolphe. 1969. Syntaxe française duXVIIe siècle. Paris: Delagrave. Henry, Albert. 1977. Etudes de syntaxe expressive: Ancien français et français moderne. 2e éd. revue et augmentée. Bruxelles: Editions de l'Univ. de Bruxelles. [V.chap.VIII pour ce que.] Léard, Jean-Marcel. 1986. "Le statut de ce que dans le système morphologique du français: Une solution unitaire appuyée sur la diachronie". Modèles Linguistiques 8:2.7-45. Martin, Robert & Marc Wilmet. 1980. Syntaxe du moyen français. Bordeaux: Sobodi. Milner, Jean-Claude. 1978. De la syntaxe à l'interprétation: Quantités, insultes, exclamations. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Moignet, Gérard. 1981. Systématique de la langue française. Paris: Klinck­ sieck. Muller, Claude, 1983. "Les comparatives du français et la négation". LinguisticaeInvestigationes7:2.271-316. Price, Glanville. 1986. "Aspects de l'histoire de la négation en français" Morphosyntaxe des langues romanes: Actes du XVIIe Congrès international

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de linguistique et philologie romane, vol.IV, 567-576. Aix-en-Provence: Univ. de Provence. Walter, Henriette. 1987. "Évolution droite ou sinueuse: les palatales du fran­ çais". Dans le présent volume. Wunderli, Peter. 1978. "'Ce neutre' en moyen français: Étude de syntaxosémantique phrastique et transphrastique". Sémantique lexicale et sémantique grammaticale en moyenfrançais:Actes du colloque publiés par Marc Wilmet, 185-253. Bruxelles: Univ. Libre de Bruxelles. . 1987. "L'explication de 'se' omnipersonnel dans les langues romanes". Présentation faite à la 8e Conférence Internationale de Linguis­ tique Historique, Lille, 31 août - 4 septembre, 1987.

L'ENFER DE BRUMES ET MARAIS DANS LA TRADITION GERMANO-CELTIQUE UN PROBLEME MYTHOLOGIQUE ET LINGUISTIQUE INDO-EUROPÉEN

H. LE BOURDELLES Université de Lille III La présente communication envisage un problème mythologique sur la tradition de l'enfer chez les Germains et les Celtes. Nous aborderons ensuite un problème linguistique correspondant, plus particulièrement étymologique. Cette démarche ne doit pas étonner, car l'expérience montre que l'analyse sémantique doit précéder l'analyse morphologique, à laquelle on restreint souvent la recherche étymologique. Démarche analytique inverse par rapport au processus naturel qui transforme en représentations les formules figées et mythisées du langage. La tradition indo-européenne. Remontons au plus loin dans le temps. L'enfer, dans la tradition indoeuropéenne, est le séjour des pères, le royaume de Yama où l'on descend par le chemin profond, selon la terminologie védique, situé sous terre, d'où son nom latin de Inferi. Cette tradition ne refuse pas l'idée d'une vie dans l'au-delà, mais la présente avec des caractéristiques d'opacité pour nos sens et notre intelligence, qui ont suscité un système de langage mythique, source de représentations. Conformément à la démarche annoncée, regardons d'abord ces représentations. Rappelons, à titre de comparaison, celles du domaine gréco-latin, qui sont riches et anciennes. Le chant 6 de l'Enéide de Virgile fournit aisément les matériaux nécessaires. Le royaume des ombres, sauf en de rares occasions comme Homère en montrait dans son évocation des morts, et comme Virgile en montre dans sa descente aux enfers, est dissimulé, obscur. Virgile, pour décrire le chemin des enfers, accumule les mots de nuit (268), de brouillard (caligo,

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266), de plaines brumeuses (887). Il associe à cette obscurité des eaux marécageuses et brumeuses, le Cocyte, l'Achéron, le Styx (132-295-323). Le fondement de ces représentations est assurément la représentation centrale de l'homme défunt comme une ombre (umbra, skia), qui peut apparaître aux yeux des vivants comme à travers le brouillard, bien que ces apparitions soient surtout le fait des scènes qui se forment dans les rêves (Enéide 5,894). Nous tenons là des éléments de la tradition indo-européenne,1 même si la tradition védique, peu explicite sur la "ténèbre inférieure" (Veda X,152: adharam tamas), ne permet la comparaison que d'une manière un peu vague. La tradition celtique. La tradition celtique sur l'enfer est très difficile à saisir, car elle n'est connue qu'au Moyen-Age, puisque les textes antiques sur la religion gauloise donnent peu d'informations, encore qu'ils affirment nettement la croyance des Gaulois en l'immortalité de l'âme. Comme on peut s'y attendre, les témoignages médiévaux sont peu cohérents. Les témoignages irlandais parlentfréquemmentdes tumuli ou sīdh, qui étaient à la fois séjour des morts, des fées, et des anciens dieux, et s'ouvrait le premier Novembre. Mais, comme le fait remarquer sagement J. de Vries,2 il s'agit là d'une déformation des croyances primitives, et, dans le paganisme ancien, les dieux étaient probablement placés à divers niveaux de la Nature, tandis que le $Tdh était en relation avec le royaume des morts.3 Par ailleurs ce royaume était censé se situer au delà de l'Océan.4 D'autre part, on trouve parfois la description d'un séjour des morts comme d'un séjour de brume, - ceo- .5

1

À titre d'opposition, notons que la notion de feu vengeur céleste est apparue bien avant l'ère chrétienne en Orient: zoroastnsme, prophétisme biblique. Elle aboutit dans le judaïsme à la notion de la punition des méchants par le feu de l'enfer, qui s'oppose à la récompense des justes dans le lieu du rafraîchissement. Le christianisme l'a héritée, et nous verrons que l'interprétation de la tradition celtique doit tenir compte de ce fait. 2 J. de Vries, Religion des Celtes, trad. de l'allemand (Paris: Payot, 1975), p.264. 3 On postulait peut-être aussi un séjour des bienheureux, comme les Champs-Elysées des Grecs et des Romains — cf. J. de Vries, op.cit. p.265. 4 Cf. Aventures de Connla le Beau, analysées par Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle mythologique irlandais, p. 16. 5 Cf. le récit d'un revenant émergeant du brouillard au-dessus d'un lac, analysé par d'Arbois de Jubainville, op.cit., p.356.

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Cette tradition celtique se maintint dans le christianisme celtique, mais altérée. Le célèbre voyage dans l'au-delà de St. Brendan,6 montre le héros traversant le brouillard (latin caligo,ch.13), pour atteindre le séjour des morts, où Judas connaît un enfer alternativement glacé et brûlant (ch.97), et dans ces derniers traits se reconnaît aisément l'influence judéo-chrétienne.7 Cet enfer de brume et ténèbre peut être comparé à l'intérieur du monde celtique, si l'on se reporte à l'analyse que fit Vendryès8 de la terminologie galloise pour l'enfer. On trouve chez les poètes gallois à partir du XIIe siècle le mot gwern "marais", au sens de "enfer", qualifié souvent de oerwern "froid marécage". Le point commun de ces mythes celtiques est assurément une représentation de l'enfer comme séjour souterrain, dissimulé derrière un brouillard s'étendant sur des eaux. La tradition germanique. La tradition germanique est bien connue grâce à l'Edda de Snorri Sturluson, qui résuma la mythologie scandinave au XIIIe siècle, dans un monde nordique proche encore du paganisme. Les nombreux savants qui, depuis Jacob. Grimm, ont rédigé des synthèses de la mythologie germanique à partir de Snorri, admettent que cet auteur n'a pas trop christianisé sa présentation9. L'enfer de Snorri n'est pas un enfer de punition, comme celui de Bède, auteur anglais du Ville siècle (H.E. 5,12) où alternent selon la tradition judéo-chrétienne le feu et la glace.10 Tous les morts, sauf les héros des combats qui vont au Walhalla avec les dieux, descendent dans Hel (34-49) par un chemin souterrain dirigé vers le Nord (49), probablement parce que le Nord évoque le froid et le brouillard. Cet enfer parcouru par le fleuve Gjal

6 Vie latine dans Ch. Plummer, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, 1910. Cette vie a suscité de nombreuses Navigations de St. Brendan, dont une latine éd. par Jubinal en 1836, une irlandaise éd. par Plummer, une anglo-normande du 12e siècle, rééditée au 1984 dans la coll.10/18. 7 Cette alternance de feu et glace s'inspire d'un passage de Job (24,10) dans la traduction de la Vulgate, que l'on retrouve chez Bède. 8 Joseph Vendryès, "L'enfer glacé", Revue Celtique 46.134-142 (1929). 9 Nous utilisons l'édition de l'Edda par Holtsmark et Helgason, collection "Nordisk Filo­ logi", 1976. Rappelons que l'ouvrage fondamental sur les mythes germaniques reste la Deutsche Mythologie de Jacob Grimm (4e éd., 1875). 10 Bède, comme la Vita de Brendan, voit l'enfer de punition selon Job 24,19 dans la traduction de la Vulgate.

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(49) est surnommé Niflheim (34) ou Niflhel (42), surnoms qui disent assez que c'est une demeure de brouillard La concordance pour l'essentiel avec la tradition classique est troublante, et l'on peut même se demander s'il n'y a pas eu là influence de la littérature gréco-latine. Nous ne le croyons pas, car ces brumes et ces eaux se retrouvent en différents points de la tradition germanique ancienne. En particulier, dans l'épopée de Beowulf, poème anglais qui date peut-être du 8e siècle, et quelles que soient par ailleurs les influences chrétiennes sur ce poème, nous rencontrons un paysage de marais (1357) habité par deux monstres symboles de mort, et un autre paysage semblable avec un monstre "dans des marais embrumés ('mistige moras'), dans la nuit perpétuelle" (161). Misons sur l'authenticité germanique de ces détails, et de leur concordance avec les éléments de l'Edda, puisque, aussi bien, l'auteur du poème anglais se réfère explicitement à la tradition scandinave. Communauté germano-celtique. Les similitudes de ces traditions germaniques et celtiques ne pourraient devoir leur origine qu'à l'appartenance commune au monde indo-européen. Cependant il faut remarquer une particularitérituellegermanique et celtique liée au marais brumeux, image de la mort. On connaît depuis longtemps les victimes humaines retrouvées momifiées dans la tourbe de marais à Tollund, à Grauballe, et ailleurs. Une macabre découverte analogue vient d'être faite à Lindow, en Grande-Bretagne, et les organisateurs de l'exposition archéolo­ gique du British Museum en janvier 1987 attribuent l'homme de Lindow à la période celtique. À la différence d'autres rituels celtiques de sacrifices humains connus par des écrivains latins d'époque classique,11 nous voyons là un usage commun aux Celtes et aux Germains, et qui semble en rapport avec la représentation de la mort liée aux eaux brumeuses,12 au sein d'une communauté culturelle assez étroite.

11 Ces derniers sont rappelés par R. Lantier, "Keltische Mythologie", dans Wòrterbuch der Mythologie (Stuttgart, 1973). Signalons dans la même collection une Deutsche Mythologie par E. Neumann et H. Voigt, avec une bibliographie récente. 12 Sur ces brumes, cf. J. Grimm, op.cit., p.259 et p.270.

L'ENFER DANS LA TRADITION GERMANO-CELTIQUE

307

Communauté de vocabulaire: la racine *kel. Tout ce que nous avons indiqué fait attendre quelque relation de vocabulaire à propos de l'enfer entre le monde celtique et le monde germanique. Cette rela-ion existe bien autour de la racine *kel "cacher", bien attestée par lat. cēlāre/occulere "cacher", irl. celim "cacher", all. helan > hehlen "cacher", huljan (got.) > hüllen "couvrir", grec kaluptv "couvrir, cacher", racine qui paraît avoir connu une extension plutôt occidentale.13 On a depuis longtemps rattaché le nom germanique de l'enfer à cette racine, *kolya > got. halja, vx-norr. hel, anglais hell, all. hella > hölle. Mais il s'en faut que la sémantique de cette relation ait été clairement expliquée. Jacob Grimm, suivi par des savants plus récents, pensait que la notion de "recouvrir" apportait cette solution sémantique, et il rattachait à ce mot le mot germanique signifiant "antre, caverne", qui apparaît en allemand comme höhle.14 Mais comment entendre cette relation? Un enfer recouvrant les morts comme une caverne recouvre ses habitants ou ses visiteurs? Ce n'est pas absurde, mais ce n'est pas convaincant. Pour aller plus loin, il faut, sans oublier nos analyses sur l'opacité et les brumes de l'enfer, remarquer deux formules de langage, une norroise, l'autre irlandaise. La poésie norroise employait une périphrase pour l'idée de mort: fara til heljar, qu'on pourrait traduire en allemand par: zur Höllefahren "aller dans l'enfer",15 ce qui, en apparence, ne nous apprend rien de neuf. Mais si nous nous demandons quel est le but de ce voyage, nous pouvons faire appel à une formule irlandaise qui contient un mot issu de la racine *kel, mais non mythisé. En irlandais cel signifie "disparition, absence, mort", de sorte que l'on disait en moyen-irlandais luid ar cel: "il alla à la disparition, à la mort", et dans la langue moderne dul ar ceal.16 Si l'on pouvait prouver que ces locutions sont anciennes, et remontent à une époque primitive, la cause serait entendue, et le problème résolu. Bien évidemment nous ne le pouvons pas. Il n'en reste pas moins un argument pour l'hypothèse que nous formulons ainsi: une locution "aller vers la disparition et l'opacité de la mort" a pu se combiner 13

Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Wörterbuch (Bern: Francke, 1959) distingue une racine avec k palatal signifiant "cacher", et une autre k vélaire signifiant "tache". Nous éviterons d'entrer dans ce problème. 14 J. Grimm, op.cz7,.p.259, proteste contre le rapprochement avec hallus, mot gotique signifiant "rocher", parfois repris depuis comme si le mot désignait la pierre du tombeau. 15 J. Grimm, op.cit., p.669. 16 Locutions citées par Pokorny, op.cit., et Dinneen, Irish-English Dictionary.

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avec un mot tiré de la racine *kel. Le mort est caché aux vivants par sa disparition, que symbolisent les nuées de l'enfer, mais il n'est que caché, il continue d'être. Si cette hypothèse trouve confirmation, on verra là un cas remarquable de langage mythisé, à partir d'une locution figée. Mais en attendant cette confirmation, il nous semble possible déjà de dire que dans le domaine germano-celtique l'expression linguistique de la mort s'est cristallisée autour de la racine *kel avec des conséquences diverses: divinisation de Hel devenue déesse du panthéon germanique, représentations de l'occultation de la mort par les brumes des enfers. Peut-être faudrait il étendre le domaine linguistique considéré, si l'on considère que le mot latin caligō, dérivé probable de la racine *kel,17 qui signifie "ténèbres, brouillard", est le mot utilisé pour désigner les brumes des enfers (Aen.6,266).18

ANNEXE LES RIVIERES HELINA

Nous renvoyons à notre article de la Revue du Nord (66, 1984) sur l'hydronyme Helina, lié à la présence des Francs, pour signaler un dérivé de la racine *kel qui évoque les eaux marécageuses et brumeuses. La rivière Elnon, qui coule dans la ville abbatiale d'Elnon, aujourd'hui St-Amand, montre un cas de flexion faible, alors que la même rivière a été évoquée par Sidoine Apollinaire sous le nom de Helena.

17

Mais Pokomy rattache ce mot latin à la racine *kel à k vélaire, qui signifierait "tache". Dans la théogonie présentée par Hygin au début de ses Fabulae, l'Obscurité primordiale— Caligo — engendre la Nuit et le Jour. La Nuit à son tour engendre la Mort 18

THE STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF POSSESSIVE NOUN PHRASES IN HITTITE SILVIA LURAGHI Istituto Universitario di Lingue Moderne, Milan

0.

Introduction.

In this paper I concentrate on two types of possessive NP found in Hittite at different stages in the written documentation.1 The first type, which contains a genitive modifier referring to the possessor, a head noun referring to the possessum and a possessive clitic attached to the head noun, is typical of Old Hittite;2 the second type, which in its turn consists of two nouns referring to the possessor and to the possessum respectively and agreeing morphologically with each other, became widespread from Middle Hittite onwards. Examples of the two types occur in the following sentences: (1) [DU(MU)].É.GAL LUGAL-as SAL.LUGAL-ass= a issaz= palace servant king-Gen queen-Gen and mouth:Abl lālan AN.BAR-as dāi <s>mit their:N/A:Sg:N tongue: Acc:Sg iron-Gen take away:3Sg:Ind:P/F "the Palace servant takes away the iron tongue from the mouth(s) of the king and the queen" (StBoT 8 I 18'-19') (2) n= at= mu= kan UKÙ-az KAxU-az sarā and it LDat Ptc man-Abl mouth-Abl upwards uizzi= pat come:3Sg:Ind:P/F Foc "and it (sc. these words) comes out of my mouth of man" (KUB VI 45 I 30-31)

1 Hittite was spoken in Anatolia in the course of the second millenium B.C. The written sources allow for a chronological subdivision of the Hittite language into three different periods: Old Hittite (1570 B.C-1450 B.C.), Middle Hittite (1450 B.C-1380 B.C.), Late Hittite (1380 B.C-1220 B.C.). See Neu & Rüster (1975:VII-VHI). 2 See Friedrich (1960:65).

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Sentence (1) contains the first construction, which I shall henceforth refer to as compound modifier (construction); the second type, henceforth referred to as case attraction, is found in (2). Both types of NP contain a head noun and a modifier. Possible problems with the description of their structure are: (a) what kind of relation holds between the noun in the genitive and the possessive clitic within compound modifiers; and (b) which constituent is to be regarded as the head of the NPs which display case attraction. Furthermore, since the two types of NP apparently belong to different historical periods, it is interesting to consider the question whether case attraction has in fact replaced the compound modifier construction; in other words, if it is possible to trace one or more function(s) that either expression could fulfill, as opposed to NPs with plain genitival modifiers which also express possession, both in Old and in Later Hittite. In what follows I analyse the passages in which the two types of possessive expression occur in order to individuate their function. Next, I discuss current views concerning the structure of the NPs examined, as well as my own position. I also survey a number of diachronic developments which relate in some way to one or both types of NP. The paper is divided into two parts, each one devoted to one of the constructions dealt with. Even if diachronic considerations concern both types of construction, they are mostly confined to the second section. 1.

Compound modifiers.

1.1. Possessive expressions of Old Hittite. In this section I examine in detail the possessive expressions found in example (1) and discuss the use of modifying constituents in other types of possessive NP also attested in Old Hittite. Compound modifier NPs consist of a head noun which refers to the possessum and two modifying elements coreferent with each other: a noun in the genitive and a possessive clitic which both refer to the possessor. Possessive clitics are fully inflected adjectives; they display morphological agreement in case, number and gender with the head noun they modify.3 Examples of compound modifier NPs, besides the one in sentence (1), are:

3

Possessive clitics have different forms in singular and plural for nominative, accusative, nominative/accusative neuter, genitive, dative/locative and directive (not all fonns are attested for all persons). See Friedrich (1960:65) and Neu (1974). The forms of the ablative and instrumental are homophones of those of the nominative/accusative singular neuter.

POSSESSIVE NOUN PHRASES IN HITTITE

(3)

311

GlŠ

harpa= ma I-anta LUGAL-as GIR= si heap:N/A:Sg:N Ptc one king-Gen foot his:D/L:Sg kitta lie:3Sg:Ind:P/F "a heap (of wood) lies near the king's foot" (StBoT 8 IV 28)

(4) [laba]rnas LUGAL-as NINDA= san adue[ni L.:Gen king-Gen bread:Sg his:Acc:Sg:C eat: lPl:Ind:P/F wata]r= set= a akueni water:N/A:Sg:N his:N/A:Sg:N Ptc drink: lPl:Ind:P/F "we shall eat the bread of the Labarna, the king; we shall drink his water" (StBoT 25.140 5'6') Nouns in the genitive as modifiers are frequently used to express possession. They do not necessarily require the co-occurrence of a possessive clitic. Accented possessive pronouns are not available in Old Hittite; genitive forms of accented personal pronouns are infrequent and appear to be mostly limited to syntactic environments which are not accessible to possessive clitics. 4 They never occur within compound modifiers, which are mostly limited to the expression of third person possessors. Three alternatives are available for the expression of third person possessors: (a) Compound modifier (possessive clitic and noun in the genitive): NA4 (5) labarnas É [-ir= set] ... pēruni L.:Gen house-N/A:Sg:N his:N/A:Sg:N stone:D/L uetan build:Part:N/A:Sg:N appaliyallas= a É-ir set karaitti opponent:Gen Ptc house-N/A:Sg:N his:N/A:Sg:N tide:D/L piran u[etan] before build:Part:N/A:Sg:N

Ablative and instrumental of nouns have only one form which functions for both numbers (it is "number indifferent" in the words of Neu 1979). 4 An example is: utnete[t tuel] land:N/A:Sg:N your:N/A:Sg:N thou:Gen "Thy land belongs toThee"(StBoT 25.122 III 2') in which the form tuel functions as predicate in a nominal sentence. Besides, accented forms of personal pronouns and possessive clitics are in complementary distribution when they modify adverbs of a certain class called static place words; see Boley (1985). I have found only one case in which the genitive of an accented pronoun is used in a possessive NP in an Old Hittite text.

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"the house of the Labarna ... is built on stone. The house of the op­ ponent, instead, is built in the path of the tide" {StBoT 25.140 Vo 13', 16'-18') (b) Plain possessive: (6) parna= ssa paisi house:Dir his:Dir go:2Sg:Ind:P/F "you will go to his house" (KUB XXII 1 28') (c) Plain genitive: (7) t[a] D[ (UMUMEŠ-an)] parna paimi and child-Gen:Pl house:Dir go:lSg:Ind:P/F "and I will go to the house of the children" ( StBoT 8 II 16-17) In Old Hittite originals,firstand second person possessors are expressed only through the use of plain possessive clitics. However, in late copies of Old Hittite texts, two examples of compound modifiers for first person possessors also occur. Apparently, for possessors other than third person, constructions (a) and (b) below were available in Old Hittite.5 (a) Compound modifier: (8) LUGAL-as assu= met king-Gen good:N/A:Sg:N my:N/A:Sg:N "the goods of mine, the king" {KUB XXXI 64+, II 6') (9) LUGAL-was aras= mis king-Gen friend:Nom:Sg:C my:Nom:Sg:C "the friend of mine, the king" {KUB XXIX 1I35) (b) Plain possessive: (10)attas= mas father.Gen my:Gen "of my father" {StBoT 18 Ro 10) (11) neku<s>= summus sister:Acc:Pl:C our:Acc:Pl:C "our sisters (acc)" (StBot 17 Ro 19)

5 On the use of the genitive in Old Hittite, see the comprehensive study in Yoshida (1987).

POSSESSIVE NOUN PHRASES IN HITTITE

313

(12)utne= te[t] land:N/A:Sg:N thy:N/A:Sg:N "thy land" (StBoT 25.122 III 2) 1.2. Typological parallels to Old Hittite possessive construc­ tions with compound modifiers. Possessive clitics are found in many non-Indo-European languages, for instance in Semitic and Finno-Ugric languages. 6 In no languages that I know of, however, do possessive clitics display adjectival morphology as they do in Hittite. Most frequently, one has to do with invariable pronominal suffixes. Moreover, possessive suffixes are often obligatory in possessive NPs, and occur for all persons. As an example, compare the Hungarian expression:7 (13) az (én) kabat-om the (me) coat-lSg "my coat" In (13) a first person possessor is expressed through an OBLIQUE FORM of the accented pronoun and a possessive suffix, attached to the head noun. While the accented form én is optional, the NP would not be correct without the possessive suffix -om. Possessive suffixes have forms which vary in person and number in accordance with the possessor; they do not agree with the head noun to which they are suffixed. A slightly different pattern is found in Accadian.8 Accadian has several types of possessive construction which range from the use of plain genitive modifiers to the status constmctus type. It is possible to have NPs in which possessive suffixes occur together with a noun which refers to the possessor; the latter is always in the nominative. Consequently, it cannot by itself be taken as an attribute; therefore, the use of a possessive suffix is obligatory to indicate the possessive meaning of the NP: (14)

šarrum quazzu king:Nom hand:His (qat "hand", plus-su "his") "the hand of the king"

1.3. Nouns in the g e n i t i v e as appositions to p o s s e s s i v e adjectives in Indo-European languages. According to Otten-Souõek (1969:61), within compound modifiers possessive clitics would be 6

On different patterns for expressing possession, see Seiler (1981). The example is taken from Limburg (1985). 8 See von Soden (1969) and Ultan (1978:17-18).

7

314

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'pleonastically' added to genitival NPs.9 More recently Starke (1977:157) has remarked that "das Genitivattribut wird ... erläuternd zum Possessivpronomen gesetzt und nicht umgekehrt ...." Functional considerations uphold Starke's position, according to which nouns in the genitive are appositions to possessive clitics in compound modifiers. I think that this is best seen in the two examples that contain first person possessors. NPs functioning as appositions to clitics are perfectly acceptable in Old Hittite and are not confined to possessive clitics. The possible occurrence of nouns in the genitive as appositions to possessive adjectives is a phenomenon known from the classical languages; examples are available in traditional grammars. So for instance Kühner-Gehrt remarked that in Greek, "Wenn zu dem Possessivpronomen eine Apposition tritt, so steht dieselbe im Genetive, weil diese Pronomina den Genetiv der Personalpronomina vertreten" (1904:282).10 1.4. Third person subject and non-subject possessors: means of discriminating. The function of an apposition is to clarify the reference of its head constituent. In the case of third person possessors, the apposition in the genitive disambiguates the reference of the possessive clitic. Third person possessive clitics of Old Hittite are anaphoric particles. Syntactically, it is not specified which constituent, inside or outside the boundaries of the sentences in which they occur, governs the anaphora. In other words, Hittite has no distinction between third person subject and nonsubject possessors which could parallel the distinction between suus and eius in Latin. In the case of third person subject possessors, a reflexive particle11 can be added at the beginning of a sentence, as in:

9

See Friedrich (1960:122). Apposition is defined as follows: "... a) each of the apposites can be separately omitted without affecting the acceptability of the sentence, b) each fulfils the same syntactic function in the resultant sentences, ... " (Quirk et al., 1972:621). Apposed constituents are related to each other by (partial or total) coreference; see Quirk et al. (1972:621-626). Apposed nouns agree in case with each other, as a consequence of condition (b) in Quirk et al. Therefore, if the word which functions as head with respect to an apposition is itself an attribute of another head constituent, the apposition must have the same function as its head on the NP level. This explains why possessive pronouns functioning as attributes can take nouns in the genitive as appositions. 11 On the use of the reflexive particle -za, see Hoffner (1973). Note that the scope of the particle -za in (13) is not the possessive -smi, but the whole VP kartismi piran mēmir. 10

POSSESSIVE NOUN PHRASES IN HITTITE

315

(15)nu= zza DUMU.NITAMEŠ karti= smi piran and Refl boy:Pl heart:D/L:Sg their:D/L:Sg before mēmir say:3Pl:Ind:Pr "and the boys said out of their own hearts" ( StBoT 17 Ro 13-14) Ambiguity, however, appears to be tolerable in numerous cases, as shown in the next example: (16) [ (DUMUMEŠ.É.G)]AL pēda= smet palace servant:Pl place:N/A:Sg:N their:N/A:Sg:N harkanzi hold:3Pl:Ind:P/F "the palace servants stay in their place" (StBoT 25.2514) Since genitival appositions can be added to possessives only in the case of third person non-subject possessors, they can occasionally fulfill a function similar to that of the reflexive particle in disambiguating the reference of the anaphora. However, appositions in the genitive do not appear to have been used productively for this purpose. 1.5. Problems of clitic placement and word order. Hittite is particularly rich in clitics of different types (connectives, pronouns, deictic particles, etc.). Most of them have as their scope the whole sentence in which they occur (connectives) or the VP (pronouns) and must obligatorily be placed in Wackernagel's position, that is, they cliticize to the first accented word in a sentence, no matter what this word is.12 Possessive clitics have an (unspecified) NP as their scope. They differ from most other clitics in that they are always attached to the word they modify which in its turn can occur in any position in the sentence.13 One may note further that, being placed as enclitics on their head nouns, possessives are the only adjectives which, in the function of attribute, follow their head rather than preceding it. According to the parameters elaborated in Greenberg (1963), Hittite is a consistent SOV language in which attributes regularly precede their head nouns.14 12

On the rules of clitic placement in Hittite, see Hoffner (1973) and Luraghi (1989a). Besides possessives, also the particle -pat, a focalizer, has an unspecified NP as its scope and does not fit into the initial chain of clitics in Wackernagel's position. 13 Cf. Boley (1985). 14 See Laroche (1982). Adjectives in the function attribute always precede head constituents; adjectives following nouns function as predicate adjuncts. On Hittite word order, see Luraghi (1989b).

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1.6. A side effect of compound modifiers: co-indexing. On the basis of the discussion in the preceding pages, the structure of possessive NPs with compound modifiers can be represented as follows:

The compound modifier is rendered discontinuous by a rule of clitic placement. Disregarding the latter, the effect of the juxtaposition of the noun in the genitive and the possessive clitic is that of co-indexing the modifier with the head, or, expressed differently, the possessor noun with the possessum noun. Co-indexing must have become partly a function of the construction as a whole. In fact, compound modifiers are found in a number of passages from the Hittite Laws, in which they appear to be introduced only for the purpose of co-indexing. See for instance: (17)takku LÚ.ULÙLU-as ELLAM-as KAxKAK= set if man-Gen free-Gen nose his:N/A:Sg:N kuiski wāki someone:Nom:Sg bite:3Sg:Ind:P/F "if someone bites the nose of a free man" (HG I §13=A124) In (17), the noun in the genitive LÚ.ULÙLU-as ELLAM-as can hardly be considered an apposition to the possessive -set, since it carries new information, and there is no antecedent, besides the noun in the genitive itself, to govern the anaphora.

POSSESSIVE NOUN PHRASES IN HITTITE

317

1.7. Alienable vs. inalienable possession. Possessive expressions with compound modifiers do not appear to be limited to any particular class of nouns. Unfortunately, the data do not offer a wide variety of examples, but this is likely to be a default of the written sources. In fact, the adjunction of a genitival apposition to a possessive clitic is not, given its clarifying function, likely to be constrained by the type of referent of the possessum. In the Hittite Laws, however, the expression of possessors through compound modifiers appears to be connected with inalienably possessed entities, mostly body parts. I have already mentioned in Section 1.6 that compound modifiers appear to be used for purposes other than that of disambiguating the reference of the possessive. The fact that these two peculiarities of possessive NPs with compound modifier occur together in the Laws might not be an accident. Limitation of compound modifiers to inalienable possession might have to do with co-indexing of the possessor noun with the possessum noun, a point on which I will elaborate further in the next section after examining the phenomenon of case attraction.15 2.

Case attraction.

2.1. Development and scope of case attraction. Starting with the Middle Hittite period, the phenomenon which I have called case attraction became rather widespread in possessive NPs.16 The noun which refers to the possessor is put in the same case as the noun which refers to the possessum. Examples are frequent especially for the accusative (see (22) below); the ablative is also well attested (as in (2) and (19)). It is rather unclear in which instances one should speak of case attraction in passages in which two datives occur together. The following is a sure example:17

15 Possible examples of alienably possessed entities are NINDA "bread", in (4) and aras in (9). Of course, it is never a priori possible to know what referents a specific language will conceptualize as inalienably possessable; see below footnote 20. However, nouns such as those just mentioned do not seem to refer to inalienably possessed entities in Hittite since they do not occur in the case attraction construction; see below, Section 2. 16 See Friedrich (1926:43-45, 178) and Friedrich (1930:24, 142-143). 17 In a sentence with two constituents in the dative/locative, one may always take the two as having different functions. So in (18) ANA DUTUŠI might express beneficiary and ŠU-i might express location. However, the existence of a duplicate with a status constructus would seem to suggest that the two nouns do in fact belong to the same NP; see Friedrich (1926:44-45). Starke (1977) adduces a number of case attraction constructions from Old Hittite.

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(18) nu= kan ANA D[ (UTUŠI SU)]-i anda hand-D/L inside and Ptc His-Majesty:D/L miya[ (huwan) t]ahhut flourish:2Sg:Imper "flourish inside the hand of his Majesty (= in the protection of...)" (KUB XXI 1 IV 45-46) No such instances of case attraction are found for the nominative.18 The common opinion of the internal structure of possessive NPs with case attraction views them as a construction in which a noun whose referent is known to speakers as a typical part of a whole is apposed to the noun which refers to the whole itself. In other words, the possessum noun is considered a modifier (in the function apposition) with respect to the possessor noun, which is taken as the head of the NP.19 2.2. The data. Before discussing the structural description of case attraction NPs, I examine some further examples. D (19)nu= kan= GAL-in arunan Ku[ma]rbiyaza and Ptc beg-Acc:Sg:C sea:Acc:Sg:C K.:Abl É-irza ... uwat[er n= an I]NA É-5U house-Abl bring:3Pl:Ind:Pr and he:Acc his-house-D/L arha pēhuter Prev bring:3Pl:Ind:Pr "and they brought the big sea out of Kumarbis' house, and carried him back to his (own) house" (StBoT 14, p. 38, 11.16-19

18 Examples such as kus wa memiyas kuis UL this:Nom:Pl:C Ptc thing:Nom:Pl:C which:Nom:Sg:C not iyawas do:VbN:Nom:Sg:C "which of these things must not be done" (KBo V 9 III 2-3) listed by Friedrich (1960:124) and Hahn (1953) under the heading "partitive apposition" together with case attraction NPs are in fact completely different syntactically; see below, footnote 19. 19 The case attraction construction is usually referred to as partitive apposition; see Friedrich (1960:123-124), Hahn (1953) and Hahn (1954), and more recently Starke (1977:175-177) with a more explicit structural description. I think that a distinction should be made between true partitive or distributive appositions, such as the one in the example quoted in footnote 16, and case attraction, in possessive NPs, which corresponds to the 'construction of the part and the whole' (skēma kath'hólon kaì méros ). Both constructions are found also in other Indo-European languages and have frequently been confused by scholars. For Greek, the necessity of distinguishing between the two phenomena has been stressed in Kühner-Gerth (1898:286) and, more recently, in Jaquinod (1988).

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(20) anthusas KAxU-az man:Gen mouth-Abl "from (a) mouth of man" (KUB VI 46 I 31-32) (21)ammēdaz §U-az I:Abl hand-Abl "with my hand" (KBo III 4 IV 45) (22)takku LÚ.ULÙLU-an ELLAM KAxKAK= set kuisky if man-Ace free nose his someone:Nom:Sg wāki bite:3Sg:Ind:P/F "if someone bites a free man on his nose" (HG I §13=B I 33) (23) tuedas assiyantas pēdas thou:IVL:Pl love:Part:D/L:Pl place:D/L:Pl "in your favorite sites" (KUB XXXVI90 16) In (19) we find one of the few examples in which the possessed entity is not a body part. In many languages which have different morphological means of expression for alienable and inalienable possession, the word for "house" is likely to refer to an entity which is inalienably possessed.20 Example (20) is from a duplicate of the text from which I have taken example (2). The alternative possible occurrence of genitival NPs and case attraction NPs in texts for which we can compare duplicates from the same period is rather frequent and constitutes good evidence for the fact that, at least synchronically, the two types of possessive expression were felt as equivalent. Sentence (22) is interesting from a diachronic point of view. It contains one of the numerous examples in which a possessive NP with a compound modifier, found in the Old Hittite version, is substituted by a case attraction construction in a later copy. Sentence (22), in particular, corresponds to (17) quoted above in the duplicate B (Middle Hittite) of the Laws.21 Note that (23) differs from all the other examples quoted so far of case attraction, in that it also contains the possessive clitic -set Possessive clitics apparently do not belong in the case attraction construction; the occurrence of

20 The distinction between alienably and inalienably possessed entities varies among languages; see Seiler (1981). 21 This as well as other changes from the oldest to the more recent copies of the Hittite Laws has been noted in Carruba, Souček & Sternemann (1965).

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-set here, as in many other passages from the duplicate B of the Laws, is likely to be due to partial preservation of the older patterns.22 Examples (21) and (23) contain personal pronouns in the function possessor. Apparently, forms of personal pronouns such as those in (21) and (23) were created especially to fit into the case attraction construction. This is particularly evident for tuedas in sentence (23), a plural form of the second person singular pronoun. The use of personal pronouns with case attraction constitutes a first step toward the creation of fully inflected possessive adjectives. I will discuss this point more in detail in Section 2.4. 2.3. Co-indexing and classes of possessa. By expressing both the possessor and the possessum with the same case marker, case attraction leads to the same result as compound modifiers, in that it co-indexes the possessor noun with the possessum noun. Co-indexing is more straightforward than case attraction, since it is achieved simply through morphological agreement between two nouns. It is interesting to note that, on one hand, case attraction is used only for inalienable possession and, on the other, co-indexing is apparently the main purpose for which it is used. It becomes apparent, thus, that case attraction was a device for expressing inalienable possession. It is possible that the link between co-indexing and inalienable possession was felt already in Old Hittite, and that the function of compound modifiers at a certain stage of the language had been that of expressing possessors of inalienably possessed entities. If this hypothesis is right, then the possessive clitics in passages such as (17) must have been reinterpreted as phonological supports which fulfilled the function of co-indexing modifiers with their heads. This would explain why compound modifiers occur also in cases in which the genitive apparently cannot be considered an apposition, and the possessive clitic does in fact seem to be a pleonastic addition.23 2.4. The fate of clitic possessives and word order. Clitic possessives appear to be less and less frequent after the Old Hittite period. They tend to disappear from genitival NPs, in which the noun in the genitive alone constitutes the modifier (see example (20) above). For pronominal possessors, one mostly finds the form of the genitive of accented pronouns.24

22 In some cases, possessive clitics are in fact replaced by third person pronouns in the later copy of the Laws. 23 This would be an example of grammaticalization in the sense of Lehmann (1982). 24 See Friedrich (1960:65).

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Otherwise, pronouns can undergo case attraction, as is shown in (22) and (24). Case attraction in the case of personal pronouns should be viewed as a process of adjectivization, as is best demonstrated by the form tuedas in sentence (24). The creation of possessive adjectives out of pronominal stems is attested also in other ancient Indo-European languages. In the Middle Hittite period, adjectival forms derived from personal pronouns came into use, apparently substituting for clitic possessive adjectives, which were becoming less used than in Old Hittite.25 Note that the replacement of possessive clitics by both types of pronominal form (genitive and 'quasi-adjective' as in sentence (21)) conforms to the rules of word order in Hittite, since accented pronominal forms in the function attribute precede their head nouns. As I have mentioned in Section 1.5, possessive clitics were abnormal attributes in this respect. As a second peculiarity in the position of clitic possessives, I have mentioned in Section 1.5 the fact that, unlike other clitics, they could be attached to constituents occurring in any position in a sentence, instead of being in Wackernagel's position. These 'irregularities' of clitics concerning their position might have been a reason why compound modifiers did not become widely used for distinguishing between third person subject and nonsubject possessors. The reflexive particle -za, which in Old Hittite was occasionally used to indicate third person subject possessors, in its turn appears to be obligatory in this function in Middle and Late Hittite. It is used for all persons, frequently in cases in which no pronominal possessors occur: (24)nu= za= kan IGIHIA-wa kuwattan ANA KUR and Refl Ptc eye-N/A:Pl:N which:D/L:Sg land:D/L:Sg LÚ.KÚR andan nãiskinun nu= mu= kan IGIHI A-wa enemy into turn:lSg:Ind:Pr and I:Dat Ptc eye-N/A:Pl:N LÚ.KÚR EGIR-pa UL kuiski nāi enemy back not anybody:Nom:Sg turn:3Sg:Pr "toward whatever enemy land I directed my eyes (with -za : subject possessor), no enemy was able to turn my eyes (without -za : non-subject possessor) back" (StBoT 24 I 67-69).26 2.5. The structure of case attraction NPs. I would like to conclude this section by explaining my choice of the label 'case attraction' for

25 Accadian possessive suffixes are always used, but this is likely to be a writing convention connected with the use of ideograms. 26 For this translation, see Hoffner (1973:522). A different interpretation is given in Often (1981:8).

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the phenomenon found in the NPs examined and by giving my own views on their internal structure. As I have mentioned above, Section 2.1, expressions such as UKÙ-az KAxU -az are considered NPs in which the second noun is apposed to thefirst,as in the following schema:

This conception also explains the name of partitive apposition, commonly used to refer to the same phenomenon which I have called case attraction. The name case attraction itself, used for instance in Melchert (1977), in its turn suggests that the construction is used instead of another, and that thefirstnoun (the possessor noun) is not in the genitive, but rather in the same case as the possessum noun, because of the influence of the latter. I believe that, as in possessive NPs in which the possessor is expressed through a genitive, also in the case of agreement with the possessum it is still the possessor noun which must be taken as the modifier. The structure of case attraction NPs should be represented, in my opinion, as:

Arguments in favor of considering the possessum noun the head of the construction are: - possible synchronic interchangeability of case attraction NPs with genitival NPs; - evolution of pronominal forms into adjectival forms;

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- the case marker of the possessor noun is determined automatically by the case marker of the possessum noun. 3.

Conclusions.

In the preceding section I have shown that possession could be expressed in Hittite through NPs with compound modifiers and through case attraction. I have analysed and compared with each other the two possibilities. Since compound modifiers apparently constitute an older pattern than case attraction, I have compared the two patterns with each other in light of a number of other syntactic changes undergone by Hittite. I have argued that: (a) compound modifiers were constituted by a third person possessive clitic pronoun and a noun in the genitive that functioned as apposition of the possessive; (b) compound modifiers also had as a side effect co-indexing of the modifier with its head noun; (c) as possessive clitic pronouns became less frequent, genitival appositions lost their function, so that compound modifiers were reinterpreted as being basically a device of co-indexing modifiers with their head nouns; (d) compound modifiers did not develop into indicators of third person nonsubject possessors; instead, the use of a reflexive particle was extended to all instances of subject possessors; (e) co-indexing was used for the expression of inalienable possession in Middle Hittite. Compound modifiers were replaced by case atttraction, through which co-indexing was achieved more straightforwardly, and which did not require possessive clitics which had become obsolete; (0 case attraction consisted in agreement of modifying nouns and pronouns with their head nouns and was a substitute for plain genitival possessive NPs; (g) by case attraction personal pronouns developed accented adjectival forms which were on their way to becoming substitutes for possessive clitics and which conformed to the rules of word order in Hittite.

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ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE GLOSSES Abl = ablative Acc = accusative C = common gender (non-neuter) D/L = dative/locative Dat = dative Dir = directive Pl Foc = focalizer Gen = genitive Imper = imperative Ind = indicative M/P = mediopassive

N = neuter gender N/A - nominative/accusative Nom = nominative P/F = present/future Part = participle = plural Pr = preterite Prev = preverb Ptc - particle Refl = reflexive particle Sg = singular VbN = verbal noun

REFERENCES Boley,J. 1985. "Notes on Hittite place word syntax". Hetitica 6.5-43. Carruba, O., V. Souček & R. Sternemann. 1965. "Kleine Bemerkungen zur jüngsten Fassung der hethitischen Gesetze". ArOr 33.1-18. Friedrich, J. 1926. Staatsvertrage des Hatti'-Reiches, l.Teil. Leipzig: Hinrichs. Friedrich, J. 1930. Staatsvertrage des Hatti-Reiches, 2.Teil. Leipzig: Hinrichs. Friedrich, J. 1960. Hethitisches Elementarbuch, l.Teil, 2.Auflage. Heidel­ berg: Carl Winter. Friedrich, J. 1971. Die hethitischen Gesetze, 2. Auflage. Leiden: Brill. (= HG.) Hahn, E.A. 1953. "Vestiges of partitive appositions in Latin syntax". TAPA 84.92-123. Hahn, E.A. 1954. "Partitive apposition in Homer and the greek accusative". TAPA 85.197-289. Hoffner, H.A.,Jr. 1973. "Studies of the Hittite particles". JAOS 93.520526. Jaquinod, B. 1989. "Analyse syntactique de la mise au même cas du complément de la partie en grec ancien". In the Footsteps ofRaphael Kühner ed. by A. Rijskbaron, H. Mulder & G. Wakker, 135-145. Amsterdam: Gieben. Kühner, R. & B. Gehrt. 1898. Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der gnechischen Sprache, 2.Teil: Satzlehre, Band I, 3.Auflage. Hannover Hahn. Kühner, R. & B. Gehrt. 1904. Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der gnechischen Sprache, 2.Teil: Satzlehre, Band II, 3.Auflage. Hannover: Hahn. Laroche, E. 1982. "Epithèse et predication en hittite". Fs. G. Neumann ed. by Johann Tischler, 133-136. (= Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprach-

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wissenschaft, 40.) Innsbruck: Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft der Universitat. Lehmann, Christian. 1982. Thoughts on Grammaticalization. (= AKUP, 48.) Cologne: Universalienprojekt, Universitat. Limburg, M.J. 1985. "On the notion 'relator' and the expression of the genitive relation". Predicates and Terms in Functional Grammar ed. by A.M. Bolkestein, C. de Groot & J.L. Mackenzie, 147-163. Dordrecht: Foris. Luraghi, S. 1989a. "Note sulla legge di Wackernagel e la posizione del verbo in alcune lingue indoeuropee". Dimensioni della Linguistica ed. by P. Ramat, A. Giacalone Ramat & M.E. Conte. (= Materiali Linguistici, 1.) Milan: Franco Angeli. Luraghi, S. 1989b. Old Hittite Sentence Structure. London: Croom Helm. Melchert, H.C. 1977. Ablative and Instrumental in Hittite. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University. Neu, E. 1974. Der Anitta-Text. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (= StBoT 18.) Neu, E. 1979. "Einige Uberlegungen zu den hethitischen Kasusendungen". Hethitisch und Indogermanisch ed. by E. Neu & W. Meid, 177-196. Innsbruck: Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft der Universitat. Neu, E. 1980. Althethitische Ritualtexte in Umschrift. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (=StBoT 25.) Neu, E. & Ch. Rüster. 1975. Hethitische Keilschrift-Palaographie, Vol. II. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Otten, H. 1973. Bine althethitische Erzahlung um die Stadt Zalpa. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (= StBoT 17.) Otten, H. 1981. Die Apologie Hattusilis III. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (= StBoT 24.) Otten, H. & V. Souček. 1969. Bin althethitisches Ritual fur das Königspaar. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (=StBoT 8.) Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, R. Leech & J. Svartvik. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman. Seiler, H. 1981. Possession as an Operational Dimension of Language. (= AKUP, 42.) Cologne: Universalienprojekt-Universitat. Soden, W. von. 1969. Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik. Rome: Pont. Inst. Bibl. Starke, F. 1977. Die Funktionen der dimensionalen Kasus und Ortsadverbien im Hethitischen. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Ultan, R. 1978. "Toward a typology of substantival possession". Universais ofHuman Language, Vol. 4: Syntax ed. by J. Greenberg, 12-49. Stan­ ford: Stanford University Press. Yoshida, D. 1987. Die Syntax des althethitischen Genitivs. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.

THE GHOST OF THE AGENT IN ROMANCE MARIA MANOLIU-MANEA University of California, Davis

0. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that in Latin, agentivity controls the choice of gender, case and voice. Since the very defini­ tion of grammatical categories such as gender has to be refined for diachronic purposes, in this paper I shall examine only a few changes in the governing properties of agentivity in connection with noun agreement strategies and the semantic interpretation of reflexives. 1. Latin animacy: 'active' vs. 'living'. 1.1. The distribution of nouns into various genders points to the fact that in Latin the feature [± Animate] was viewed as 'dynamic', as the capacity of active participation in the event, very close to the idea of agentivity, rather than as 'living': cf. ignis (m.) "fire", ventus (m.) "wind" (associated with the idea of strength, active forces), terra (f.) "earth", arbor (f.) "tree" (associated with the idea of fertility, productivity), etc. The fact that neuter nouns always syncretize the subject case (nominative) with the direct object case (accusative) can be accounted for only if the neuter is considered a distributional class of nouns reflecting a feature which deals with the capacity of being or not being actively and effectively involved in an event. [-Active] seems to have been assigned as a CORE feature in neuter nouns (e.g., saxum "stone", templum "temple"), but SITUATIONALLY (pragmatically) in nonneuters. This is shown by the identity of neuter morphemes with accusative morphemes in feminine or masculine nouns: templuM"temple", feminaM (f.acc.) "woman" or servuM (m.acc.) "servant". The class of non-neuters is divided into masculine and feminine distributional classes and seems to correspond only prototypically to active forces (active in the sense that they are capable of affecting human life), such as wind, fire, trees, earth, or men and women (see Meillet's hypothesis 1921:251). Feminine and masculine morphemes were assigned to adjectives, determiners, or pronouns according to the interplay of semantic and pragmatic variables: cf. femina bona (f.) "woman good" (in which the semantic core feature 'female' governs the choice

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of gender in the adjective) and cives bona (f.) "citizen good", in which the pragmatic variable 'talking about a female' governs the gender of the adjective. 1.2. In addition to its role in controlling the syncretism between nominative and accusative, agentivity governs case assignment in other ways. For example, non-agentive topical NPs take a dative marker when referring to a possessor, in combination with the verb "to be" (e.g., mihi libram est [lit. me:dat book is], i.e. "I have the/this book") or an accusative marker when referring to persons as the location of feelings with certain impersonal verbs (e.g., me pudet stultitiae meae [lit. me:acc there:is:shame-sg-3rd stupidity-gen mine-gen], i.e. "I am ashamed of my stupidity"). 1.3. Agentivity also governs the selection of voice, as a pragmatic variable. For example, the middle-passive (the form in -r ) is chosen when the agent is demoted from the core structure of the sentence (see Meillet & Vendryès 1960:314 or more recently, Touratier 1984). 1.4. The feature [±Human], as a subspecies of animacy (see Comrie 1981), governs the choice of various quantifiers (e.g. [+Human]: quisquís "whosoever", quisquam "anyone at all", quis "who?", nemo "nobody"; and [-Human] (things): quidquid "whatsoever", quidquam "anything at all", quid "what?", nihil "nothing"). Given the behavior of the feature [Active] in the Romance languages, it is very likely that at a certain stage dynamicity ceased to be considered as an inherent property of certain referents and thus became a contextually assigned feature. Such a hypothesis can account for the role now played by dynamicity in the choice of the pragmatically motivated categories of case and voice, and the loss of its capacity to govern gender, which is supposedly linked to nounstem features. But in order to explain the difference between Latin and Romance in this area, it is necessary to review current approaches to gender, since not all agreement strategies accounting for the choice of gender in adjectives or pronouns can be explained in terms of noun-stem features belonging to the inherent semantic microstructure. 2.

A functionalist definition of Romance gender.

Various descriptions of grammatical categories, either structural or transformational, have pointed to the fact that gender is dependent on noun stems in one way or another. The main concern of such descriptions has been to search for criteria which could define the gender of nouns and to consider

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the gender of adjectives (or pronouns) as a redundant (if not meaningless) morpheme rather than to focus on the factors which govern the choice of gender in those places in which gender morphemes are interchangeable, namely after stems indifferent to gender (i.e. in certain categories of noun, in adjectives, noun determiners or pronouns). Consequently, neither structural nor transformational models could delimit what is to be called gender and various governing strategies involving features of noun stems. Moreover, they could not account for various agreement strategies such as: (a) contradictory gender assignment: e.g., Rom. sentinela s-a însurat [lit. sentry-the:f. got married] "the sentry got married" (the verb a se însura is used only with male subjects) and fata s-a maritai "(my) daughter got married" (with the verb a se marita the subject must refer to a female); (b) double-feature agreement: e.g., Fr. mon docteur est furieuse [lit. my:m. doctor is furious-f.] "my doctor (who is a female) is furious"; (c) proximity agreement: e.g., Sp. el que de lejos me parecía ser un castillo era una montaña [lit. what:m. from afar seemed to me to be a:m. castle was a:f. mountain] (el, masculine, agrees with the predicate of the relative clause, i.e. castillo, instead of agreeing with its own predicate, una montaña, which belongs to the class demanding feminine morphemes). Given the limitations of the previous approaches, I have chosen to define gender as a function of various variables which may govern the following domains: v1:semantic inherent features (non-contextual features of noun stems or adjectives/pronouns reflecting various interpretations of referential properties); v2: pragmatic (situationally assigned) features; v3: socially motivated features; v4: syntactic functions; v5: discourse strategies. The formal representation of the relations between these variables is beyond the goals of this paper. A variable such as v1 may motivate only partially (or prototypically) a distributional class of nouns: cf. Fr. la maison "the:f. house", which belongs to the same distributional class as la femme "the:f. woman". Morphological

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noun classes may be also semantically motivated by v1 (cf. a language such as Ute in Givón 1984:59). Socially motivated features such as 'prestigious professions' (v3) may favor the impact of a pragmatic variable (see the doublefeature agreement in French, which may be roughly represented as follows: Predeterminer [v1: m.]; N [v1 prototypically male; v2: female]; V "is"; Adj [v2: f.]). Since the head noun is not always predictable in syntactic terms, a variable such as v5 governing the domain of discourse strategies may account for a proximity agreement as in Sp. el que de lejos me parecía un castillo era una montaña "what:m. from afar seemed to me a:m. castle was a:f. mountain". This type of agreement may be explained by a discourse strategy such as this: in an equative structure in which the referent of the argument (x) is the same but predicates expressed by nouns change, the closest predicative noun may govern the gender of the introductory pronoun, although the former is not the subject of the latter. The semantic features of the adjective (see v1) may also allow the pragmatic and social variables to interact (see Dorel & Sezer 1981): e.g., mon docteur est furieuse "my:m. doctor (female) is furious:f.", but less likely ??mon docteur est belle "my:m. doctor (female) is pretty:f.". The syntactic function of the adjective (v4) is also responsible for the acceptability of doublefeature agreement: cf. mon docteur est furieuse (predicate noun) but not *mon docteur furieuse "my:m. doctor (female) furious: f." (attribute). 3.

What happened to the neuter gender?

The label 'animate' used without discrimination in connection with both Latin and Romance genders has led to misunderstandings and contradictory statements, especially in analyses of Romance neuters. We shall briefly examine some cases in which 'dynamicity' has lost its governing properties, i.e. in the area of neuter nouns and pronouns. 3.1. Romanian neuter. In Romanian there is a distributional class of nouns which requires a masculine adjective in the singular and a feminine adjective in the plural: e.g., tablou frumos "painting beautiful:m.:sg.", but tablouri frumoase "paintings beautiful:f.pl.". This class has often been called 'neuter gender' or 'ambigen' (bi-gender). Even when not banishing the neuter from the category of gender (as Hall 1965 and Agard 1961 do), the conclusions of previous works on the Romanian neuter are often contradictory, claiming either that it has nothing to do with the Latin neuter (Rosetti 1986:603) or that it is an archaism (Malkiel 1985). It has never been pointed out that, in fact, the Romanian neuter is no longer

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concerned with the degree of participation in the event, with 'non-dynamicity' as in the case of its Latin counterpart, but rather with the feature [-Living], as the regrouping of 'animate' Latin nouns into the Romanian distributional class of neuters shows: cf. Lat. ventas (m.) "wind" vs. Rom. vînt (n.); Lat. focus (m.) "fire" vs. Rom. foc (n.), etc. The difference between the neuter and non-neuter distributional classes is also manifest in the choice of predicative adjectives with coordinated subjects: cf. bàiatulşifetiţa sunt cuminţi "boythe:m.sg. and girl-the:f.sg. are well-behaved-m.pl.", but pereteleşipoarta sunt proaspàt vopsite "wall-the:m.sg. and gate-the:f.sg. are (recently) paintedf.pl.". But the inclusion of collective animates (such as popor "people", stol "flock") in the neuter distributional class can be accounted for by postulating a secondary semantic reorganization according to 'the possibility vs. impossibility of talking about gender distinctions', instead of [±Living]. 3.2. Spanish neuter pronouns. Spanish has four neuter pronouns: ello "it" (vs. él "he" and ella "she"), esto "this: 1st pers." (vs. este "this:m." and esta "this:f."), eso "this:2nd pers." (vs. ese "this:m." and esa "this:f."), and aquello "that" (vs. aquel "that:m." and aquella "that:f."). As anaphoras, neuter pronouns serve to pronominalize a sentence: e.g., Roman, antés, me quería mucho, ... y esto es un secreto grande (C. Laforet, Nada ) "Roman used to love me very much,... and this is a great secret"; que la nube nos estropearía la tarde, ...ya no pudiamos dudarlo (Galdós) "that the cloud would spoil the evening for us,... that we could no longer doubt". The only nouns to which they may refer are the result of a nominalization by the addition of the neuter article lo, such as in lo bueno "what is good", which is in opposition to la bondad "goodness", due to the indeterminate value assigned to the feature [±Count] (see Ojeda 1987); see, for example: aspiro a que se piense aquí en lo religioso y se medite en ello (Unamuno) "I want people here to think about what is religious and to meditate upon it". As deictics (referential use), neuter demonstratives refer to objects when their class is presented as unknown: e.g., Tomo esto "I'll take this (unspecified class)" as opposed to (Qué libro quiere tomar? -) Este "Which book do you want to take? This one:m.sg." (since libro is masculine). Cf. also Qué es esto? "What's this?" and *?Qué es este? "What is this:m.?" (since if one does not know the class, it is impossible to assign a masculine gender to the demonstrative in question). According to the hypothesis outlined in Section 2, the gender of Spanish neuter pronouns can be accounted for by assigning zero values to every variable responsible for the choice of gender.

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4.

Dynamicity and humanness.

In Romance animacy still plays an important role in the choice of subjects, as a reflection of the intersection between the features [±Human] and [±Dynamic], rather than as a true agent (seen as a compound of features such as volition, intention, animacy, self-energy source and efficiency). As I hope to have shown elsewhere (see Manoliu 1987), the features [±Human] and [±Dynamic] are much more likely than 'agentivity' to characterize a subject (see Tables 1 and 2):

Language

Human

Italian Romanian Spanish

81.75 79.75 78.75

Dynamic Agent

Human

48.00 44.00 42.75

91.56 84.69 87.34

66.50 73.00 66.75

Table 1. Subjects.

Dynamic Agent 72.08 76.53 70.80

54.55 44.89 48.42

Table 2. Topical subjects.

As one can see from Table 2, if topical subjects are considered, the percentages of Human and Active are even higher. Langage Italian Romanian Spanish

Human 74.26 88.37 81.19

Table 3. Topical fronted objects: human. The above figures point to the following quantitative tendencies: (a) if an NP is topical and marked [+Human], then it is very likely that this NP is going to be the subject; and (b) if an NP is characterized by the feature [+Human], then it is highly likely also to be the topic, either as a subject or as an object. These quantitative tendencies may explain some controversial phenomena, apparently unrelated. 4 . 1 . Case marking: the personal gender. The high probability of human subjects and a relatively freer word order allowing postverbal subjects and preverbal objects in Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian has led to a much discussed phenomenon, sometimes labeled 'personal gender'. In the majority of cases, its main characteristics belong to the area of case marking:

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4 . 1 . 1 . Prepositional markers. In, for example, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, various Italian dialects and Romanian, the direct object is marked by a preposition, precisely when it is specific and characterized by the feature [+Human], such as Sp. busco al medicc/a un medico de Nueva York "I am looking for the doctor/for a doctor from New York"; Rom. ham vzut pe Ion [lit. him-have-I seen prep. John] "I saw John". 4.1.2. Clitic pronouns. In Romanian, where the order VS is almost as frequent as the order SV, and the 3rd person dative pronoun often replaces the possessive adjective, both the indirect and the direct objects when specific and human are copied onto the verb as clitics, even if the objects are in postverbal position: Rom. 1-am vzut pe Ion [lit. him have-I seen prep. John] "I saw John"; i-am datMarieio carte [lit. to:her-have:I given Marygen.-the-gen. a book] "I gave Mary a book". 4.1.3. Specialized forms of pronouns referring to persons. For example, in Romanian, the pronoun dînsul m. - cf. Lat. IPSE - refers only to persons; in opposition to the standard forms of the personal pronouns (3rd person), i.e. el (Lat. ILLE); cf. also It. essi, esse "they". Indefinite and relative-interrogative pronouns are also sensitive to the difference between [+Human] and [-Human] (usuallly referring to things): e.g., Fr. qui "who" vs. quoi "what", Sp. quién vs. que, Rom. cine vs. ce. 4.2. Romance reflexives: anticausatives v s . passives. Features related to animacy, viewed as dynamicity, also govern voice choices. In spite of the fact that recent approaches consider passives as means of 'demoting the agent' from the core structure of the sentence (see Desclés et al 1984, Touratier 1984, Postal 1986), in Romance, as in any other type of language in which passive readings can be assigned to more than one construction, animacy has to be brought into the picture in order to account for some of the most common differences between the reflexive passives and the plain passives. Let us examine, for example, the role played by the features [±Human] and [±Dynamic] in defining a few constraints imposed on the passive readings of reflexive constructions which have not yet been accounted for in a satisfactory way. 4 . 2 . 1 . It has often been emphasized that reflexive constructions in which the subject (especially if inanimate) follows the verb are more likely to receive a passive interpretation than those in which the subject precedes the verb: cf. Rom. seara, palatul reînvie, se aprind candelabrele, se ridicà

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storurile, se deschid uşile ... [lit. refl. tum:on-pl. chandeliers-the, open-pl. doors-the ...] "in the evening, the palace comes to life, one turns on the chandeliers,raisesthe blinds, opens the doors ...", and seara, palatuleînvie, candelabrele se aprind, storurile se ridicà, porţile se deschid ... "in the evening, the palace comes to life, the chandeliers light up, the blinds rise, the doors open ..." (for similar phenomena in Italian and Spanish, see García 1975, Costa 1976). The explanation is to be found in the same quantitative tendencies characterizing the Romance subject, which favor the interpretation of a postverbal nontopical NP (especially when inanimate) as inactive, i.e. as an 'undergoer' rather than as a 'doer'. As Table 4 shows, a non-human postposed subject refers to a dynamic participant in only 0.25% of the cases. Feature -Topic +Dynamic +Human -Human

Italian

Romanian

Spanish

9.75 3.50 2.75 0.75

15.25 10.00 9.75 0.25

7.75 3.50 3.00 0.50

Table 4. Postverbal nontopical subjects (% calculated in relation to a total of 400 subjects per language). When the subject is fronted, the passive reading is blocked and various dynamic readings are actualized, according to the aspectual-semantic features of the verb and its capacity for assigning the contextual feature [+Dynamic] to the subject NP. For example, with the reflexive of ACHIEVEMENT (in Dowty's 1979 terms), the anticausative reading is actualized: e.g., Rom. porţile se deschid [lit. doors-the refl, open] "the doors open", maşinile s-au oprit "cars stopped", creanga s-a rupt "the branch broke". As Gougenheim (1929:160) pointed out, in a construction such as la porte s'ouvre "the door opens", the subject "n'est pas absolument passif; même lorsque le sujet est un nom de chose on lui suppose quelque activité". With verbs of ACCOMPLISHMENT, the anticausative reading is the result of the fact that the object is viewed as having a certain property which facilitates the activity: e.g., Rom. vinul se bea, berea nu [lit. wine-the refl, drink, beerthe, not] "the wine, they drink it, the beer, not" (which, in fact may be paraphrased as "if the object has the property of being wine, the activity of drinking is performed, if it is beer, the activity does not take place") (see Siewierska 1984:170).

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In the case of verbs of ACCOMPLISHMENT which express the fact that the object is the result of the activity in question, the passive reading is favored, since the resulting object cannot be viewed as having any active involvement in the process: see Sp. esta novela se escribió en 1938 "this story was written in 1938"; Rom. piramidele s-au construit cu mulţi ani în urmà "the pyramids were built many years ago", etc. 4.2.2. The passive reading is usually blocked when the direct object in the active construction is characterized by the feature [±Living]: cf. Fr. les prisonniers vont se pendre à cinq heures du matin, which can have two readings, (a) "the prisoners will hang themselves at 5 o'clock in the morning" and (b) "they will hang one another", but less likely (c) "they will be hangedpassive", while in les jambons se pendent dans le grenier the subject always keeps its passive reading, i.e. "hams are to be hung in the attic". The constraint under discussion rests on the same prototypical interpretations of preverbal animate subjects as doers if the verb does not take the 'plain' passive form. 5.

Conclusions.

5.1. It seems that the concept of agent, as a complex symbol, is less appropriate for diachronic explanations than an analytical approach taking into account semantic components such as [±Dynamic], [±Efficient], [±Human], and [±Living]. For example, major changes in the categories of gender and voice in Romance languages may be accounted for by considering the status of a feature such as [±Dynamic] (if not [±Effective]), which ceased to be treated as an inherent feature of noun stems and became a pragmatically assigned feature. 5.2. Animacy and neuter gender are not always related in the same way. In Latin, for example, traces of a stage in which animacy was interpreted as [±Effective] (in the sense that the participant could affect human life) often account for the distribution of nouns into non-neuters and neuters. In Romanian, the distributional class of neuter nouns is linked to the 'impossibility of talking about gender distinctions' rather than to [-Living] or [-Dynamic]. In Spanish, the neuter is associated with a zero value for the variables responsible for the choice of gender in personal and demonstrative pronouns.

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5.3. The importance of a pragmatic feature such as [±Dynamic] for Romance syntax is reflected in the quantitative tendencies characterizing the assignment of the feature in question to subjects and topics, with relevant consequences for the constraints governing the choice of voice (anticausative reflexive, reflexive passive or plain passive). 5.4. The fortune of [±Human] as a governing stem feature in the choice of subjects, voices and case markers seems to be related to topicality, and, implicitly, to the place which is given to human beings in the speaker's reconstruction of the events we are talking about.

REFERENCES Agard, Frederik. 1953. "Noun morphology in Rumanian". Language 29.134-142. Comrie, B. 1981. Language Universais and Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Blackwell. Costa, R. 1975. "A functional solution for illogical reflexives in Italian". Papers from the Parasession on Functionalism ed. by R.E. Grossman, L.J. San & T.J. Vance, 112-125. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Desclés, Jean Pierre, Zlatka Guentchéva & Sebastian Shaumyan. 1985. Theoretical Aspects of Passivization in the Framework of Applicative Grammar. (= Pragmatics and Beyond, 6.1.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Dorel, Martine & Engin Sezer. 1981. "Discourse conditions and gender smearing in French". Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages: 9 ed. by E.W. Cressy & Dona Jo Napoli, 197-215. Washington, D.C.: Georgetwon University Press. Dowty, Davis. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel. García, E.C. 1975. The Role of Theory in Linguistic Analysis: The Spanish Pronoun System. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax. A Functional-Typological Introduction, 1. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Gougenheim, G. 1929. Etudes sur les périphrases verbales de la langue française. Paris: Belles Lettres. Hall, Robert A., Jr. 1965. "The neuter in Romance: a pseudo-problem". Word 21.421-427. Malkiel, Yakov. 1985. "Old and new problems in the Latinity of the Lower Danube". Journal of the American-Romanian Academy 6-7.90-103. Manoliu-Manea, Maria. In press. "The myth of the agent: roles and communicative dynamism in Romance". Alphonse Juilland. D'une

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passion Vautre ed. by Brigitte Cazelles & René Girard, 261-275. Saratoga, CA: Anma Libri et Co. Meillet, Antoine. 1921-1937. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale, 2 vols. Paris: Champion. Meillet, Antoine & Joseph Vendryès. 1960. Traité de grammaire comparée des langues classiques, 3rd ed. rev. & compi. by J. Vendryès. Paris: Champion. Ojeda, Almerindo. 1987. The Spanish Neuter. A Study in the Semantics of Individuation. Unpublished manuscript. Posner, Rebecca. 1985. "Non-agreement on Romance disagreements". JL 2.437-451. Postal, Paul M. 1968. Studies of Passive Clauses. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Rosetti, Alexandru. 1986. Istorialimbiiromâne de la orìginipînàînsecolul al XVn-lea. Bucharest: Editura Ştiinţificà. Siewierska, Anna. 1984. The Passive: A Comparative Linguistics Analysis. London, Sydney, Dover, New Hampshire: Croom Helm. Touratier, Christian. 1984. "Il y a un passif en latin; mais de quoi s'agit-il?". Le Passif ed. by Daniel Bresson, 75ff. Publications de l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille: Laffitte. Wolfe, Susan J. 1980. "Gender and agency in Indo-European languages". Papers in Linguistics 13(4).773-794.

NON-ADJACENCY IN GEMINATE STRUCTURE: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE JEAN-PIERRE Y. MONTREUEL The University of Texas at Austin

In this paper I examine the interrelations of three different constructs in theoretical phonology: -

assimilation as feature- or node-spreading; the non-linear representation of Modern French schwa; constraints on geminate structure.

Next, I present a set of data showing that the current versions of these three constructs are not strictly compatible.1 Specifically, the data will illustrate processes of total assimilation between non-adjacent segments. Finally, I discuss, within a theory of nodology, the historical changes responsible for the emergence of these assimilation phenomena. 1.

Assimilation as spreading.

The representation of phonological features which I assume is given in Fig. 1. It is essentially a hierarchical structure composed of phonetic features and phonological nodes. Various hierarchical models have been proposed by Clements (1985), Sagey (1986) and Archangeli & Pulleyblank (1986), among others. Given this model, assimilation can be viewed as the result of either feature-spreading or node-spreading. Consider a simple case of single-feature spreading, that of voice assimilation in Modern French, as given in Fig. 2. The feature /vce/ of the second obstruent links up to the laryngeal node of the first obstruent, where delinking occurs. Compared to the use of the alpha device or to feature manipulation in linear phonology, this view of

1

The central part of this paper was presented at the LSRL 17 convention. Most of the examples used in that early version have remained unchanged.

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Fig. 1. assimilation as spreading-cum-delinking has the advantage of constraining the phonology by allowing only phonetically plausible processes to be represented. It also makes the strong claim that only features that are in the trigger can be acquired by the target, and that, in the unmarked state of affairs, either single features or single nodes will travel. Now consider a rule of total assimilation, that of coronal continuant assimilation, as given in Fig. 3. Clements (1985) argues that all processes of total assimilation involve spreading of the root-node. But we can conceive of the assimilatory process as a spreading of the /hi/ feature, followed by the application of the shared feature convention (Steriade 1982), which in effect zips the structure all the way up.

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Paraphrase: Obstruents assimilate in voice regressively to other ob­ struents. Examples: lesbian/şb/ "lesbian"; absent / b s / "absent". Fig. 2. Voice assimilation in Modern French.

Paraphrase: Coronals assimilate regressively to high coronals. Examples: bus jaune /žž/ "yellow bus" l'ex-shah / š š / "the ex-shah" gaz chaud /šš/ "hot gas" Fig. 3. Coronal continuant assimilation in Modern French.

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2. The representation of schwa in Modern French. The current interpretation of schwa in non-linear phonology is that it is a null vowel. Anderson (1982), Withgott (1982) and Borowsky (1986) demonstrate that most of the problems posed by the behavior of schwa disappear if schwa functions as a vowel not associated to a matrix. In the framework we adopt here, similar to the one developed in Levin (1985), syllabicity is not encoded at the skeletal level. Rather, nuclei are built over xstructure by feature-reading syllabification rules. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that, in order to be syllabified properly, schwa must be linked to segmental information containing at least the features/-cons, -hi/. 3.

Constraints on adjacency.

The representation shown in Fig. 3, the result of an assimilation process, is similar to that of a geminate. Lexical geminates, such as exist in Italian or such as existed in older stages of French, precisely consist of one Root-node linked up to two timing units. We define as 'true' geminates structures of the type given in Fig. 4 and as 'false' geminates structures of the type given in Fig. 5. We recall that the obligatory contour principle (McCarthy 1986) rules out false geminates inside the morpheme.

Fig.4. 'True' geminates.

Fig. 5. 'False' geminates.

Lexical geminates, however, are subject to the strongest constraints on adjacency. Research has demonstrated that such structures as given in Fig. 4 cannot be split by epenthesis, and that one of the segments of such a structure cannot be affected by a rule unless the other segment also is; see Schein & Steriade (1986) and references therein. Both voice-assimilation and coronal continuant assimilation in French apply across schwa, as (1) and (2) demonstrate.

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( 1 ) Voice assimilation across schwa: médecin /ds/ jupe bleue /pb/ lève-toi! /vt/

"doctor" "blue skirt" "get up!"

(2) Coronal continuant assimilation across schwa: ça se chante /šš/ grosse joue /žž/ grosse chaleur /šš/

"it's for singing" "big cheek" "the heat"

A problematic situation thus develops, because consonants typically do not spread over vowels. In (2), for instance, if total assimilation results from spreading of the root-node and if schwa does project to the segmental plane, then we are in the presence of an incontrovertible case of line-crossing violation of the type shown in Fig. 6.

This violation occurs only if schwa is present at the time assimilation applies. Under this assumption, it is easy to see that subsequent deletion of schwa would violate the OCP. Even if schwa is not deleted by rule, but rather erased by convention, the line-crossing violation remains. If, however, schwa is not present when assimilation applies, then the situation is trivial, because adjacency obtains. The derivation of médecin "doctor" is the usual two-step affair, as shown in Fig. 7. UR medǔsĕ Schwa-del. medsĕ Vce.-assim. medsĕ Fig. 7.

médecin

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In order to show that this is not the case, and that the problem is not trivial, I now discuss empirical evidence which demonstrates that schwa must be present, in some fonn or other, at the time assimilation occurs. I analyse cases where the spreading rules not only respond to the presence of schwa, but in fact are crucially conditioned by it. 4.

R- assimilation in Low Norman.

In the Northern Cotentin dialects of Low Nonnan,lr!, a velar continuant, assimilates progressively to a preceding consonant (Lepelley 1974), but only through schwa, as shown in (3); no such assimilation occurs in the absence of schwa (4). (3)

Irl assimilation in Northern Cotentinois: Nonnan p t k b d f v s Z

1 r j m n (4) patric

cffraycr

cop 'pais acat'tais pequ'quai succoum b'bais attcnd'dais gaffai arriv'vount s'sa bouolang'gic MJ'lai dorrai quil'laec aim'mais machoun'nic '" [patti:] '" [etTeje]

French

couperais achetcrais pechcrai succombcrais attcndrais gaffcrai arrivcront scra boulangcric OF baillcrai dorcrai cuillcric aimcrais ma{XJnncric

"would cut" "would buy" "will fish" "would succumb" "would wait" "will poke" "will arrive" "will be" "bakery" "will give" "will gild" "spoonful" "would love" "masonry"

"fatherland" "to scare"

This process occurs only word-internally, and at a morpheme boundary. It is not imperative, however, that this infonnation be part of the rule. The historical development of schwa, a sequence of foot-conditioned processes, explains why schwa is prone to occur in morpheme-final position. As we have seen earlier, other assimilations through schwa apply inside morphemes. It is also interesting to note in this regard the relevance of another process of Ir/-assimilation. Most commonly in the Val de Saire area (Eastern

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Cotentinois), there is regressive assimilation of./r/ inside the morpheme. This rule, too, applies only through schwa; see the examples in (5). (5) Regressive / r /-assimilation in Eastern Cotentinois: mer'chin her'chon verto varto

[messe] [hesso] [vetto] [vatto]

Fr. médecin Fr. hérisson Fr. vérité OF guéreter

"doctor" "hedgehog" "truth" "plough"

The progressive assimilation of schwa shown in (3) finds an interesting parallel in Island Norman. In Jersey and Guernesey, where /r/ is apical, assimilation occurs only after coronals and, again, only through schwa. Compare (6), examples (a), (b) and (c). (6)

a. acat'tais b. cop'rais c. pendrais

Fr. achèterais Fr. couperais Fr. pendrais

"would buy" "would cut" "would hang"

Do these processes invalidate constraints on adjacency in geminate structures? I would like to argue now that they do not, simply because schwa does not project to the segmental plane. I contend that schwa must be conceived of as a null segment, an x without a matrix; thus, at no point in the derivation can a structure like Fig. 6 actually occur. 5.

Schwa as a null segment.

In work in preparation, I develop a picture of the phonology of French based on the principles of metrical theory in which I argue that schwa is not, as it might be tempting to conceive of it, the maximally underspecified vowel of French. If it were, it would link up to a root-node, the way /e/ and /t/ do (/e/ being the maximally underspecified vowel and /t/ the maximally underspecified consonant). Rather, schwa behaves as having no association to the melody plane. It is assigned N by a rule which addresses null segments, shown in Fig. 8 and which obeys the filter shown in Fig. 9. No rule ever deletes such an x-slot, but a set of rules (two lexical, one post-lexical) specify it for features in certain environments. In the same work, I try to show that all aspects of the idiosyncratic behavior of schwa can be explained in terms of its rather unusual lexical representation. This interpretation of schwa results in a contrast, already exploited in Borowsky

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(1986), between null x's and x's which link down to an empty matrix, as shown in Fig. 10.

In all the cases of assimilation through schwa that we have discussed so far, schwa is never in a position to be specified. If it is a null segment, then line-crossing violations cannot occur. There is no violation of the geminate integrity constraint because the schwa that lingers inside the geminate structure is not inserted or deleted by rule. There is no violation of the OCP or antigemination because spreading does occur. All the rules do to the con­ straints on geminate structures is make it clear that strict skeletal adjacency is not a requirement. The Norman facts remain to be explained and invite an examination of the historical changes that created assimilation through schwa, which I will characterize as root-delinking and SL-delinking. 6.

Root-delinking.

Historical segment deletion often corresponds in the framework we have adopted here to delinking of the root node. When the root-node delinks and nothing else happens, the skeleton slot finds no phonetic realization. If spreading from an adjacent root-node occurs, then compensatory lengthening takes place. Compare the representations of final schwa in Fig. 11 : simple deletion in Standard French vs. delinking-cum-spreading in Low Norman,

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where, as in many other dialects of French, schwa-deletion created length distinctions.

When matrixless skeletal slots are in a position to be pronounced, and again in the case of schwa this is determined by metrical considerations of foot formation, they are assigned a neutral matrix which often but not always contains the feature specifications predicted by the output of default rules, as outlined for instance by underspecification theory (Archangeli 1984). This weakening of a full segment into a null segment has come to be instrumental in defining one of the most common shapes of the foot in Modern French, as given in Fig. 12. In this perspective we can have a three-way contrast between full segments, null segments and non-existing segments. I have argued elsewhere, for instance, that the shape of the definite article in Southern French, Standard French and Northern French must be indicated as in Fig. 13 (Montreuil 1986). 7.

SL-delinking.

A number of phonetic processes are best represented as resulting from delinking of the SL-node. The truncated structure that remains corresponds phonetically to an aspirate or a glottal stop, depending on the degree of glottal constriction. This representation, shown in Fig. 14, accounts well for the fact that the degree of nasality associated with these segments can still vary, as it frequently does, e.g., in Hispanic dialects.

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(null segment)

(full segment)

(asyllabic)

Fig. 13. Underlying representation of the masculine singular definite article. Intervocalic /r/ in Northern Cotentin exhibited a considerable degree of lenition. In weak position /r/ can surface as [r], [h], [j] or it can fail to surface altogether. Compare dialects A and B in (7). (7) Standard French curé : Dialect A: [čyhe]

Dialect B: [čye]

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Fig. 14. SL-delinking. In dialect A delinking of the SL-node is accompanied by the spread of the SL features of the following vowel (since /r/ functions here as an onset); see Fig. 15. The phonetic result is a voiceless copy vowel which corresponds to the definition of /h/ in English (Ladefoged 1982). In dialect B delinking is not followed by spreading, thus no phonetic interpretation is possible.

Fig. 15. Aspiration as SL-delinking-cum-spreading. We have noted that in the Jersey dialect total assimilation occurs only in the presence of coronal stops. The limited scope of this assimilation must be related to the fact that intervocalic /r/-lenition in Jersey did not result in SLdelinking. What we find is a variant of the assibilation process that affected large areas of dialectal France in the 16th century, leaving such traces in the Standard French vocabulary as chaise "chair", bésides "spectacles" (instead of the expected chaire, béricles); see Spence (1957) and references therein. In Jersey this sibilant took the form of an interdental voiced slit fricative [5], as can be seen in the examples given in (8).

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(8) couotuth'thie couotuthièthe séthée heuthe

[kutyðði:] [kutyðjE:ð] [seðe:] [0:ð]

Fr. coûturerie Fr. coûturière Fr. soirée Fr. heure

"sewing shop" "seamstress" "evening" "hour"

Geminate blockage prevents apical /r/, derived from /rr/, from undergoing assibilation, as shown in (9). (9)

[ãtere] [kwo:r] [ġєr]

*[ãteðe] *[kwo:ð] *[ġєð]

Fr. enterrer OF courre Fr. guerre

"to bury" "to run" "war"

When schwa comes to be specified, then obviously assibilation rather than assimilation takes place, as shown in (10). Schwa specification works exactly as in French. Thus, in (10), example (b), schwa is specified because of the cluster that precedes it; in (10), example (d), because of the liquid-glide sequence that follows it. (10) a. couot'ta b. portetha c. acatouns acat'ouns d. acatéthiouns

*port'ta *acat'tiouns

Fr. coûtera Fr. portera Fr. achetons Fr. achèterons Fr. achéterions

"will cost" "will carry" "buy" "will buy" "would buy"

Fig. 16./r/-assimilation in Island Norman.

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We thus represent the Jersey assimilation rule as in Fig. 16, but note again that it is in fact the end result of a process which started with the traveling of the continuancy feature, followed by the application of the shared feature convention. An investigation of Jerriais consonant clusters reveals the presence of a filter on sequences of obstruents. This filter, loosely formalized in Fig. 17, rules out sequences of segments which agree in place but disagree in manner and vice versa. In other words, geminates are well-formed, and so are sequences of two obstruents which differ from each other in both manner and place.

Fig. 17. But, as far as assimilation is concerned, if the rule is written accurately, this filter can only find its place in the grammar as a redundancy statement. REFERENCES Anderson, Stephen. 1982. "The analysis of French schwa". Language 58.534-573. Archangeli, Diane. 1984. Underspecification in Yawelmani Phonology and Morphology. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge. Archangeli, Diane & Douglas Pulleyblank. 1986. The Content and Structure of Phonological Representations. Manuscript. Borowsky, Tony. 1986. "Empty and unspecified segments". Paper presented at the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 1983. Clements, George N. 1985. "The geometry of phonological features". Phonology Yearbook 2.225-252. Hualde, José. Forthcoming. "Delinking processes in Romance." Linguistic Symposium on the Romance Languages 17. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ladefoged, Peter. 1982. A Course in Phonetics, 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich. Lepelley, René. 1974. "Le parler normand du Val de S aire". Cahiers des Annales de Normandie 7.

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Levin, Juliette. 1985. A Metrical Theory of Syllabicity. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge. McCarthy, John. 1986. "OCP effects: gemination and antigemination." Linguistic Inquiry 17.207-263. Montreuil, Jean-Pierre. 1986. "Null segments in Romance". Studies in Romance Linguistics. Publications in the Language Sciences 24.265281. Dordrecht: Foris. Montreuil, Jean-Pierre. 1987. "On assimilation through schwa". Linguistic Symposium on the Romance Languages 17. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sagey, Elizabeth. 1986. The Representation of Features and Relations in Non-Linear Phonology. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge. Schein, Barry & Donca Steriade. 1986. "On geminates". Linguistic Inquiry 17:4.691-744. Spence, N.C.W. 1957. "L'assibilation de 17r/intervocalique dans les parlers jersiais. Revue de Linguistique Romane 21.270-288. Steriade, Donca. 1982. Greek Prosodies and the Nature of Syllabification. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge. Withgott, Margaret. 1982. Segmental Evidence for Phonological Constituents. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Texas at Austin.

MODES OF INFERENCE AND THE GRADUAL/RAPID ISSUE: SUGGESTIONS FROM THE ENGLISH MODAL STEPHEN J. NAGLE University of South Carolina-Coastal 1.

Abduction, deduction and induction.

Andersen (1973) has drawn linguists' attention to the central role of abductive inference in fostering linguistic innovations. Drawing upon the work of C.S. Peirce, Andersen argues that Peirce's 'abduction' is the primary inferential strategy in language acquisition, and thus is a principal motivator of language change. Andersen (1973:774-775) presents syllogism (1) as an example of abduction, as compared with (2) and (3), illustrating respectively deduction and induction: (1)

(2)

DEDUCTION All men are mortal Socrates is a man Socrates is mortal

ABDUCTION Socrates is mortal All men are mortal Socrates is a man (3)

INDUCTION Socrates is a man Socrates is mortal All men are mortal

In Andersen's theoretical framework, after language learners have abduced a grammatical rule from surface data, they then test it both deductively with output which may be accepted or rejected by other speakers and inductively by checking the utterances of others against this abduced rule. After deductive or inductive tests appear to repudiate the abduced rule, the speaker may either reject the first analysis or add additional rules to the grammar to produce the output expected by the models, while retaining the original analysis. Once a significant number of speakers share the new analysis, these 'adaptive rules' may ultimately become restricted or lost in the grammar, allowing an innovation to become the rule, not the exception. Essentially, then, both the nature of rule formulation (and modification) and

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the conservatism of social responses to innovations restrict instantaneous or veryrapidsurface change across a speech community. Andersen has noted that abduction and induction may be easily confused, and Peirce might well have been surprised that his somewhat speculative discussions of abduction would have elevated it to such a prominent place in linguistic theory (especially since his principal interest was in the metacognitive foundations of scientific inquiry). Peirce (1940:151-152) has noted that abduction is simply "the operation of adopting an explanatory hypothesis" of the form (4): (4) The surprising fact, C, is observed; But if A were true, C would be a matter of course; Hence, there is reason to suspect that A is true. As Peirce and Andersen note, novel, if not necessarily true, ideas result more from abduction than from induction or deduction. Yet many psycholinguists hold induction to be the principal language acquisition strategy, since the child for the most part is led to the formulation of rules whose output will directly replicate the model input; that is, the child derives predominantly 'true' conclusions from surface data. Grammatical innovations, however, are diachronically 'false'. They represent new knowledge, which shows up in deductively produced surface innovations. Thus, while one may question Andersen's view of the importance of abduction in the acquisition of the already existing, 'true', grammar, it clearly motivates grammatical change. In a non-technical sense, abduction is induction gone wrong: true premises may lead to a generalization that is false. However, when an innovation occurs in the grammar of many speakers, there must be something to cause this duplication of 'falsehood'. And if it constitutes a major modification in the grammar which nonetheless spreads quickly, there may be more at work than the simple abductions all children make, a minute number of which ever result in language change. Peirce (1940:152) has recognized that not all abductions are equal (though again, he was not dealing with language), postulating a fourth type of inference, 'abductory induction', which basically is an induction which "in­ volves a certain element of guess work". For him these inferences are the most forceful of any involving abduction; applied to language change we might speculate that they yield the innovations that are most warranted by surface data, occur simultaneously in the developing grammars of numerous language learners, and result in relatively rapid surface changes. However, since this type of inductively-driven inference still involves a hypothesis (which at least in language acquisition/change is a false one), it could more

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properly be called 'abductory induction'. Admittedly, we are muddying the waters here somewhat, yet it is sensible to expect that the conditions leading to an abduction might affect the rate of its adoption and the speed at which its surface consequences spread. In this modified synthesis of the work of Peirce and Andersen, the role of deduction remains limited to producing the output of an abductive innovation. Though there may be phonological universais dependent on the physical properties of both sounds themselves and the human perceptual system which could serve as true premisses for the learner's inferential decisions, it is still the case that innovations are diachronically false. This is also the case in syntax, even if we feel reasonably confident in proposing and isolating universais in the mind of the language learner. The surface grammars of the world's languages at least point toward homogeneity in fundamental initial structure constituents, and government-binding theory has in recent years invigorated universal grammar and comparative syntax through its elucidation of parametric differences between the syntactic components of various languages (e.g., Rizzi 1982) and between stages of an individual language (e.g., Roberts 1985). However, even if cognitive constraints on the form of grammar play some role in the acquisition of syntax, innovations in the underlying grammar are still 'false' conclusions which cannot result from deduction. 2.

The synchronic and diachronic English modal.

The English modal auxiliaries (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must and [?]ought)are well known for numerous morphological and syntactic traits which they do not share with other verbs. To review, they are not inflected for person or number (5), do not have gerunds or participles (6), do not take direct object complements or followingto-infinitives (7), and do not allow preceding periphrastic do in negatives or affirmatives (8). Further, they invert with their subjects (9), form their negatives with postposed not (10), and appear in what Palmer (1965) and others have called 'Code'structures (11): (5) *She cans go tonight. She wants to go tonight. (6) *Her canning go made me envious. Her wanting to go made me envious.

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(7) *She can it tonight. *She can to go tonight. (8) *She does can go tonight. She does want to go tonight. (9)

Can she go tonight? *Goes she tonight?

(10) She cannot go tonight. *She goes not tonight. (11) She can go and so can he. *She wants to go and so wants he. Many generative syntacticians have taken these properties to indicate that the modais are initial structure auxiliaries, appearing as members of Modal within an autonomous AUX (or, more recently in some versions of governmentbinding theory, INFL). In Old English the modais were not radically different from other verbs: as preterite-present verbs they were inflected, though not as much as other verbs, for person and number; there is evidence of participles and gerunds for at least some of them; they took direct objects; they and all verbs inverted in negatives and questions. Because of this many observers have viewed them as unremarkable in Old English (e.g., Lightfoot 1974). Actually, they were somewhat remarkable for their morphology, their inconsistency regarding nonfinite forms, and their numerical prominence among the preterite-present verbs (6 of 12). In Middle English the modais gradually lost the ability to take direct objects and failed to adopt theto-infinitivewith contiguous verbs as this struc­ ture gradually spread in Middle English. Further changes included the almost complete loss of the non-modal preterite-presents (or their shift to another paradigm) and the split of the preterites of the modais from the presents to form essentially 'new' modais with present sense (e.g., should, the former preterite of shall). Lightfoot (1974, 1979) has proposed that these changes were unrelated and that the Middle English modais were full verbs. Aitchison (1980) sees these changes as composing thefirstof three stages of interrelated change. Steele et al. (1981) have proposed that the changes indicate that modais were reanalysed as members of an initial structure category AUX as early as Late Old English, and Disterheft (1987) has argued for an abductivelybased gradual reanalysis of the modais beginning in Old English.

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In Early Modern English, change in the modais accelerated, and the modais ultimately in this period lost all (remaining) non-finite forms, no longer could occur in perfective constructions (e.g., *have could), and in most dialects became limited to one per clause, where previously they could cooccur. Also in Early Modern English, the earlier placement of not after the verb became limited only to auxiliaries, and inversion in questions and negatives was restricted to subjects and auxiliaries, not verbs. By the early 17th century periphrastic do structures had begun to spread quickly, with do + not replacing V + not in negatives and do + subject replacing V + subject in questions. Lightfoot has argued that these changes resulted from a 16th-century initial structure reanalysis of the modais from VP to AUX, a change which resulted from the modais' lack of transparency as verbs by Late Middle English. The spirit if not the letter of this proposal has persisted. Steele et al. 's proposal was essentially a revision of Lightfoot's work, and Roberts (1985) has presented a recent, amended version which basically retains Lightfoot's chronology of both surface and underlying developments, while proposing that the change entailed a parametric shift in English from morphological to syntactic agreement. Both Steele et al. and Roberts argue that the loss of the morphological subjunctive played a significant role in causing the reanalysis of the modais (though Steele et al. argue for a much earlier time frame), and Roberts proposes that this loss along with the general loss of morphological agreement led not only to the reanalysis of the modais in Early Modern English, but to obligatory do periphrasis as well. One aspect of Lightfoot's account which has received much attention and much criticism (e.g., Bennett 1981, Romaine 1981) is his proposal that in contrast with his 'independent' Middle English developments, the 16th-century reanalysis illustrates the abrupt nature of base restructuring and the immediacy of its results, reflecting the workings of a Transparency Principle. Critics have pointed out that there is no evidence to support the immediacy hypothesis, though Early Modern English does show evidence of fairly rapid surface change both in the new restriction in most dialects to one modal per clause and in the revision of negation and inversion patterns (accompanied by theriseof obligatory do). Looking solely at surface developments we see two periods of change, one gradual and the other rather rapid (with some dispute as to the chronology of individual surface changes). The question then is why one period was so gradual and the other much more rapid. Could this have resulted from a single, early, underlying change, or were the surface developments the product

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of two distinct grammatical changes? The sections following support the latter contention. 2.1. Abductive-deductive emergence of a Middle English verb class "Modal". In Late Old English and more prominently in Early Middle English the modais developed a variety of new senses, especially as auxiliaries, and their use as auxiliaries expanded as the morphological subjunctive waned. This could be just coincidental, but given the frequently modal sense of the subjunctive, the standard explanation that the gradual auxiliarization of the modais was compensatory appears to be warranted. The process began with shall/should (see, e.g., Goossens 1987), which in Late Old English already had no infinitive, gerund or participle, and must, which also lacked a gerund and participles. Warner (1983) argues for a class 'Modal' by 1400 with shall and will as 'central' members. In addition to their early defective morphology, they were also the first to shed direct objects, allowing them only archaically by late Middle English. Both the morphological developments, in which shall and must were advanced, and the emergence of new epistemic readings in Middle English (Shepherd 1982) may be seen as consequences of an abduction in Late Old English or Early Middle English which marked the preterite-present paradigm: (12) Modal sense is conveyed only weakly by morphology; But if the preterite-presents were the language's modal operators, this would explain it; Thus, there is reason to believe that this is the case. Other deductive consequences would include an increase in frequency of modal periphrasis, as well as the departure of non-modals from the paradigm by (13): (13) Preterite-presents are modais; Verbs x, y, and z are not modais; Verbs x, y and z are not preterite-presents. Given the persistence of the subjunctive in Middle English, the process would be gradual, but as the subjunctive continued to weaken more speakers would be led to the same abduction. Yet the modais remained verbs. Even though some modais were advanced in the process of becoming auxiliaries, several members of the paradigm, especially can, had a full range of non-finite forms in both Old English and Middle English and also prominently allowed complementation. In fact, the use of can as an auxiliary did not generalize until well into Middle English. The Oxford English Dictionary cites (14) and

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(15) as the first examples of can as an auxiliary meaning "know how to" and later "be able to": (14) Suilc & mare panne we cunnen sæien. (all54 O.E. Chron. (Laud Ms.) an. 1137) "Such and more than we can say." (15) So yung pat sho ne coupe Gon on fote. (al300 Havelok 111) "So young that she could not go on foot." Even if we accept this development as a late consequence of an early reanalysis of the modais, the persistence of direct objects for many modais until Early Modern English argues against an early restructuring. Even with adaptive rules in the grammar, why should categorically-discrete auxiliaries persist in complementation for four hundred years? The modais' involvement with to complementation also suggests that they remained verbs in Middle English, where they flirted with not only non­ contiguous, but immediately following to- infinitives (though the latter was rare except for will): (16) To stint wald he, if he moght, pe foly pat his breper thoght. (13.. Curs. M. 4123 [Visser]) "He would stint, if he could, the folly that his brother thought". (17) Neiper he schal mowe to studie, to preche, to speke myche, neither to singe.1 (1443 Pecock, Reule Christen Relig. (EETS) 270 [Visser]) "He shall be able neither to study, to preach, to speak much, nor to sing." Though the modais remained verbs in Middle English, they were, viewing the class as a whole, primarily surface auxiliaries by Early Modern English; and as Goossens (1984) points out, many of them had all but ceased to be independent predicates. 2.2. The next step: inductory abduction, reanalysis, rapid change. Though we may challenge some areas of Lightfoot's chronology and explanation of Middle English developments, his argument that the opacity of the modais as verbs by Late Middle English led learners to reanalyse them as underlying auxiliaries, and not verbs, is persuasive. In current English, their syntax and morphology clearly distinguish them from verbs, and rapid syntactic developments in the 16th and 17th centuries point toward a 1

Schal Mowe = shall may, a double modal.

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restructuring. Whether this change supports a Transparency Principle operating on an otherwise highly resistant grammar, however, is debatable and open to the sorts of criticism offered by Romaine (1981) and Disterheft (1987). Looking at change in the modais purely from the standpoint of human inference, we need no recourse to speculation on abstract principles of an autonomous grammar. Simply put, the numerous exceptional features of the modais by Late Middle English constituted inductive pressure for speakers to reanalyse them as underlying auxiliaries, a case of inductory abduction. If the modais were verbs in the underlying grammar of learners' models, the abduced innovation was of course 'false', yet warranted by a body of inductive evidence. This same inductive evidence forced large numbers of speakers to the same abduction and fueled the rapid spread of the deductive surface results. 3.

Conclusions.

Since the decline in the subjunctive that started the process of change in the modal was itself gradual, the surface auxiliarization of the modal verbs also proceeded gradually as did their loss of complementation. The subjective held on tenuously, but as it became increasingly moribund, modal periphrasis, at first only a possibility, became a clear, unambiguous alternative. In contrast, the reanalysis with its rapid results was all but ùnavoidable after the Middle English changes; learners were impelled to make the modais in the underlying grammar what they appeared to be in the language of their models: auxiliaries. The alternatives were to retain the modais as an unwieldy, maverick class of verbs whose morphology, syntax and semantics clearly distinguished them from all other verbs or, more unlikely, to proceed in the other direction and expand complementation, revive non-finite forms, etc. The broad picture of change in the modal is one of surface drift, which, as Disterheft (1987) notes, is the appearance and diffusion of the deductive consequences of abductive innovations; and the story is not finished. Certain verbs do not operate strictly as modais or verbs, and this may lead to further developments. Ought requires to with following infinitives in the affirmative but not always in the negative; and in some dialects it allows do periphrasis and another preceding auxiliary, should. Need and dare display both modal and verbal morphology and syntax: (18) Dare he go? *Dares he go?

Does he dare to go? Does he dare go?

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Yet, what we see in the modal is not some "mystical process" (Sapir 1921:154), but a sequence of interrelated developments in the underlying grammar, whose surface results appear as "drift". The speed of this surface drift, gradual for the Middle English changes and rapid for Early Modern English, can be directly attributed both to the nature and severity of change in the underlying grammar and to the degree of inductive weight behind the learner's inferential decisions.

REFERENCES Aitchison,J. 1980. Review of Lightfoot (1979). Linguistics 18.137-146. Andersen, H. 1973. "Abductive and deductive change". Language 49.765794. Bennett, P.A. 1981. "Is syntactic change gradual?". Glossa 15:1.115-134. Disterheft, D. 1987. "Abduction, teleology and the transparency principle." Paper presented at the Eighth Lnternational Congress on Historical Linguistics, University of Lille. Goossens, L. 1984. "The interplay of syntax and semantics in the development of the English modais". English Historical Linguistics: Studies in Development ed. by N.F. Blake & C. Jones, 149-159. (= CECTAL Conference Papers Series, 3.) Sheffield: University of Sheffield. Goossens, L. 1987. "The auxiliarization of the English modais: a functional grammar view". Historical Development of Auxiliaries ed. by M. Harris & P. Ramat, 111-145. (= Trends in Linguistics, Studies & Monographs, 35) Berlin: de Gruyter. Lightfoot, D.E. 1974. "The diachronic analysis of the English modais". Historical Linguistics L: Proceedings of the First International Congress on Historical Linguistics ed. by J. Anderson & C. Jones, 219-249. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Lightfoot, D.E. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Murray, J.A.H., H. Bradley, W.A. Craigie & C.T. Onions, eds. 1933. The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Palmer, F.R. 1965. A Linguistic Study of the English Verb. London: Longman. Peirce, C.S. 1940. The Philosophy of Peirce: Selected Writings ed. by J. Buchler. London: Routledge & Kegan, Ltd. Rizzi, L. 1982. "Violations of the WH-island constraint and the subjacency condition". Issues in Italian Syntax by L. Rizzi, 40-76. Roberts, LG. 1985. "Agreement parameters and the development of English modal auxiliaries". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 3.21-58.

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Romaine, S. 1981. "The transparency principle: what it is and why it doesn't work". Lingua 55.277-300. Sapir, E. 1921. Language. New York: Harcourt. Shepherd, S.C. 1982. "From deontic to epistemic: an analysis of modais in the history of English, creoles, and language acquisition". Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by A. Ahlqvist, 316-324. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Steele, S.M. et al 1981. An Enclyclopedia of AUX: A Study of CrossLinguistic Equivalence. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Warner, A. 1983. Complementation in Middle English and the Methodology of Historical Syntax. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Visser, F. Th. 1963-73. An Historical Syntax of the English Language. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

A CASE OF PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN ALLOMORPHY: THE INSTRUMENT NOUN SUFFIX *-TLOM AND ITS VARIANTS BIRGIT ANETTE OLSEN University of Copenhagen

0. It is immediately observable that a series of Indo-European nominal suffixes, namely *-trom /*-tlom /*-Throm /*-Thlom and *-trah 2 /*-tlah 2 / *-Tnrah2/*-Tnlah2 , have a clear semantic affinity. Thus, *-trom and *-tlom are used, apparently indiscriminately, in barytone formations (generally clearly derived from verbal roots) to indicate "das Mittel oder Werkzeug zum Vollzug einer Handlung oder den Ort, wo sie vollzogen wird" (Wackernagel-Debrunner 1954:707), e.g., Gk. árotron "plough" < *h2árə 3-trom/ Lat. pōculum "cup" < *póh 3 (į-tlom. 1 Derivatives in *-T h rom/*-T h lom have exactly the same functions, e.g., Lat. cribrum "sieve" < *kréh1(į)-Throm /Lat. pāulum "feed" < *páh2(i)-Thlom. The feminines, on the other hand, are generally, but not always, oxytone and function sometimes as verbal abstracts, e.g., Goth, hleipra "tent" < *ќleį-trah2, Lat. subucula "underwear" < *-(h)ou-tlah2, Gk. klēthrā "alder" < *klah-T h rah 2 , Lat. subula "awl" < *siuh-T h lah 2 . In some examples such as Gk. téretron, OIr. tarathar vs. Lat. terebra "drill", neutral and feminine inflection are found side by side in the same lexeme, and similarly the suffix initial consonant sometimes seems to hesitate between *-tand *-Th- (thus téretron < *-t-, terebra < *-Th-). Traditionally the aspirate (here *-Th-) is reconstructed as *dh, but as we shall see later an unvoiced aspirate *th should probably be preferred. 1. It would be desirable if this multitude of synonymous suffixes could be interpreted as originating from a simpler system which may, theoretically, still be observed if the relevant linguistic material is thoroughly analysed. First 1 The structure and the morphophonemic variation of roots ending in a long diphthong (type CeH-į) is analysed by Rasmussen (1978). Obviously the root-final *-į- did not interfere with the aspirating effect of the laryngeal - cf., for instance, Lat. pābulum. Probably it disappeared at an earlier stage, though this cannot strictly be proved.

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of all, it should be specified exactly what we wish to examine, and, as far as I can see, the following problems are of relevance: (a) Why is the liquid involved sometimes *-r- (as in Gk. árotron ), some­ times *-l- (as in Lat. pōculum ), when no semantic difference may be observed? (b) Why is the dental sometimes a simple unvoiced *-t- (as in Gk. árotron), sometimes an aspirate (as in Lat. pābulum )? (c) What are the original relations between neuters such as Lat. pābulum and feminines as, e.g., Lat. subula? (d) What are the original relations between full grade and zero grade formations (e.g., Skt. hótram vs. Gk. khútlon)? 2. It is essential that the basic examination be restricted to examples that have a genuine common background dating from the Indo-European protolanguage, i.e. only material known from at least two branches of IndoEuropean can be accepted. Further, it must obviously be made clear which relevant phonetic restrictions are characteristic of the separate Indo-European languages, and, finally, any secondary analogical leveling must be taken into account (e.g., the Balto-Slavic generalization of the 1- suffixes). It may be useful to start with a short survey of the more important Indo-European language families to indicate to which extent they may be utilized as sources of information concerning this particular problem. 2 . 1 . Indo-Iranian. As *r and *1 merged in Proto-Indo-Iranian and the unvoiced variant of the dental has been generalized, we have only evidence of Indo-Iranian *-trarn and Mm. The material may thus only be used to ascertain the accent and ablaut grade of a certain lexeme and to clarify whether a given formation can safely be ascribed to the Indo-European protolanguage. 2 . 2 . B a l t o - S l a v i c . The sequence *-tl- ( > Lith. -kl- ) is generalized in Baltic, *-dl- in Slavic. The significance of Balto-Slavic is thus comparable to Indo-Iranian.2

2

The development of *tl / *thl in Slavic is otherwise unknown.

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2 . 3 . Greek. There is evidence of all combinations of -r- / - 1 - and -t- /th-, thus-ir- /-ti- / -thr- /-thl~. Suffixes containing -r- are productive. It should be noted that -th- may continue Indo-European *th as well as*d h . 2 . 4 . Italic. The Latin state of affairs is severely obscured by analogical processes and secondary dissimilations which make it all the more important to separate the genuine inherited lexemes from secondary formations. In words of Indo-European origin we should expect to find *-trom / *-trah 2 > -trum f -tra, *-tlom / *-tlah 2 > -c(u)lum /-c(u)la, *-T h rom /*-T h rah 2 > -brum /-bra and*-T h lom/ *-T h lah 2 > -b(u)lum / -b(u)la. -br- / -b(u)l- may represent *-thr- /*-t h l- as well as *-dhr- / *-dhl-. 2 . 5 . Germanic. There are formations with -r- as well as -7- suffixes and an unvoiced as well as a voiced dental spirant, i.e. *-pra-, *-prō, *-dra-, *-ðrō, *-pla-, *-plō, *-ðla- and *-ðlõ. The distribution of -r- and -/- is important for our reconstructions, since we have no evidence of later analogical leveling of assimilations or dissimilations. The voiced spirant may represent either *dh or a Verner variant of *t. Thus it is possible that we have a generalized dental *t (as in Indo-Iranian). On the other hand, *p as well as *ð may, of course, continue an original *t h as well as *t. 2 . 6 . Celtic. The evidence is clearly parallel to that of Germanic. The distribution of -r- and -7- seems to represent the old state of affairs, while the dental of the suffixes may be a generalized *-t-, though in all cases the unvoiced aspirate *-th- would yield the same result as the simple *-t. 2 . 7 . Armenian. There are a few examples, particularly with the suffixe -wr and -wi (*-tr-/*-tl-). As none of the suffixes are productive, the distribution of -r- and -l- may reasonably be ascribed to the protolanguage. 2 . 8 . Albanian, H i t t i t e , Tocharian. The evidence seems to be too scanty to give any indications of the Indo-European state of affairs. 3 . We may now proceed to a closer examination of some original IndoEuropean derivatives. Since there hardly seems to be any vacillation between suffixes containing *-r- and *-l- in these early formations, the material will be divided into two groups: (a) items with suffixal *-trom / *-trah2 and *-l^rom / *-Thrah2; and (b) items with suffixal *-tlom/*-tlah2 and*-T h lom/*-T h lah 2 .

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3 . 1 . Suffix *-trom / * - t r a h 2 and *-T h rom / *-T h rah 2 . (1) *uér-trom (IEW: 1161): Skt. vártram "protective dam, pond", Av. varə9ra- "resistance, shield", MWelsh gwerthyr "fortress". (2) *skér-tro- /*skr-tro- (IEW: 933ff.): OHG scerdar "cardo", Lat. culter "knife", if dissimilated from *(s)kr-tro-. (3) *uróp-trom (Kluge 1886:44): Gk. hróptron "club", OE ræfter (m.) "balk, rafter". (4) *réu(ə)-trom/*ru(h)-trom (IEW: 868): Lat. rutrum "spade, shovel", OHG riostar "ploughshare" ( < *reud-); cf. also OCS rylu "spade, hoe", Latv. raûklis "Raufeisen". (5) *kleį-trah 2 /*kli-tráh 2 ( I E W : 601): Goth. hleipra "tent", Umbr. kletram "feretrum, lecticam", OHG hleitara "ladder"; zero grade in MIr. clethar "support". (6) *kléu-trom(IEW; 605): Skt. srótram "ear", Av. srao9ra- "singing", OE hleodor "tune, tone", OHG hliodar "tone, noise"; zero grade in Arm. lowr "sound, voice". 3 (7) *(h 2 )ál-trom (IEW: fosterage".

26f.): ON aldr (m.), OIr. com-altar

"joint

(8) *mál-trom: OHG maltar "Malter - corn measure", Lat. < *martlo-, metathesized from *mal-tro-.4

marculus

(9) *légh-trom (IEW: afterbirth".

"womb,

659): Gk. léktron "bed", OHG lehtar

(10)* t é r ə 1-trom/*terə 1 -T h rah 2"drill" (IEW: tarathar; aspirate/feminine Lat. terebra.

3

1071): Gk. téretron, OIr.

Arm. lowr hesitates between -i- stem and -o- stem inflection (instr. lriw / lrov). I derive the -i- stem from *klu-tis, the -o- stem from *klu-trom, cf. Olsen (1986). 4 For a different interpretation cf. Niedermann (1903-1904).

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367

(11) *gwérə-Throm/*gwrh-Throm "throat" (IEW:474): Horn. Gk. dérethron, Att. bárathron (but cf. also the synonymous déletron),5OHG querdar "bait", Arm. kokord with reduplication; further OPr. gurcle, Lith. gurklps "Adam's apple", RussCS grula (12) *kréh1-(į)Throm "sieve" (IEW: 946): OIr. criathar, Lat. crîbrum, OE hridder (13) "bhér-e-trom, also fern. -trah2 (IEW: 129): Skt. bharítram "carrier, i.e. arm", Gk. phéretron "bier" and pharétrã "quiver", OE beordor "birth"; Lat. feretrum is a Greek loanword and ferculum formed independently with verbal stem + productive suffix -culum. (14) *lóuə1-trom/*luh1-Throm (IEW: 692): Gk. loetrón "bath", Gaul. lautro "balneo", OIr. loathar "basin", OE leapor "lather", Lat. lātrina"drain"; zero grade in Lat. po-lbrum "wash basin". (15) *(h2)álə1-trom (IEW: 28f.): Gk. aletréuō "grind", aletrís "female miller", Arm. sławrì "mill". (16) *(h1)érə1-trom "oar, rudder" (IEW: 338): Skt. aritram, zero grade in Lith. irklas ; the Germanic forms (e.g. OE rōpor ) borrowed from Celtic (*rā- < *h1rh1-) according to J.E. Rasmussen (1978). (17) *b h léh 1 -T h rom/*b h lh 1 T h rom, also fern. -Thrah2 (IEW: 121): OS blādara, etc. "blister", ON blaðra < *bh lə1-Thrah2 with analogical vocalization; regular zero grade in Lat. flābrum. (18) *klah2-Thrah2/*klhrThráh2 "alder" (IEW: 599): Gk. kléthrā, NHG (dial.) lutter, ludere. (19)*(h2)árə3-trom "plough" (IEW: 62): Gk. árotron, Lat. arātrum, Arm. arawr, ON arðr, MIr. arathar; cf. also Lith. árklas, OCS ralo.

5

The exact analysis of the various Greek forms remains complicated. We are apparently dealing with at least two roots *gwerhj- and "gwelh1-; I would consider déletron to represent the vocalic variant of *-ǔ1 -, while dérethron seems to be a hybrid form of the two synonymous roots, i.e. *gwerh1- with the aspiration taken over from zero grade formations such as bárathron; cf. also the discussion by Peters (1980).

368

BIRGIT ANETTE OLSEN

(20) *luh-Throm (JEW: 681): Gk. lúthron "soiling", Lat. lustrum "puddle", with -str- suffix. (21) *léuə-trom (IEW: 681): Skt. lavitram "sickle", ON lúðr "oak dugout", OHG ludara "cradle". It is easily observable that these examples of -r- suffixes are all derived from roots containing aradicalliquid, either -r- as in *h2árə3-trom or -/- as in *lóuə1trom. 3.2. Suffix *-tlom / *-tlah 2 and *-Thlom /*-T h lah 2 . (22)*(h)ov-ûom/*(h)o*-ûàh2(IEW: 346): Av. ao9ra- "Schuhwerk", Lith. auklé, Lat. sub-ucula "underwear". (23)*sh2áį-tlom(IEW: 890): Lat. saeculum, Welsh hoedl "lifetime". (24)*gh éu-tlom/*gVtlom,also f. (IEW: 447): Skt. hótra- "libation", Av. zao9ra- (n.) and zao9ra (f.), Gk. khútlon "washing water", Arm. joyl "poured-out fluid or mass". (25) *uókw-tlom (IEW: 1135): Skt. vaktram "mouth", OIr. foccul "word", Welsh gwaethl "quarrel". (26) *bhéį-tlo- (IEW: 118): OHG bthal "axe", Czech hidlo "rod". (27) *ghéįdh-tlom (IEW: 426): OIr. gíall, Welsh gwystl "hostage"; OE gìsl, etc. It is not certain whether the Germanic examples are inherited or Celtic loanwords. (28)*séd-lo-/*sed-lah2"seat"(IEW:- 886): Lat. sella, Gaul. sedlon, Goth. sitls, etc., Gk. (Hes.) bella: kathédra, probably also Arm. etł. (29)*menth-lah2/*mnth-láh2 (IEW: 732): OHG mindil "Gebiss am Zaum", Mod.Ir. méadal "stomach, guts". (30) *ségh-e-tlom, also fern. (IEW: 888): Gk. ekhétlē, Welsh haeddel. (31)*uéĝh-e-tlom (IEW: 1119): Skt. vahítram "vehicle, ship", Gk. ókhetla, Lat. vehiculum.

THE PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN NOUN SUFFIX *-TLOM

369

(32) *séh1-(į)-Thlom "sieve" (IEW: 889): Welsh hidl, ON sáld. (33) *néh1-(į)-Th lom, also fern. (IEW: 973): Goth, nepla, etc.; Gk. netron "spinning wheel", probably with analogical (productive) suffix -tro-. (34) *gnh1-Thláh2, also neut. (IEW: 373f.): Gk. genéthlë "kin, descen­ dance", later génethlon, Ann. cnawł "procreator, father". (35) *b h éuǔ1 -tlom/*b h uh 1 -T h láh 2 (IEW: 147): Skt. bhavitram "world", Gk. phútlē "nature", OE botl "house"; cf. also Lith. buklà "habi­ tation", Czech bydlo. (36) *stáh2-Thlom, also zero grade (IEW: 1004ff.): Skt. sthātrám "standing place", Lat. stặbulum (for orig. *stābulum), Welsh distadl "worthless", ON stçðull, full grade in OE stōdl (37) *páh 2 -(į)-T h lom (IEW: 787 and 839): Lat. pābulum pãtram "container".

"feed", Skt.

(38) *gnóh3-tlom (IEW: 377): Skt. jnatram "intellectual faculty", OHG be-knuodilen "inform"; cf. also Lith. žìnklas. (39) *póh3-(į)-tlom (IEW: 840): Lat. pōculum "cup", Skt. patram "recep­ tacle, vessel". (40) *gih-tlom or *gih-Thlom (IEW: ən-ciwł "sprout", ciwł "stalk". (41)*siuh-T h láh 2 (IEW: Czech šidlo.

355): OHG kīld

"wedge", Arm.

916): Lat. subula "awl", OHG siula; cf. also

(42) *teks-láh2 "axe" (IEW: 1058): ON pexla, Lat. tēla, OIr. tál; cf. also RussCS tesla.6 It is evident from these examples that whenever the -1- variant of the suffix is used, the consonantism of the root is neutral, i.e. does NOT include a liquid -r- or -1-,

6

Originally an instrument noun

-tlah2, cf. Joseph (1982).

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BIRGIT ANETTE OLSEN

3 . 3 . The only restriction to this general rule is roots ending in -s-, which only accept the suffix *-trom / *-trah2, no matter how the root is structured, hence, e.g., Lat. castrāre "cut off" (cf. Skt. śastrám "knife"), or Hes. géstra, MHG wester "baptizing garment". 4 . Thus the relationship of *-Tro- and *-Tlo- is originally one of complementary distribution: -r- after roots containing a liquid and after -s-, -l- elsewhere, i.e. -/- is the unmarked variant and will thus have been the original form in pre-Indo-European. A development *-Tl- > *-Tr- after -/- is of course phonetically quite natural - we have numerous instances from Latin and the Romance languages. On the other hand, *-Tl- > *-Tr- after a radical -r-, i.e. a distant ASSIMILATION, is quite ararephenomenon, but examples such as *h2árǔ3-trom (Greek, Latin, Armenian, Germanic, Celtic) and *térǔ1-trom (Greek, Latin, Celtic) are so well preserved in so many Indo-European languages that incontestably they must be old. The fact that the necessary assimilatory process is so uncommon makes it all the more unlikely that it could have taken place separately in at least five branches of Indo-European. 5. This analysis leaves us with four original suffixes: *-tlom, *-tlah2, *-Thlom and *-Thlah2, and we may now take up the question of the dentals involved to see if this system may be simplified even further. One variant of this dental is certainly the simple tenuis *t, the other certainly an aspirate, though the traditional reconstruction *dh seems to be quite arbitrary: Gk. -thand Lat. -b- may represent *th as well as *dh, and Germanic, Celtic and Balto-Slavic, which are generally supposed to have eliminated the aspirated versions of these suffixes altogether, may actually continue *th as well as *t, which regularly merged in these languages. 6. If there is a phonetic justification of the contrast *t /*T h , the ex­ planation should probably be found in the root final segment. Unfortunately, only part of the examples mentioned above may be utilized here, since only Greek and Italic can prove the existence of an original aspirate. (a) Roots ending in a resonant or unaspirated stop. The following examples point to IE *t: *skér-trom, *uróp-trom, *ru-trom, *mál-trom, *(h)óu-tlom and *sh2áį-tlom. No examples indicate an aspirate. (b) Roots ending in an aspirated stop. No decisive evidence: *uégh-e-tlom and *ségh-e-tlom are not derived directly from the root.

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371

(c) Roots ending in-h1(consonantal). Lat. crībrum, po-lübrum, fìābrum, Gk. genéthlē,phútlē( < *phúthlē) indicate an original aspirate. (d) Roots ending in *-ə 1 (vocalic). Gk. téretron, loetrón, aletréuō, Lat. lātrīna- IE *-t-. (e) Roots ending in *-h2 (consonantal). Gk. kléthrā, Lat. stặbulum (for orig. *stãbulum, cf. Skt. sthātrām), pābulum - IE *-Th-. (f) Roots ending in*-ə2(vocalic). No evidence. (g) Roots ending in -h3 (consonantal). Lat. pōculum -EE *-t-. (h) Roots ending in*-ə3 (vocalic). Gk. árotron, Lat. arātrum - IE *-t-. It appears that the unaspirated -t- suffixes were the unmarked forms, while the aspirate was originally restricted to a position after a CONSONANTAL *h1 or *h2.7 These two laryngeals - in contrast to *h3 which is generally considered to have been voiced - apparently had an aspirating effect on a following unvoiced dental *t. Since the aspirated variant of the suffix thus seems to be the result of an assimilation *-h1/2- + t- > *-Th-, it is phonetically simpler to assume the existence of an UNVOICED aspirate in the suffixes concerned. This solution has the further advantage of explaining more easily that the languages in which *-t- and * - t h -merge(Celtic, Balto-Slavic and Germanic) have only one form of the dental. According to the proposed solution, then, an unvoiced aspirate may not only be the result of an assimilation of tenuis + laryngeal (e.g., Av. padō ), but also the other way around, i.e. *-h1/2- + t- > *-th-. 7. If this theory is correct, one should expect to find supplementary evidence apart from the instrument suffix, and actually some corroborative material may be brought into the discussion, mainly from Indo-Iranian.8 7

The theory that the unvoiced laryngeals (*h1 /*h 2 ) might be connected with the aspirated variant of the suffix was originally tentatively suggested to me by J.E. Rasmussen. 8 For a more thorough analysis of the Indo-Iranian material, cf. Olsen (1988), which also deals with evidence for the Indo-European instrument suffix, especially in Germanic and Celtic, in greater detail. Obviously the Indo-Iranian derivatives in -tha- / -thu- / -thi< *-th 1/2- are lexically isolated relic forms, where the semantic link between root and derivative is no longer clearly observable. Typically the Skt. -tha- derivatives are substantives as opposed to the past participles where -ta- is generalized from the anit-roots.

372

BIRGIT ANETTE OLSEN

Pre-consonantal *-h1- may be assumed for the following examples: (43) Av. dāda- "wise, righteous" < *d h eh 1 to-; Gk. plêthus, Lat. plēbēs < *pleh1-tu-; Skt. guthah "excrement", Av. güdəm "dirt, dung" < *g w uh 1 -to-; Skt. várü-tham "protection, shield, army" < *uéruh1-to-; Av. ząda- "procreation" < *genh 1 to- (consonantal laryngeal originally belonging to zero grade). Preconsonantal *-h2- is attested by: (44) Skt. gāthā "song, verse", Av. gãdã < *gah2-(i)-tah2; Skt. nāthám "help" < *nah2-to-m; Skt. pāthas "domicile, refuge" < *páh2(į)-tos; Skt. dīrgha-yāthá- "long course" <*-įah2-tó-; Skt. Járuthah "name of a demon conquered by Agni" < *gerh2u-to-; Dor.lãthos "oblivion" < *lál2t-os; Gk. brīthús "heavy" < *gwrih2-tu-; OP gādu "throne" <*gwah2-tu-. For some examples the exact character of the laryngeal is not clear. On the basis of the remaining evidence I would assume either*h1or *h2: (45) Skt.tīrthám "passage, watering-, bathing-place, ford" < tlh-tó-; Skt. nīthám, nīthā "means, way" < *nih-tóm / -tah2; Skt. yuthám "herd, crowd" <*iuh-to-; Skt. vîthî, vithih "road, way" < *uih-ti-; Skt. nisītha- "night" < *ni-kih-tó-. 8. Having thus reduced IE *-r- and *-th- to the status of allomorphs of *-l- and *-t- respectively for some pre-stage of Indo-European, we shall finally have to deal with the variation of gender, ablaut and accent. As neither thematic neuters nor feminine ā-stems had ablauting paradigms in the protolanguage, variations of the type Gk. n. loetrón (full grade) / Lat. po-lubrum (zero grade) or Goth. f. hleipra (full grade) / OIr. clethar (zero grade) are not immediately understandable. The only way out seems to be the assumption of an original contrast between a full grade barytone neuter, e.g. *térə1-trom and a zero grade oxytone collective (later feminine), e.g. **trh1-tráh2. Thus we would have regular neuters in Gk. léktron, árotron, loetrón, Lai. pōculum, and regular collectives in Gk. phútlê, The introduction of the suffìx -tha- in anit-roots is clearly secondary and restricted to cases where a substantive (e.g. ukthá- "sentence, praise") is semantically opposed to a plain participle (e.g. uktá- "said").

THE PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN NOUN SUFFIX *-TLOM

373

genéthlē, Lat. subula. Later some amount of analogical leveling has taken place, so the full grade of the neuter may have influenced the collective - hence examples such as Lat. terebra or lābrum "basin", where the inherited zero grade of the formation is still revealed by the aspirate of the suffix, which was originally only possible after a CONSONANTAL laryngeal. 9. Summing up the results of the present investigation it may then be concluded that the well-known complex system of eight separate instrument suffixes is preceded by one single formation in pre-Indo-European, namely a neutral/collective paradigm in*-tlo-,where the morphophonemic variation -r- / -/- and -t- / -th- was originally clearly predictable.9

REFERENCES Joseph, Lionel S. 1982. "The treatment of *CRH- and the origin of CaRa- in Celtic". Ériu 33.31-57. Kluge, Friedrich. 1886. Nominale Stammbildungslehre der altgermanischen Dialekte. Halle: Niemeyer. Niedermann, Max. 1903-1904. "Etymologische Forschungen. III. Lat. marcus, marculus, marcellus, martulus, martiolus, martellus 'Hammer', ksl. mlatǔ, russ. molótǔ, poln. młot usw. 'dass\ lat. malleus 'Hammer, Schlägel'". IF 14.109ff. Olsen, Birgit Anette. 1986. "Three notes on Armenian phonology. I. On the development of final * -is and * -us". Arbejdspapirer udsendt af Institut for Lingvistik, Københavns Universitet 5.139-160.

9

Supplementary material from separate branches of Indo-European may be listed, and here the preservation of original -r- after a liquid, -1- elsewhere, is maintained quite clearly in Germanic, Celtic and Armenian. For the -r- suffix, compare ON galdr, gróðr,leiptr, Goth. maurpr, hwilfújõm, hairpram, OHG hlabtar, flōdar, klaftra, bluostar, quartar, OE leahtor, rifter, scultor (cf. also Kluge 1886); from Celtic, e.g., Olr. briathar,riathar,láthar, Welsh gwaladr, llestr. The -l- suffix is represented by, e.g., ON vçndull, mçndull, beisi; from Celtic, OIr. scél, anáal, dál, MIr. cétal, MBr. malazn, balazn; from Armenian, šiwł and erkiwł (the latter < *duei-tlo-). The evidence from Greek and Latin further supports the theory of an aspirate after a consonantal laryngeal, but it is evident that when we go beyond the inherited derivatives, Italic *-tlom (Lat. -culum ) and *-plom (Lat. -bulum ) are immensely productive - hence formations such as gubernãculumotvocãbulum. Further, the situation is blurred by a secondary dissimilation 1-1 > 1-r of the type *lavãtlom > *lavācrum. Greek, on the other hand, has a clear preference for the suffix *-tro- / *-trah2 in later derivatives.

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Olsen, Birgit Anette. 1988. The Proto-Indo-European Instrument Noun Suffix *-tlom and its Variants. (= Hist fìl. Medd., 55.) Copenhagen: KDVS. Peters, Martin. 1980. Untersuchungen zur Vertretung der indogermanischen Laryngale im Griechischen.(= Sitzungsberichte, 377.) Vienna: Österreichisches Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Klasse. Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern: Francke. (= IEW. ) Rasmussen, Jens Elmegârd. 1978. Das Problem der indogermanischen Langdiphtonge. Manuscript. Wackernagel, Jacob Adalbert Debrunner. 1954. Altindische Grammatik. Band II,2: Nominalsuffixe. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

OUIR, ENTENDRE,

COMPRENDRE

UNE VUE PSYCHOMÉCHANIQUE SUR LE RENOUVELLEMENT DU LEXIQUE

JACQUELINE PICOCHE Université d'Amiens 0. Introduction. Un des phénomènes les plus déconcertants de l'histoire du lexique français est son formidable enrichissement en moyen-français (à partir du milieu du XTVe siècle) et son non moins formidablement appauvrissement au XVIIe siècle, appauvrissement qui n'est pas un retour à la case départ mais l'élimina­ tion d'une quantité de mots anciens et le remaniement sémantique de beaucoup de ceux qui furent conservés. Le sujet de ma communication: comment s'est effectué le remplacement de ouir par entendre et d'entendre par comprendre s'inscrit dans cet ensemble de transformations qui jusqu'ici ont été plutôt con­ statées qu'expliquées, ou du moins expliquées par des raisons stylistiques que linguistiques. Il est évidemment schématique et partiel, ces trois verbes n'étant que les plus importants, mais non les seuls capables d'exprimer, ouïe, intellec­ tion, inclusion. Il se trouve déjà effleuré dans mon dernier livre (Structures sé­ mantiques du lexique français, Paris: Nathan, 1986) où je tente d'appliquer au lexique quelques unes des notions fondamentales de la psychomécanique guillaumien. 1. Ancien français. La situation en ancien français est la suivante: les différents emplois d'entendre peuvent être placés sur un vecteur orienté représentant un 'cinétisme' ou 'mouvement de pensée'. Sur ce vecteur deux 'saisies' principales (ou immobi­ lisation du mouvement de pensée, engendrant un effet de sens) me paraissent pouvoir être décelées: Elles sont en somme de nature aspectuelle, si l'on définit l'aspect comme la catégorie qui embrasse tout ce qui est relatif à la durée et au degré d'achèvement des procès indiqués par les verbes. Mais il s'agit ici d'un

376

JACQUELINE PICOCHE

correspond à une activité de l'esprit en cours, tendant vers un résultat, d'où une multitude d'emplois où, selon les contextes, entendre peut être traduit en français moderne par "s'orienter vers, désirer, s'occuper de, être d'avis de, écouter". La deuxième correspond au moment où l'esprit atteint le but qu'il s'est fixé et à l'état qui en résulte, d'où les traductions possibles par "remar­ quer, s'apercevoir de, prendre garde à, comprendre et ouir". Les deux der­ nières acceptions sont étroitement liées en cela que dans les cas (fréquents dès l'ancien français) où entendre apparaît comme un substitut de air, le complé­ ment est le plus souvent une parole humaine, donc un sens, compris par l'intel­ ligence en même temps que la chaîne sonore qui en est le support est perçue par l'oreille. Ce n'est que dans le cas d'une langue étrangère qu'on pourrait dire quelque chose comme je l'ai parlé mais je ne l'entends pas; dans le fonction­ nement normal du langage air et entendre, c'est tout un, pratiquement. Mais pas linguistiquement! Cette synonymie n'est que de rencontre. La polysémie de entendre nous invite à voir en lui un verbe strictement intellectuel et abstrait, dont l'objet peut être un phénomène sonore mais seulement en tant qu'il est interprétable, alors que l'interprétation est étrangère au sémantisme de air, verbe de sensation et de perception, dont l'objet, strictement concret, ne peut être qu'un phénomène sonore. Ouir, qui a, en ancien français, un fonctionnement parfaitement normal et non figé comme aujourd'hui, est stricte­ ment monosémique, ne signifiant rien d'autre que "percevoir par les oreilles". La situation en afr. de comprendre, rare et vraisemblablement savant, est extrêmement marginale, par rapport aux deux verbes ci-dessus, populaires et très usuels, et rien ne semble le prédisposer à devenir le grand verbe de l'intellection qu'il est aujourd'hui. Mais il présente, malgré la rareté de ses attesta­ tions, une variété d'emplois et un type de polysémie d'un tout autre genre que celui d'entendre: un cinétisme au long duquel s'échelonnent des saisies allant de l'emploi sémantiquement le plus riche, qui est en même temps le plus concret, à l'emploi sémantiquement le plus pauvre, souvent métaphorique, qui est en même temps le plus abstrait En saisie plénière, il est apte à exprimer une relation "content"/"contenu" qui pourrait être traduite en français moderne par les deux verbes contenir et remplir comme le montrent différents exemples cités par les dictionnaires de Godefroy II:213 et Tobler-Lommatzsch II:635: les chemins peuvent être insuffissants pour comprendre trop grant gent, de même qu'un seul livre ne saurait comprendre une matière trop vaste. Mais récipro­ quement, une nuée de mouches peut comprendre une église; un fleuve peut être compris de nefs et de vaisseaux. En somme Al comprend A2 qui à son tour comprend Al. J'ai étudié ce type de réversibilité, comparable à celle du verbe

LE RENOUVELLEMENT DU LEXIQUE

377

comprend Al. J'ai étudié ce type de réversibilité, comparable à celle du verbe louer en français moderne de la société dans ma communication au congrès de linguistique romane de Trèves en 1986. Vous pouvez comprendre vos enne­ mis, c'est à dire les encercler et les faire prisonniers; mais vous ne direz pas qu'ils vous comprennent', ils ne peuvent pas se dégager de votre emprise, mais ils n'emplissent pas, à proprement parler, un espace déterminé; il s'agit déjà là d'un emploi relativement abstrait et métaphorique; à plus forte raison lorsqu'on dit (et les exemples en sont anciens) qu'un livre, un esprit comprennent une certaine notion; mais dans ce cas, aucun des exemples recensés ne montre de réversibilité possible: la notion ne comprend pas le livre. Donc, cette seconde saisie, abstraite ne jouit pas de la même liberté syntaxique que la première saisie, concrète; elle est de toute évidende, à l'époque, aussi métaphorique. On peut ici parler de saisie plénière et de saisie subduite: en saisie plénière, comprendre dénote l'idée qu'un contenant est empli d'une multitude d'objets; en saisie subduite qu'un ensemble inclut des éléments. Dans la perspective guillaumienne où le langage est une forme abstraite permettant de penser le monde, on pourra appeler la saisie abstraite, subduite 'saisie précoce' et la saisie concrète, plénière, 'saisie tardive'. 2. Français moderne. En français moderne: ouir, extrêmement marginalisé, presque disparu, n'apparaît plus, que dans de rares expressions figées. Entendre s'est substitué à lui presque partout. Les emplois sensoriels concrets constituent désormais l'essentiel de son sémantisme; ses emplois abstraits se sont reportés sur plusieurs autres verbes dont le plus important est comprendre', il n'en subsiste plus que quelques uns, tels que entendre raison, laisser entendre, entendre par là que..., bien entendu!, s'y entendre à faire quelque chose, s'entendre bien ou mal avec quelqu'un, s'entendre avec quelqu' un pour faire un mauvais coup, j'agis comme je l'entends, j'entends faire des réformes, j'entends qu'on m'obéisse. Les emplois survivants, d'ailleurs soumis à certaines restrictions syntaxiques, donc figés ou en voie de l'être, n'appartiennent plus (sauf quelques rares archaïsmes tels que Qu' entendez-vous par là, par ce mot?) au domaine de l'intellection pure, mais à celui d'une activité d'esprit insérée dans la vie pratique, dans la discussion, la coopération, dans l'élaboration de projets. La grosse majorité des emplois où entendre exprimait l'intellection s'est reporté sur comprendre: Vadius entend le grec est devenu un archaïsme; il est aujourd'hui exclu de dire *entendre une langue, *entendre un problème',

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j'entends ce que vous me dites ne signifie plus "je m'en fais une idée claire et distincte, je peux l'analyser et le synthétiser", mais strictement rien d'autre que "je l'ai", "audio". Tous ces emplois 'intellectuels' sont désormais du domaine de comprendre qui, dans l'aventure a perdu ses emplois concrets et se trouve scindé en deux acceptiopns d'importance très inégale, l'une exprimant l'intellection, l'autre, l'inclusion. Comment s'est fait le passage? La réponse doit avoir une base philologique: nous avons demandé au T.L.F. de Nancy de nous fournir une documentation non pas certes sur l'ensemble du problème, ce qui aurait été beaucoup trop lourd pour une simple communication, mais uniquement sur le mot comprendre. Elle peut être aussi linguistique, la première approche éclairant la seconde; et à ce second point de vue, on peut se demander, de façon analytique comment chacun des trois items est affecté dans sa structure sémantique profonde par ce ramaniement et de façon synthétique la portée de ce renouvellement de l'outil­ lage lexical permettant de concevoir ces réalités psychiques que sont l'ouïe et l'intellection. 3. Perspective philologique. La recherche que j'ai demandée au T.L.F. consistait à m'envoyer toutes les attestations du verbe comprendre 1) dans leur corpus de moyen français, qui ne comporte encore que quelques oeuvres, mais certaines fort importantes, du XIVe et du XVe siècles. Celles qui ont fourni des attestations, 45 en tout, sont de Nicole Oresme: Le livre du Ciel et du Monde (1377); de Guillaume de Machaut: Prologue et Li rondeaulx (1377); de Christine de Pisan: Le livre de la mutacion de fortune (1403); d'Alain Chartier: Le débat des deux fortunes d'amour (1413), Le livre des quatre dames (1416), Le Quadrilogue invectii (1422); La Complainte (1424), Le débat de Réveille-Matin (1424); d'Antoinde de la Salle: Jehan de Saintré (1456); de Jehan de Bueil: Le Jouvencel (1466); de Guillaume Tringant: Commentaires du jouvence (1483). 2) (regrettant qu'ils aient totalement laissé de côté le XVIe siècle) dans les textes dépouillés parus en 1600, 1650, 1700, 1800, 1850, 1900 et 1950. Le résultat est le suivant:

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1600: 29 exemples provenant de Pierre Charron, De la Sagesse, et de Claude Fauchet, Lafleurde la maison de Charlemagne. 1650: rien; mais de 1649 à 1652 11 exemples provenant de Guy Patin, Lettres; Blaise Pascal, Préface sur le traité du vide; Guez de Balzac, Le Socrate chrestien. 1700: 6 exemples provenant de Dangeau, Journal, et de Regnard, Le retour imprévu. 1750: 6 exemples provenant de Fougeret de Monbron, Le cosmopolite et Margot la ravaudeuse; Marivaux, La colonie; Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts. 1800: 14 exemples provenant de L. de Bonald, Essai analytique sur les lois naturelles. 1850: 10 exemples provenant de Documents d'histoire contemporaine. 1900: 205 exemples provenant de Loi organique des troupes coloniales; M. Beaumont, Affaire Dreyfus, documents diplomatiques; Léon Bloy, Journal, Tome 1; Colette, Claudine à l'école; Octave Mirbeau, Journal d'une femme de chambre. 1950: 167 exemples provenant de Enseignement musical, enseignement officiel, Les musées en France; Julien Green, Moira - Journal, Tome 5; Jean Guehenno, Jean-Jacques. Dans ce relevé, purement aléatoire, de près de 500 exemples, je ne peux pas dire que la chance m'ait favorisée, les oeuvres les plus importantes et les plus significatives ne répondant pas toujours à ma chronologie et des moments importants de l'évolution étant pauvrement représentés. Or, dans mon étude de l'évolution de comprendre, je m'en tiendrai strictement au dépouillement de ce listing. C'est dire que je poserai des problèmes pour une enquête future plus approfondie, plutôt que je n'apporterai des réponses définitives. Les énormes lacunes du corpus et le fait que le nombre total de mots des œuvres dépouillées n'est pas indiqué rendraient ridicule toute tentative statistique et toute affirma­ tion d'une date de première attestation d'une tournure. Néanmoins, cela ne doit pas être tout à fait par hasard si, de 1377 à 1850, on arrive à une moyenne d'occurrences de 5,45 par œuvre dépouillée (elles sont 22, et plusieurs fort longues) contre 34,1 en 1900 (elles sont 6), et 33,6 en 1950 (elles sont 5). On ne risque pas grand'chose à parier que comprendre se développe de façon explosive à partir de la deuxième motié du XIXe siècle. Et le dépouillement des contextes syntaxiques et des collocations lexicales des occurrences relevées suscite tout de même la réflexion:

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1) Dans les 47 premiers exemples, on relève un seul emploi concret avec le sens de "remplir", chez Christine de Pisan (1403) décrivant une sorte d'aurore boréale "une grande lueur apperceurent / devers septention venant / comme feu grand lieu comprenant' 2) Dès le XVe siècle, et jusqu'à nos jours, comprendre signifie "contenir"; il est devenu un verbe extrêmement abstrait qui exprime l'inclusion d'un élément dans un ensemble; cet ensemble peut être spatial: en plusieurs endroits, on nous dit qu'un pays comprend plusieurs villes; et si, chez Nicole Dresme (1377), "Dieu ... est incompréhensible", c'est parce que lui seul "a immensité et c'est à dire que il ne peut estre compris en quelcunque espace ne finie ni infinie". Mais il est généralement de nature plus abstraite, comprendre est le verbe par excellence des classements et des taxinomies: ex. "tous gens de guerre sont compris sous estat de chevalerie". Des origines à nos jours les textes administratifs ainsi que les textes philosophiques définissant des notions, comme celui de Pierre Charron ou de de Bonald, sont remplis de tels emplois. Mais l'évolution s'est faite dans le sens d'une restriction sémantique et syntaxique. La notion d''ensemble et d''inclusion' est moins rigide en moyen français qu'aujourd'hui: le héros du Débat de Réveille matin d'Alain Chartier (1424) a l'intention de veiller mais ses compagnons ont sommeil, ils "n'y sont pas compris". Que représente y? le projet de ce personnage. En Moyen français, des qualités peuvent être considérées comme des éléments d'un ensemble: Christine de Pisan parle de "la beauté qui est en celui lieu comprise"; l'ensemble peut être une personne: Dieu a compris en une certaine dame tous les "biens" qu'on peut souhaiter (Guillaume de Machaut 1377); un certain seigneur de Lesparre était "celluy où tout honeur était compris" (Christine de Pisan 1403). Jusqu'en 1650 on peut comprendre, c'est-à-dire "résumer" diverses notions en un petit nombre de mots, ainsi Epictète "comprenant en deux mots toute la philosophie morale: sustine et abstine" (Pierre Charron 1600). L'usage des prépositions est beaucoup plus varié: en, dans, par et surtout sous qui indique un classement hiérarchique et dont j'ai des exemples jusqu'en 1800. Les exemples anciens sont donc construits de façon beaucoup plus libre qu'aujourd'hui et on peut penser que 'comprendre' au sens d'"inclure" est à présent en voie de figement Mais le fait le plus significatif me semble être celui-ci: aujourd'hui, on trouve comprendre, au sens d'"inclure", surtout au passif, déjà très fréquent à date ancienne: tel élément est compris dans tel ensemble (et il se pourrait que ce soit par hasard que la locution y compris, d'allure archaïque, ne figure sur notre listing qu'à partir de 1850). Lorsque l'actif apparaît, le sujet grammatical

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est l'ensemble et jamais ou très difficilement un sujet humain, auquel cas nous employons un autre verbe, en particulier inclure. Au contraire, le sujet humain est tout à fait naturel avant 1700: en 1650 mon corpus m'a fourni plusieurs phrases de Pascal de ce type: "quand nous disons que le diamant est le plus dur de tous les corps, nous entendons de tous les corps que nous connaissons, et ne pouvons ni ne devons y comprendre ceux que nous ne connaissons point"; mais je n'en relève plus à partir de 1700. 3) Dès le moyen-français on trouve une multitude d'exemplaires d'allure moderne qui invitent à interpréter comprendre dans son sens intellectuel: ainsi ce petit raisonnement de Guillaume de Machaut (1377): si une dame vous apprend "les maus d'amour", elle peut aussi vous en apprendre "les biens", qu'il conclut ainsi: "C'est legier à comprendre". Néanmoins, plusieurs faits nous invitent à considérer que lorsque, avant le XVIIIe siècle, un locuteur emploie comprendre pour entendre, il préfère à l'archilexème un substitut expressif et métaphorique, comme lorsque nous employons, aujourd'hui, les verbes assimiler ou saisir. Au lieu de se représen­ ter l'acte de son esprit comme une tension allant jusqu'à son terme, un effort aboutissant à un résultat, il se le représente comme l'introduction et l'intégra­ tion d'un nouvel élément dans un ensemble déjà organisé; en somme l'esprit est une sorte de contenant dans lequel trouve place un contenu supplémentaire. a) À date ancienne, il est normal que le complément de comprendre soit un nom ou un pronom; il se peut que ce pronom représente une proposition, mais il est tout à fait exceptionnel que ce soit cette proposition elle-même. Jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, je n'en ai que deux exemples et encore, il s'agit d'une exclamative et d'une interrogative indirecte. De même, aujourd'hui, nous dirons facilement il a assimilé son programme de mathématiques, il a assimilé ce que tu lui as dit, mais difficilemment il a assimilé que C'est que, même très abstrait, un substantif est plus facilement conçu comme une 'chose' entrant dans un contenant, un item prenant place dans une taxinomie, qu'une proposi­ tion. b) Pierre Charron (1600) a la bonne idée de nous expliquer, par une comparaison très parlante, ce qu'il entend par comprendre: "Par l'entendement, les choses entrent en l'âme, et elle les reçoit, comme portent les mots apprendre, concevoir, comprendre, vrays offices d'iceluy: et y entrent non entières et telles qu'elles sont, mais à la proportion, portée et capacité de l'entendement, dont les grandes et hautes se raccourcissent et abaissent aucune­ ment par ceste entrée, comme l'océan n'entre tout entier en la mer Méditerra­ née, mais à la proportion de l'embouchure du destroit de Gibraltar.

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c) Nicole Qresme (1377), nous parlant de l'éternité nous dit que "nous ne pouvons comprendre ne proprement entendre ou ymaginer ceste chose et nientmoins, raison naturelle nous enseigne que telle chose est". Or, de nos jours, ce que nous comprenons est précisement ce que "raison naturelle" nous enseigne. Je pense qu'aujourd'hui nous écririons quelque chose comme: "nous pouvons comprendre, par la raison naturelle, que l'éternité existe, mais nous ne pouvons pas comprendre à proprement parler sa nature, ni en concevoir une représentation". 4) Mon premier il comprend que... est de 1700. À partir de cette date, malgré la petitesse des corpus, les exemples foisonnent, et dans les relevés de 1900 et 1950, c'est de loin la construction la plus fréquente. Dès lors, à part un unique emploi de la préposition sous, toutes les attestations de comprendre sont conformes à la syntaxe et à la sémantique modernes; mais elles sont encore rares jusqu'en 1850 inclus, preuve, apparemment, qu'entendre résiste. En 1750, j'ai mon premier exemple de je n'y comprends rien qui devient très fréquent à partir de 1900 avec la variante c'est à n'y rien comprendre. C'est à la même date que je commence à trouver comme complément de comprendre des mots dénotant une réalité linguistique, naguère domaine réservé de entendre: "ils sauront composer des vers qu'à peine ils pourront comprendre" (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1750); "il me bredouilla cinq ou six phrases galantes que je n'aurais pu comprendre sans un rouleau de cinquante louis" (Fougeret de Monbron, 1750). En 1800, je lis chez de Bonald, dans un exemple où entendre serait impossible, que la négation fait "comprendre des sons qui expriment ce qui n'est pas". Et en 1900, je trouve chez Léon Bloy "comprendre une langue humaine" et "elle comprend ce que je dis". C'est en 1800 que je trouve mon premier exemple de "Sujet humain comprendre objet humain", mais avec le sens de "il comprend ce que je dis"; il me comprend au sens de "il comprend ce que je pense, ce que je ressens, comment je réagis" n'apparaît qu'à partir du relevé de 1900: "Comprenez-moi, mon enfant, je suis un peu maniaque" (Octave Mirbeau, 1900) En 1850 apparaît mon premier exemple du passif de comprendre au sens d'"intelligere" alors que cette voix semblait jusque là réservée au sens d'"includere": "ma pensée serait d'abord comprise. Je n'aurais pas besoin d'un long discours" (documents d'histoire contemporaine) et en 1900, je relève "un sentiment militaire mal compris" {Affaire Dreyfus, documents diplomatiques), là où l'on aurait trouvé antérieurement "mal entendu". L'omission du complément après comprendre ne se trouve, et encore rarement, à date anciennce (trois exemples antérieurs à 1900), que dans des

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incises du type "com je puis comprendre" (Christine de Pisan, 1403). Mais à partir de 1900 c'est un phénomène courant et une tournure tout à fait naturelle: Léon Bloy: "vous êtes parmi les rares qui peuvent comprendre", "cet homme calomnié déclare ne pas comprendre", "Lutterez-vous contre les bons? Je ne comprends pas", "plus je comprend, plus je m'enfonce dans les ténèbres (de l'Ecriture Sainte)", "Avez-vous compris?", "Ah! je comprends! On voulait vous utiliser", "vous ne voyez pas qu'il vaut mieux savoir que comprendre?" Colette: "elle ne rit pas parce qu'elle ne comprend pas" (le fond de son pot à eau est poussièreux) "c'est bon, on comprendi", "elles suivent péniblement [la classe] sans chercher à comprendre", Anaïs comprend bien, elle!; Octave Mirbeau: "qu'elle n'ait jamais rien vu, qu'elle n'ait jamais bien compris, c'est ce qui m'épate le plus". Enfin, à partir de 1900, on voit apparaître la tournure pronominale ça se comprend: Octave Mirbeau: "en tout bien tout honneur, ça se comprend, voyons!" À partir du relevé de 1900, non seulement les exemples deviennent extrêmement nombreux avec une forte prédominance de comprendre que mais on voit fleurir une variété de tournures qui n'étaient pas ou peu représentées dans les relevés précédents; cette liberté syntaxique est le signe du caractère bien vivant et archisémémique de ce mot. 4. Perspective linguistique. 4.1 Transformation de la structure sémantique profonde des trois items: Pour ouir, encore conjugué au début du XVIIe siècle, la transformation a été si radicale que Furetière, à la fin du siècle le tient pour "vieux" et n'en signale déjà plus que les emplois figés qui survivent encore aujourd'hui. Je ne crois pas que sa disparition soit due à des raisons morphologiques. Bien d'autres verbes anomaux ont été refaits et ont survécu, et entendre, comprendre ne sont pas non plus des verbes réguliers. J'émets l'hypothèse qu'il a été victime de sa monosémie incompatible avec sa grande fréquence: les mots les plus fréquents de la langue sont normalement polysémiques; en particulier les grands verbes de sensation, comme voir, sentir, toucher, ont tous des emplois pléniers concrets et des emplois subduits abstraits. Or, ouir s'est montré totalement rebelle à l'abstraction. Les emplois abstraits qui lui correspondaient étaient tenus par entendre qui a fini par aborder aussi les emplois concrets, au prix, nous l'avons vu, de la perte d'une partie importante de ses acceptions anciennes. J'ai cru pouvoir montrer dans mon livre que le problème se posait de savoir si des emplois à première vue aussi hétérogènes que j'entends du

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bruit, ils s'entendent pour faire un mauvais coup, et j'entends qu'on m'obéisse doivent être considérés comme appartenant à trois verbes différents ou comme trois acceptions disjointes d'un polysème. La solution que je propose est polysémique, en particulier à cause de nombreux exemples ambigus pouvant appartenir à une acception ou une autre: l'ancienne structure aspectuelle d'entendre a disparu au profit d'une structure beaucoup plus courante: saisie plénière fréquente et syntaxiquement libre, avec sensation auditive accompa­ gnée d'une certaine activité d'esprit et saisie subduite, moins fréquente et syntaxiquement plus contrainte, avec activité d'esprit en l'absence de sensa­ tion. Mais j'ai cru pouvoir montrer qu'en contrepoint de ce cinétisme moderne, on trouvait un cinétisme inverse, trace de l'ancien, où les emplois pouvaient être classés dans un ordre d'activité d'esprit croissante, de la simple interpréta­ tion d'une sensation auditive à l'élaboration d'un projet. En ce qui concerne comprendre, je crois que le grand tournant de son histoire est signalé par la quasi simultanéité de deux phénomènes: l'apparition de je comprends que... semble être le signe que ce verbe est en train de devenir inapte à représenter l'esprit comme un contenant; corrélativement, comprendre se banalisant au sens d' "intelligo", je comprends devenait ambigu et gênant devant un mot abstrait pour signifier "includo", d'où la disparition de je comprends O dans 0', C'est dire qu'il se situe à la jointure du XVIIe et du XVII e siècles. Jusque là, on pouvait y voir un mot polysémique signifiant essentiellement l'inclusion, avec forte spécialisation d'un grand nombre d'emplois dans le domaine intellectuel. Désormais, l'emploi "intelligo" et l'emploi "includo" vont vivre chacun d'une vie tellement séparée qu'aucune ambiguïté ne peut servir de transition entre eux deux; il est vrai qu'on peut définir aujourd'hui S humain comprend O ("intelligent") par "S humain est capable d'analyser en éléments et de synthétiser un objet mental", et S abstrait comprend O ("includit") par la "synthèse S inclut l'élément O"; on peut donc à la limite les considérer comme ayant comme substance sémantique commune les notions conjointes d'analyse et de synthèse. Mais il y a un continuum dans les emplois d'entendre qu'il n'y a pas dans ceux de comprendre dont la polysé­ mie est beaucoup plus disjointe et à la limite de l'homonymie. 4.2 D'un point de vue SYNTHÉTIQUE, quelle est la portée de ce renouvelle­ ment de l'outillage lexical? L'élimination d'ouir trop concret d'une part et l'élimination des emplois figurés et expressifs de comprendre d'autre part montrent de façon convergente un progrès indéniable de l'abstraction. Le remplacement d'entendre par comprendre est plus ambigu étant donné qu'une

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manière de se représenter l'intellection qui a dû être, pendant une assez longue période, ressentie comme plus expressive et appropriée que l'ancienne, a perdu ce caractère au moment où elle s'est généralisée. Ce qu'on peut en retenir est qu'inconsciemment, comme c'est toujours le cas dans les faits de langue, l'expression de la pure intellection a été ressentie à un certain moment qu'il y aurait intérêt à préciser davantage, comme incompatible avec celle d'une sensa­ tion. Je persiste à penser, comme je l'écrivais dans mes Structures sémantiques (p.80) que si l'on étudiait la structure sémantique des mots 'vieux' exclus du bon usage au XVIIe siècle et de leurs remplaçants, on constaterait un singulier basculement dans la manière de se représenter l'univers extérieur et notre univers intérieur, à une époque où se dessine la 'modernité'. Accompli métho­ diquement, ce travail permettrait sans doute de vérifier cette réflexion de G. Guillaume: "l'homme linguistique des différents âges peut penser les mêmes choses. Il reste qu'il ne les pense pas mêmement".

NEUTRALISATION SÉMANTIQUE ET MARQUAGE FONCTIONNEL A PROPOS DE L'ÉVOLUTION DE CERTAINS EMPLOIS DE CELUI ET DE CE EN FRANÇAIS

MICHEL PIERRARD Vrije Universiîeit Brussel 0. L'interprétation des constructions celui/ce + relative reste un point délicat et controversé de la syntaxe du français moderne.* Notre contribution voudrait illustrer, à partir des données d'un certain nombre d'études de syntaxe historique, comment une démarche de type diachronique apporte une dimen­ sion à la fois originale et complémentaire à l'appréhension du fonctionnement de ces 'démonstratifs' et de leurs rapports avec le système de la relative 'sans antécédent' en français moderne, comment elle tend à confirmer la thèse actuelle voyant en celui et en ce des déterminants de relatives nominalisées. 1.0 Il n'est guère facile de résumer en quelques pages la situation fort complexe de ces morphèmes en ancien et en moyen français: "[...] aucun ensemble de formes n'a, peut-être, subi des transformations aussi radicales, ni aussi originales" (Dees 1971:1). En effet, au cours d'une même période, une lutte morphologique et fonctionnelle oppose cil et cist, tandis que, parallèlement, leur opposition de valeur monstrative ou indexicale s'use lentement et que de nouvelles formes apparaissent pour remplacer les morphèmes altérés. De même, en ancien français, ce 'neutre' était concurrencé par les formes cest et cel mais cette diversité morphologique disparaît déjà pendant la période de l'ancien français. D'autre part, en moyen français

* Le débat est pleinement d'actualité, comme le confirme l'intéressante contribution de X. C. Carrete (1987) dont nous venons de prendre connaissance au moment de corriger les épreuves de cet article.

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encore, on constate des convergences entre les divers emplois de ce.1 Examinons plus en détail l'évolution des formes. 1.1

Celui. En ancien français, une confusion extrême caractérise la fonction du démonstratif cil et sa relation avec cisî, car deux types de distinctions s'entrecroisent: d'une part, cil s'oppose sémantiquement au démonstratif cisî, quelles que soient la forme — antonymique ou privative (marqué/non marqué) — et la valeur de cette opposition: proximité vs éloignement (cf., entre autres, Dees 1971); sphère de l'interlocution vs univers extérieur à l'interlocution (Moignet [1973:153]: "cist évoque, subjectivement, ce qui concerne le domaine de l'interlocution, cil, objectivement, ce qui est en dehors de ce domaine"); nécessité d'identification référentielle par le contexte d'énonciation immédiat (cist) vs absence d'obligation de saturationcontigu(cil) (Kleiber 1987:18-23). D'autre part, les deux formes sont originellement employées comme pronom et adjectif. Dès le XIIe siècle, cil tend à se spécialiser en fonction pronominale mais Dees (1971:153-155) démontre dans son excellent étude que la distinction pronom (cil) — adjectif (cisî) ne s'établit définitivement qu'au début du XVIe siècle après une longue période de flottement. Cette spécialisation fonctionnelle de cil et cisî ne permet plus de les opposer en tant que déictiques ou en tant que symboles indexicaux et ceci provoque par la même occasion une réduction de la puissance sémantique de cil. Aussi, dès l'époque du moyen français, cil peut être renforcé par l'adjonction des adverbes ci et là. Mais ce n'est sans doute que vers le XVIIe siècle que celui-ci et celui-là éliminent définitivement celui de la fonction pronominale. En effet, G. Gougenheim constate dans sa Grammaire de la langue française du 16e siècle que "la différence d'emploi qui existe aujourd'hui entre les formes simples et les formes en -ci et en -là, n'existait pas encore de façon aussi tranchée au XVIe siècle" (1974:76). Ainsi, on y trouve la forme celui, en parallèle avec des formes en -ci et en -là, comme pronoms démonstratifs. Inversement, on trouve celui-là comme introducteur de complément prépositionnel (à celle là de mon beau procureur). Depuis les plus anciens textes d'autre part, cil pouvait introduire une proposition relative. Ces tours avaient déjà souvent une valeur sentencieuse. Dès lors, l'antécédent doit rester indécis, ce qui expliquerait pourquoi Cisî et 1 En ce qui concerne, par exemple, l'emploi de ce devant un pronom relatif, P. Wunderli avance l'hypothèse d' "une convergence des emplois comme proforme aphorique et comme article propositionnel au cours de l'histoire" (1978:238).

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cestui, qui évoquent le domaine de l'interlocution, "ne conviennent pas pour ces emplois" (cf. Foulet 1970:172). D'une façon générale d'ailleurs, le pronom démonstratif cil "peut être un terme d'appel, support d'une détermination qui peut revêtir plusieurs formes" (Moignet 1973:154). Dans ce cas, il peut être déterminé — par un adverbe {cil dehors)', — par un substantif introduit par de {cil de la sale); — par une proposition relative {cil qui haut monte de haut chief). À ce moment cil et celui conservent néanmoins leur valeur pronominale puisque la même forme peut être employée comme pronom déictique.2 Ceci est également démontré par la mobilité dans l'énoncé de celui, antécédent d'un pronom relatif. Des exemples de ce genre sont encore courants dans la langue du XVIe siècle: (1) Celuy me semble avoir tres-bien conceu la force de la coustume, qui premier forgea ce conte. (Montaigne; cité par Gougenheim 1974:77). Mais déjà le processus de figement et de 'dépronominalisation' est amorcé, ce qui apparaît dans une série de tours et de formules, surgissant à partir de l'ancien français, où le segment celui qui semble déjà indissociable: — Il n'y a (il n'est) celui (celle) qui = "il n'y a (il n'est) personne qui" (2) N'y aura cil qui ne prenne cueur hault (Marot; cité ibid.) — Comme celui qui = "en homme qui" (3) Laquelle requeste j'ay voulentiers entreprise (...) comme celuy qui ayme et honnoure à mon povoir la langue gallicane. (Lemaire de Belges; cité ibid.)

2

Pour les exemples de ces formes dans des emplois pronominaux, consulter Wunderli 1980b: 19-21 (celui); 23-24 {celle); 28-29 (ceux); 32-33 {celles). Le moyen français utilisait toutefois de préférence les formes correspondantes avec i prosthétique: icelui, etc. (Martin et Wilmet 1980:167).

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Le remplacement de celui par celui-cil-là et son glissement vers un rôle d'introducteur de structure complexe nominalisée (celui qu-P; celui S Prép.), s'accompagnent d'une période de confusion et de flottements. L'emploi de celui-là et même de celui-ci en fonction de déterminant en est par exemple une manifestation. Chez les plus anciens auteurs du XVIIe siècle et chez La Fontaine, on trouve très souvent celui-là, chez Malherbe et même chez Balzac celui-ci, tous deux immédiatement suivis d'un relatif, rarement d'un infinitif avec de, emploi qui disparaît à la fin du siècle. (Haase 1969:46)

1.2

Ce. En ancien français, ce 'neutre' connaît des emplois multiples et variés. En moyen français, P. Wunderli présente l'inventaire suivant de ses fonctions: • ce 'neutre' peut être prime actant (sujet) d'une propostion ou d'une phrase; • ce 'neutre' peut être second actant (complément d'objet direct) d'une proposition ou d'une phrase; • ce 'neutre' peut faire partie d'un 'syntagme prépositionnel' qui lui-même peut remplir différentes fonctions, à savoir: — tiers actant (complément d'objet indirect) — circonstant (complément circonstanciel) — complément nominal. • ce 'neutre' peut être attribut d'une proposition ou d'une phrase; • ce 'neutre' peut remplir les différentes fonctions susmentionnées dans le cadre d'une phrase adverbiale; • ce 'neutre' peut faire partie de certains pronoms relatifs, les soi-disants 'relatifs sans antécédent' (ce que, ce dont, etc.); • ce 'neutre' peut faire partie de certaines conjonctions (jusqu'à ce que, après ce que, pour ce que, etc.). (Wunderli 1978:189)

Dans la langue du XVIe siècle, G. Gougenheim (1974:78) relève tou­ jours l'emploi fréquent du morphème — comme sujet d'une proposition participiale absolue (cefaict); — comme objet dans les incises (ce dit-il), avec un infinitif, un participe présent ou un gérondif (Pour mieulx ce faire, ce voyant, en ce disant); — après les prépositions les plus diverses (à ce, par ce, pour ce), soit différents tours qui ne seraient plus possibles aujourd'hui. Toutefois, au XVIIe siècle, on ne rencontre plus guère que des traces de cet ancien usage (Haase 1969:79).

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En moyen français, ce pouvait donc encore remplir une double série de fonctions, celles d’'indice morphologique' et celles de proforme, mais son utilisation va se restreindre pour se limiter ajourd'hui aux emplois devant le verbe être, devant la conjonction que et les relatifs ou dans les locutions toutes faites. En réalité, ce a, "dès l'époque la plus ancienne, perdu son sens nette­ ment démonstratif' (Sneyders De Vogel 1919:58). À partir du XIVe siècle apparaissent, pour remplir ce rôle de proforme indexicale, les formes renforcées de ce, ceci et cela, qui l'ont remplacé dans l'usage moderne. Toutefois, encore au XVe siècle cela et ceci sont relativement rares; ils ne connaîtront un grand succès qu'au XVIe siècle (cf. Wunderli 1980a:25Q). Le système traversa par conséquent une période de flottement. On en trouve confirmation dans la langue du XVIe siècle où cela est utilisé dans des emplois qui ressortissent traditionnellement au domaine de ce (Gougenheim 1974:79): — comme antécédent d'une subordonnée relative {cela qui); — dans la locution temporelle sur cela. Quant au segment ce que en relative, on constate aussi qu'il tend à être ressenti comme une unité indissociable. Alors qu'en ancien français le ce aphorique était d'abord inconnu et ensuite facultatif, son emploi se généralise en moyen français de telle sorte que les exemples où ce manque sont exceptionnels et nettement archaïsants. Pour P. Wunderli néanmoins "[...] à cette époque il subsiste encore des cas où ce est une vraie proforme; sont à classer ici surtout les cas où il est séparé de la relative par un autre élément, par ex. le verbe" (1978:238). De plus en plus, il devient obligatoire et perd son caractère tonique tandis que ses fonctions predicatives se perdent. Il est devenu "un indice morphologique intégré d'un certain type de relatifs" (p.221). En outre, ce apparaît comme article propositionnel dans les complétives introduites par que et dans un tas de locutions conjonctives dont quelques-unes ont subsisté aujourd'hui (à ce que, de ce que, en ce que, sur ce que, parce que). Au XVIIe siècle, il s'ajoute enfin à que dans l'interrogation indirecte. 1.3 Avec leur spécialisation fonctionnelle et la réduction de leur puissance monstrative ou indexicale, les morphèmes cil et ce voient disparaître par la même occasion leur valeur pronominale. C'est en gros au XVe siècle que les grammaires historiques semblent situer le tournant et la percée des formes composées en -ci et -là qui prendront la relève en fonction pronominale. "[...]

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celui à lui seul pouvait suffire à indiquer la personne voulue. Il a gardé cette force jusqu'au XVe siècle; au siècle suivant Meigret rejette celui l'a inventé et réclame cettuy-ci l'a inventé" (Sneyders De Vogel 1919:64). La même évolu­ tion peut être relevée pour ce. Originellement, le ce des "relatifs sans antécédent" (ce qui, ce que, ce dont, etc.) était sans aucun doute un ce aphorique (accentué) déterminé par une relative. Mais en moyen français la situation semble avoir changé: ce devant le relatif "sans antécédent" est devenu la norme et a perdu son caractère tonique; il est devenu ou du moins en train de devenir un indice morphologique intégré d'un certain type de relatifs. (Wunderli 1978:221)

Le recul de la valeur pronominale va de pair avec le glissement de ces formes vers la fonction d'introducteur de structures complexes nominalisées. Cela s'accompagne de l'inséparabilité des éléments du segment celui qui (ce qui), alors que l'ancienne langue avait, comme nous l'avons vu, la faculté de séparer celui de la relative qu'il introduisait. Cette construction se retrouve encore jusqu'au XVIIe siècle mais elle est critiquée par les grammairiens3 car celui n'a plus le poids sémantique suffisant pour fonctionner de façon autonome. "À l'inverse, on trouve parfois au XVIe et au début du XVIIe siècle celui-là et celui-ci, ceci et cela placés immédiatement devant la phrase relative, et avec valeur determinative [...]" (Sneyders De Vogel 1919:66). (4) Demandez à qui vous voudrez de ceux-ci qui vivent de brigandage [...] s'ils ne seraient pas plus aisés que l'argent leur vînt d'autre façon. (Malh.; ibid.). TL s'agit apparemment d'une tentative pour raviver la valeur pronomi­ nale de l'introducteur de la relative. Elle ne pouvait toutefois qu'avorter par suite du marquage fonctionnel de plus en plus strict de celui (ce) devant une relative. L'histoire des morphèmes celui et ce confirme par conséquent l'hypo­ thèse, accréditée d'un point de vue synchronique par une série de données syntaxiques et sémantiques, selon laquelle ils remplissent aujourd'hui non pas le rôle d'un 'antécédent' mais la fonction d'un déterminant de structure com­ plexe nominalisée, telle la relative sans antécédent (5b). Ces déterminants

3 K. Sneyders De Vogel (1919:66) cite des exemples de Malherbe et de La Bruyère, critiqués par Vaugelas.

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jouent alors un rôle comparable à celui de l'article par rapport à l'adjectif substantivé (6b). (5) a) Le livre que tu m'as prêté, b) Celui que tu m'as prêté. (6) a) La robe rouge est dans l'armoire, b) La rouge est dans l'armoire. 2. En quelle mesure l'histoire de la relative substantivée corrobore-t-elle cette spécialisation fonctionnelle de celui et de ce? En ancien français, le paradigme du morphème qu-, introducteur des relatives sans antécédent, présente non seulement un système complet mais encore des occurrences nombreuses et variées. qui:

C'est le pronom de l'être animé. En ancienfrançais,il évoque fréquem­ ment "une personne non particulière et indéterminée" (Moignet 1973: 156):

(7) Qui tot convoite tot pert. (Prov.; cité par Moignet 1973:156) (8) Qui at pechiet bien s'en pot recorder. (Alexis; cité par l'A.F.W., V) Si l'emploi précédent est toujours productif en français moderne, qui pouvait également représenter à l'époque une personne particulière: "Le pronom qui se rapporte à une personne déterminée" (Franzén 1943:293; cf. aussi, pour ces emplois, Korte 1910 et l'A.F.W.): (9) Ki lui portat suef le fist nurrir. (Alexis; cité par Moignet, ibid.) (10) Mout me fist grant honor Qui de touz ses chevauz m'envoia le meillor. (La Vengeance Alixandre; cité par l'A.F.W.) En moyen français cette flexibilité devient plus rare (cf. Jokinen. 1978: 5) encore que R. Martin et M. Wilmet soulignent toujours l'emploi plus souple du morphème: "Qui peut s'employer dans un sens indéfini et signifier 'quel que soit celui qui'" (1980:246).

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que:

Ce morphème évoque un concept inanimé. Le tour est bien implanté en fonction objet.

(11) Que jones aprent vieus le retient. (Prov.; cité par Moignet 1973:159). Si que apparaît aussi en fonction sujei, il y est déjà menacé par un qui neutre comme dans la formule que (qui) mieuz est. U. Jokinen (1978:17-18) re­ marque qu'il devient relativement rare en moyen français pour se limiter vers 1500 à des locutions figées. quoi: Son emploi se concentre exclusivement en fonction de régime prépositionnel où, dès l'origine, il n'a pas d'antécédent exprimé lorsqu'il renvoyait au sens de l'énoncé complet (12) mes de toi n'en issi onques nule, por quoi tu puez veoir apertement que tu es plus durs que pierre. (La Queste del Saint Graal; cité par Moignet 1973:161.) En moyen français, R. Martin et M. Wilmet constatent que quoi renvoie souvent à ce qui précède ou se limite au tour avoir de quoi (manger, boire, vivre, faire,...) (1980:251). où et dont: Le morphème où possède en ancien français une série d'acceptions qui recouvrent le sens local pur, un sens métaphorique (lieu notionnel) et même un sens temporel. Il réalise des emplois à tous les degrés de l'indifférenciation: le lieu évoqué peut être totalement indéterminé, comme c'est le cas dans son usage moderne, mais il peut aussi être plus particularisé. Ceci correspond alors au domaine occupé actuellement par l'introducteur complexe là où qui sélectionne la notion de localité. Notons enfin qu'en ancien français "Dont peut ne pas avoir d'antécé­ dent exprimé, il équivaut alors au moderne ce dont, introduisant une relative apposée à l'ensemble de la régissante" (Moignet 1973:163). Dès le moyen français, ce type de constructions est en net recul mais il continue d'apparaître sporadiquement. A. Haase (1969:75) relève encore au XVIIe siècle l'emploi de dont pour ce dont.

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Si les valeurs du qui sans antécédent sont multiples et variées en ancien français, son utilisation au XVIIe siècle se limite déjà aux emplois généralisants (Brunot & Bruneau 1969:208). Entre ces deux points de repère, c'est-à-dire essentiellement au cours de la période du moyen français, il s'est opéré tout un processus de réduction du système de l'introducteur qui peut être ramené à deux grandes tendances: — l'extension de la signification (plus précisément de l'emploi référentiel) de certains morphèmes est limitée. En conséquence, une modification profonde du fonctionnement du paradigme s'opère. Alors qu'en ancien français, il était capable d'introduire toute la gamme des emplois sur la tension de l'indifféren­ ciation, il ne peut aujourd'hui servir qu'à l'expression de l'indifférenciation généralisante. Cette évolution fondamentale était déjà soulignée en 1910 par le linguiste allemand J. Korte: "Im Neufranzösischen wird qui nur noch im allgemeinen Sinne gebraucht [...] aber nicht mehr, wenn von einer bestimmten Person die Rede ist [...]" (1910:4). Cette tendance touche en particulier les morphèmes qui et où, qui perdent la capacité d'exprimer l'indétermination particularisante; — l'emploi de certaines formes est abandonné: dont finit par être complètement éliminé comme introducteur de relatives 'sans antécédent', que subsiste seulement dans une série de formules figées, quoi enfin voit ses emplois strictement limités. 3. L'évolution des morphèmes celui et ce, tout comme l'historique du pardigme de l'introducteur qu-, confirment donc l'hypothèse inférée d'un examen synchronique de la construction (cf. Pierrard 1988:76-92). La présente esquisse nous permet en outre d'appréhender comment la langue, entre le XVe et le XVIIe siècle, fut amenée à suppléer au système défaillant et confus de l'introducteur qu-, à le renforcer, à le préciser par l'adjonction des déterminants celui et ce. De cette manière, elle créa de fait un nouveau paradigme intro­ ducteur pour la relative 'sans antécédent', tout en n'éliminant pas complètement le précédent. En reportant les diverses saisies sémantiques du morphème sur un schéma bi-tensif, il nous est possible de mieux représenter les transformations fondamentales que subit le système de l'introducteur de la relative 'sans antécédent' et qui sont soulignées par le passage de celui (ce) de la classe des pronoms à celle des déterminants ou par le recul du paradigme introducteur originel.

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avant leXVesiècle

après le XVIIe siècle

Le survol de l'histoire des démonstratifs et de la relative sans antécédent illustre comment l'évolution des morphèmes celui et ce génère les caractéristiques favorisant leur fonctionnement au sein du système de la relative sans antécédent, fonctionnement qui à son tour oriente cette évolution. Cet aperçu nous a donc permis de confirmer, par des indices diachroniques, l'interprétation de celui et de ce comme des déterminants de relatives nominalisées.

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RÉFÉRENCES Brunot, Ferdinand & Charles Bruneau. 1969. Précis de grammaire historique de la langue française. 3e éd. entièrement refondue. Paris: Masson. Carrete, X. . 1987. "Les relatives libres en français médiéval (1200-1500): Typologie, structure et restriction d'identité". Verba: Anuario galago de filolxia, 403-439. Santiago de Compostela: Univ. de Santiago. Dees, Anthonij. 1971. Etude sur l'évolution des démonstratifs en ancien et en moyen français. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff. Foulet, Lucien. 1970. Petite syntaxe de l'ancien français. 3e éd. revue. Paris: Champion. Franzén, T. 1943. "Qui en lui creit il n'a nul bon talent: Quelques observations sur l'emploi en ancien français, des propostions relatives indépendantes et sur la structure de la principale qui suit". Mélanges de philologie offerts à Johan Melander, 291-305. Uppsala: Lundequist Gougenheim, Georges. 1974. Grammaire de la langue française du l6ième siècle. Nouvelle éd. Paris: Picard. Haase, Adolphe. 1969. Syntaxe française du XVIIe siècle. 7e éd. Paris: Delagrave. Jokinen, Ulla. 1978. Les relatifs en moyen français: Formes et fonctions. Hel­ sinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. Kleiber, Georges. 1987. "L'opposition cisticil en ancien français ou comment analyser les démonstratifs". Revue de linguistique romane 51.5-35. Korte, J. 1910. Die beziehungslosen Relativsätze im Französischen. Göttin­ gen: Dieterich. Martin, Robert & Marc Wilmet 1980. Syntaxe du moyen français. (= Manuel du français du moyen âge, 2.) Bordeaux: Sobodi. Ménard, Philippe. 1976. Syntaxe du moyen français. Nouvelle éd. entièrement refondue. (= Manuel du français du moyen âge, 1.) Bordeaux: Sobodi. Moignet, Gerard 1973. Grammaire de l'ancien français. (-Initiation à la linguistique; Série B: Problèmes et Méthodes, 2.) Paris: Klincksieck. Pierrard, Michel. 1988. La relative sans antecédent en français moderne: Essai de syntaxe propositionelie. Louvain & Paris: Peters. Sneyders de Vogel, . 1919. Syntaxe historique du français. Groningue & La Haye: Wolters. Tobler, Adolf & Erhard Lommatzsch. 1971. Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.(= A.F.W.) Wunderli, Peter. 1978. "Ce neutre en moyen français". Sémantique lexicale et sémantique grammaticale en moyen français. Colloque organisé par le Centre d'Etudes Linguistiques et Littéraires de la Vrije Universiteit Brussel (28-29 septembre 1978). Actes publiés par Marc Wilmet, 185-253. Bruxelles: Centrum voor Taal- en Literatuurwetenschap, Vrije Univ. Brussel.

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. 1980a. "Ceci et cela en moyen français". Linguistique romane et linguistique française: Hommages à Jacques Pohl publiés par Marc Dominicy et Marc Wilmet, 247-275. Bruxelles: Editions de l'Univ. de Bruxelles. . 1980b. "Le système des démonstratifs en moyen français". Romania 101.1-34 et 145-191.

ROMANCE COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR AND LINGUISTIC CHANGE REBECCA POSNER Universityof Oxford

These remarks are prompted by a reexamination of attitudes to linguistic change in comparative Romance studies. I maintain elsewhere (Posner, Forthcoming a, b, c) that Romanists participated only half-heartedly in the mainstream linguistic developments of the 19th century and that alongside 'German-style' linguistics there persisted another strand (Trench-style', for convenience) that continued many of the linguistic attitudes of the Enlightenment, especially in viewing change in language as adaptive and socially motivated. The dominant German tradition located the destructive power of linguistic change in gradual, unconscious and regular phonetic shifts which in course of time cause havoc among the meaningful elements of language, necessitating compensatory synchronic therapy in morphology, lexicon and syntax. This tradition reached an impasse towards the end of the 19th century, as phonetic science disclosed the vulnerability of the concept of the 'sound' as a unit that changes, and as dialectology emphasized the degree of variability within a speech community, seemingly giving the lie to the notion that all individuals unconsciously conform to the regular sound-shifts (cf. Auroux 1979). The impasse was eventually to be circumvented by the establishment of synchronic linguistics, a statics abstracted from the dynamics of reality, "the theory of how and why, under certain circumstances, nothing happens, i.e. why change does not occur" (Popper 1957:39). Change was seen as atomistic and individual; absence of change as systematic and social. A language system could be replaced, but not changed; change proper could originate only in speech. The view of Romanists outside the German 'paradigm' was that communities at certain cultural conjunctures developed a stable and systematic language norm - l'idiome grammatical as it was sometimes called - a regulated institution which, through inertia or by policy, resisted the innovations that beset the colloquial idiom.

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But the important difference between the two traditions was that the latter are interested less in LINGUISTIC CHANGE - shifts of formal, especially phonological, elements within a linguistic system - than in LANGUAGE CHANGE the creation of a new language which replaces another. Among French Romanists a common view, well before the 1860s (cf. Aarsleff 1982:310), was that language is a social institution (e.g. Ampère 1841:34), a superstructure overlaying lectal varieties, but drawing on them (cf. Du Méril 1852). The German quasi-autonomous HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS of a Diez or a Meyer-Lübke can be contrasted with the view continuing the Enlightenment tradition that LINGUISTIC HISTORY partakes of the methods of institutional history, and that the history of the Romance languages must make reference to their social and cultural functions. It was, however, as linguists rather than as historians that they were faced with the problems of what features characterize a 'language' and how such features come into existence.1 Raynouard (e.g. 1816) addressed the first of these problems in his postulation that 'Romance' is a different language from Latin, with the Western languages2 sharing many of the 23 features he regards as distinctive. Apart from the common use of versions of the name ROMAN to designate their languages - clearly a cultural feature - and two phonological, or rather morpheme-structure, features (to do with word-final segments) all of Raynouard's criteria are morphological or syntactic.3 Diez (1836-1844), on the contrary, asserted that there was no discontinuity between Latin and Romance, but that popular spoken Latin grew almost organically, leaving behind the literary version to wither away. This

1 Note that Meyer-Lübke in the 3rd (1920) edition of his Einführung (1901) introduced a chapter on Charakteristik und Systematik (pp. 65-70) in which he skirts the theoretical problems and concentrates on the phonological characteristics of French - oxytonic structure, forward articulation with a predominance of vowels, and sharply differentiated consonants. The morpho-syntactic features that distinguish French are linked to its oxytonic structure tendency to preposed quasi-flexional elements, post-head ordering of negation and other elements (e.g. the demonstrative in cet homme-ci, the possessive in mon livre à moi or compounds like wagon-lit ). He believes untrammeled everyday speech realizes the true character of the language better than the literary language, but points out the numerous inconsistencies that stem from inertia and tradition. / 2 Raynouard (1821) examines similar developments in valaque (Rumanian) but sees these as different enough to exclude that language from the langue romane group. 3 They include the use of the article and verbal auxiliaries, case markers, adjectival classes, affixes, relatives, passive, future, participial and adverbial forms, comparative structures, as well as miscellaneous features like the non-specific subject pronoun (on, etc.), the use of 'expletive' negatives, the omission of the complementizer (que, etc.), the use of the infinitive for the negative imperative, etc. The features are presented in tabular form in Raynouard (1821:375), showing in which languages they are present or absent.

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'Vulgar Latin' hypothesis, as it was later to be known (cf. Lloyd 1979), became the accepted doctrine of all manuals, even though it was, as Lewis (1835) points out, supported by very little concrete evidence. Even today, when research has uncovered more evidence, it is still ambiguous; however much we seek the function of the Romance definite article, for instance, or of tense auxiliaries, in the cognate forms in Latin texts, we are left with an unbridged gap between the linguistic systems. The 'continuity' story holds that phonetic attrition gradually undermined the communicative efficiency of Latin so that originally redundant adjuncts used in careless Latin speech - like noun determiners and prepositions eventually grammaticalized and became obligatory. Raynouard, on the other hand, was hazily aware that the gulf between Latin on one hand, and all the Romance languages on the other, was the result of a radical change of language system, or even of language type - a transformation that Schlegel (1818) dismissed as an impossibility without intervention of external factors. Contact between languages - or, better, between peoples - is the external factor most often cited as triggering typological or systematic change, but there were difficulties in describing the precise effects one language has on another. Lewis (1835), improving on Sismondi (1813), suggests that the transformation of Latin into Romance is an example of creolization, almost in the sense of Bickerton (1981). German speakers, unable to grasp the complexities of Latin grammar, had recourse, using Latin lexical material, to a "neutral language" (p. 30), in which "each phrase is, as it were, built up of the single ideas which compose it" (p. 29). Sismondi himself cites Haitian creole (p. 33), and suggests that one day the origins of that language, if it became "policée", and acquired orators and poets, would appear as obscure as now do those of the Romance languages. Was the choice of a 'continuity' or 'discontinuity' view of the genesis of Romance connected with national attitudes to social and cultural history, rather than with linguistic doctrine? Certainly the French seemed more ready to envisage revolutionary upheaval, whereas Germans shrank from the prospect of radical change (cf. Reill 1976:23). Whereas for the French, as we have seen, advance of time has brought desirable progress, the Germans regret the loss of a poetic past, even though accepting the necessity of modernization. It may have been desire to reconcile a recognition of the inevitability of change with the yearning for stability that led Humboldt, for instance, in 1836 to describe the Romance languages as fundamentally identical with Latin ("Es sanken Formen nicht aber die Form" cf. Trabant, Forthcoming), or Diez to suggest that the very changes admitted in

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Romance were accommodations necessary to fend off "surrender" of the Latin model (Diez 1820b, cited by Reill 1976:27). The continuity approach in Romance historical linguistics was the one to prevail, precisely because of its success in describing the regularities of phonological development, and in spite of its failure to explain satisfactorily WHY such development is regular, or how compensatory analogical reformation or grammaticalization comes about. The elaboration of a set of techniques for historical, or rather variational, phonology was an enduring contribution of 19th-century German-style linguistics. In comparison, the language history' tradition appears amateurish and speculative. It was, however, confronting a real issue that was evaded by Diez and Meyer-Lübke - how are the Romance languages so like Latin and yet so different, and how could their grammatical systems have evolved from the typologically distinct Latin one? One drawback of many 19th-century works lay in their paucity of methodological equipment: although progress was made in the recognition that sounds and not letters are the stuff of phonology, grammar was still treated only in terms of Graeco-Latin part-of-speech categories or General Grammar semantic features. Grammar change is described mainly in terms of mor­ phological innovations, like the introduction of a new element (e.g. the definite article) or the disappearance of inflections (whose functions would then be borne by some other morphological device). The communicative advantages of such morphological 'simplification' (or perhaps 'rationalization'?) were seen as sufficient explanation of the changes. Inertia would account for lack of innovation, which is initiated by a tone-setting section of the speech community and gains acceptance in certain social conditions. Implicit in this story is the assumption that within 'Universal Grammar' there are certain options available. However, it is not clear whether, for instance, the feature "definiteness" is seen as present in Latin, though not overtly expressed, or whether the feature itself is optional and in Romance is introduced into the language, along with its overt expression, as the "definite article". Moreover, no explicit account is given about the way the feature comes to acquire overt expression among innovating speakers. Nowhere in the 19th-century works I have examined is there any relevant reference to first language acquisition. It is apparently assumed that, after infancy, the child accurately masters the language skills of his elders and is not the source of innovation. Discontinuity in language is not associated with a generation gap, but with social upheaval or cultural renovation. In other ways, however, the 19th-century 'French-style' discussions of Romance linguistic history can be seen as foreshadowing some of the ideas of the parametric model of inter-language differences (cf. especially Borer 1984).

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The most obvious way in which languages differ one from another is in the lexicon: the Romance languages however share many lexical items and idiosyncratic properties of those items. These 'same' lexical items do of course appear in different phonological guise, and the formulation of rules to account for these differences forms the major part of traditional Romance comparative works. However, it can plausibly be argued that such phonological differences are not qualitatively different from those of intralanguage variation. Inter-language grammatical variation appears more fundamental, and may more seriously hamper mutual intelligibility. Assuming that all languages draw on a set of Universal Grammar principles, we can account for interlanguage grammatical variation by postulating that a number of options, along certain parameters, are available within Universal Grammar. Closely related and minimally differentiated languages, like those of the Romance family, can provide evidence about what parametric variation is possible and how far choice of one option entails that of others (cf. Rizzi 1982, Jaeggli 1982, Borer 1984). By the same token, change from one language to another must involve one or more different choices of option. For example, assuming Latin was a SOV language compared with the SVO Romance languages, and that either arrangement of categorial components is possible within the phrase structure component of Universal Grammar, we must suppose that the change from Latin to Romance involved a shift from one option to the other. We must then seek to discern whether the shift will necessarily occasion other changes (like preposition of inflectional elements) which must then be viewed as part of the same parametric variation. I should hazard the suggestion that bundles of inter-related shifts that may seriously impede comprehension would be more important for language change than are isolated and minor shifts,4 which result in variants that are readily tolerated within a single speech community.5 4

The idea of 'parametric packaging' need not be so different from other ways of looking at linguistic change. For instance, in Andersen's (1973) model, abductive change may lead to consequent deductive adjustments, and the postulate of a tendency towards typological consistency may be supported by similar data. 5 For instance, Borer (1984:184) suggests that a 'parameter' distinguishes one River Plate Spanish (loísmo ) dialect from another (leísmo ) type, in that the latter allows extraction from clitic-doubling configurations (¿a quién le vimos?)whereas the former does not (*¿a quién lo vimos?). The explanation given for the difference (p. 185) - stemming from an apparent mismatch between the dative-like a quién and the accusative-marked lo - is totally acceptable. The leísmo usage is the more innovative, matching the 'case' marking of the pronoun to the 'personal object' marker a (which is identical with the dative marker). It is hard to accept that the 'discomfort' caused to speakers by morphological mismatches of

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But what would occasion the shift in the first place? I have suggested elsewhere (Posner 1986, 1987) that a 'creolization' process might result from speakers switching their loyalty from one language to another, but seeking in their adopted language some of the 'optional' grammatical features that differentiate it from the abandoned language. The much-discussed intro­ duction of a definite article into Latin, or common Romance, may indeed be an example of just such a process. If we are right in assuming that overt expression of definiteness is a marked option (as more languages lack it than possess it) then it follows that language learners will not choose this option unless there is some positive evidence in the data to which they are exposed, which leads them to do so.6 If, however, speakers adopting Latin are already familiar with a language (e.g. Greek) which does express definiteness overtly, then it is likely that they will recruit for this function an element of the adopted language (e.g. a demonstrative or identity pronoun). These speakers, presumably of a substandard sociolect, will then in their turn supply to new learners data which provide positive evidence for overt expression of definiteness. But is language-switching, or other language-contact processes, the only way in which *'parametric' language change can come about? As an example, let us examine the hypothesis that French differs from other Romance languages along the so-called 'Pro-Drop' parameter (cf. most recently Safir 1986). We will take it as read that in Modern Standard French there is always overt expression of the subject in tensed sentences,7 whereas in Italian and Spanish use of the subject pronoun is not obligatory.8 Textual evidence amply demonstrates that in older varieties of French overt expression of the subject was also not obligatory, and it is well known that prescriptive rules on this question were drawn up by grammarians in the 17th century. It may plausibly be suggested that the 'parametric change' that rendered expression of the this sort is related to the setting of parameters in the child's acquisition of language. We recall that the Rio Platense child will in all probability receive data from both 'dialects' during the acquisition process. 6 If however the Romance 'definite article' was originally introduced as a 'specificity' marker, which Bickerton (1984) suggests is part of a linguistic 'bioprogram', then it is possible to explain its introduction without recourse to the language-switching hypothesis. 7 On the other hand, the 'dummy subject' with impersonal verbs like il faut, il y a is often elided in popular usage. 8 Expression of the subject of the tensed verb appears to be obligatory in the Swiss Sursilvan dialect (where recent German influence is strongly felt) and is very frequent in Brazilian Portuguese. Many Northern Italian dialects have obligatory clitic subject pronouns (cf. Rizzi 1986 who claims these are inflexional and therefore are not overt expressions of the subject). All Romance creoles obligatorily express the subject with verb forms.

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subject obligatory occurred in spoken French, probably in the so-called Middle French period of the 14th or15thcentury. Concomitant with the change, but not necessarily causally linked with it, there was some merging of inflectional endings marking the person of the verb, giving rise to some possible ambiguity about the identity of the subject. It is hard to maintain that language contact had any hand in these changes.9 If however we assume, with Safir (1986:334), that overt expression of the subject is the unmarked option, we can take it that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the language learner should expect such expression to be obligatory. Safins postulation that a "single tensed sentence without a lexical subject" would be enough evidence to persuade the learner otherwise, is surely too strongly stated. More probably, the Middle French learner might have difficulty in discerning any clear pattern for personal pronoun usage, which earlier probably depended on a rhythmic pattern that must have radically changed in the Middle French period: the conclusion drawn may therefore be in favor of non-Pro-Drop, together with recognition of some idiosyncrasies of old-fashioned speech.10 The fixing of non-Pro-Drop as a distinguishing feature of Modern Standard French was, as I have said, associated with the conscious regulation of the language especially in the17thand18thcenturies. There is evidence in Canadian French, for instance - that the rule is still not consistently followed in non-standard varieties, which perpetuate some aspects of older stages of the language. However there can be little doubt that in this, as in other respects, Modern French differs from the language of medieval texts. Has there been a 'language change', in the sense I have adumbrated, or can Old and Modern French be regarded as variants of the same language? I would suggest that the adoption of non-Pro-Drop is one of the features that mark a definitive shift from one language to another. French in the early 9 Noam Chomsky in a lecture in London in April 1987 did suggest, in an off-the-cuff remark, that the change, which he thought dated back "300 years", might owe something to Gennan influence. There seems to be no evidence for such a suggestion, though it is of course possible that a non-literate French variety without Pro-Drop had been current from earliest times, surfacing in textual evidence first in the troubled period of the 14th century. 10 Nineteenth-century writers commented frequently on the non-Pro-Drop character of Modern French contrasting it with the Old French usage where the pronoun was 'unnecessary' because of the clear inflexional person marks (cf., for example, Raynouard 1821:30). Some commentators regretted the consequent loss of concision and vivacity (Sismondi 1813:128, Ampère 1841:180), whereas others praised the gain in clarity (Chevallet 1850.2:499). Diez (1844:45) points out that the 'accusative' pronoun (moi, toi, lui, eux) has to supplement the clitics which are almost mere 'form-words', whereas MeyerLübke (1894:97) suggests that for 'grammatically unschooled' Frenchmen the clitic pronouns are 'flexional elements'.

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modern period became a 'highly-focused' (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller 1985) language, so that the permitted range of variation was severely curtailed. Modern urban variants ousted archaic rural usage; clarity and unambiguous expression was stylistically favored over ellipsis and abbreviation. Where linguistic options were available, the choice of the social norm would be in the same direction: the language 'progressed'. Nonetheless, it remains a pos­ sibility that some subordinate social groups would retain their own identity by opting away from the prestigious norm, either maintaining more archaic usage or accommodating their usage to that of congenial neighboring communities.11 How far the abnormal usage of such recalcitrant groups can be regarded as a variant of the community language, rather than as forming a separate language will depend mainly on social criteria, though 'dialectometrical' measures of linguistic divergence (cf. Goebl 1987, Guiter 1987) can make more precise their relationship. How should we conclude? I have mentioned that 'German-style' Romance linguistics, for which change occurs primarily in the phonetic realization of linguistic elements, can account better for variation within one and the same language than for language change. Where a community 'changes' its language, it performs an act of social identity, perhaps adopting and adapting as a prestigious norm a particular variety, or perhaps adjusting aspects of different varieties with particular communicative ends in view. 'French-style' Romance linguistics in the 19th century continued the Enlightenment interest in 'language history' rather than in 'historical linguistics'. It did not, however, succeed in developing techniques for study of inter-language grammatical variation and change that could match the German-style account of intra-language phonological variation and change. The notion of 'parameter' developed in recent Chomskyan theory offers some possible insights into the question of how related languages can differ one from the other and how a language can be transformed into a distinctively different, though still similar, language, as a result of resetting of parameters in the course of language acquisition. The comparative study of the Romance languages is a privileged domain for the exploration of possible parametric inter-language variation, insofar as it is possible to isolate the comparatively few differentiating features among the many common traits. Most of the differentiating features have arisen in comparatively recent times, for which textual linguistic evidence is available. There is some hope therefore of being able to trace the way the features were 11 'For some instances of how different non-standard Romance dialects can share features absent from the related standards cf. Posner (1976).

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introduced into the languages, and to test the hypothesis that in the course of language acquisition a change of parameter setting was occasioned by certain shifts in the data available to the language learner. In this way, we may hope to revive the whole question of the possibility of language CHANGE12 (rather than language SUBSTITUTION), which suffered considerable setbacks under the impact of Saussurean structuralism.

REFERENCES Aarsleff, Hans. 1982. From Locke to Saussure. Essays on the Study of Language and Intellectual History. London: Athlone. Ampère, J.J. 1841. Histoire de la formation de la langue française. Paris: Didier. Andersen, Henning. 1973. "Abductive and deductive change". Language 49.567-593. Auroux, Sylvain. 1979. "La Querelle des lois phonétiques". Ling Inv 3.127. Bickerton, Derek. 1981. The Roots of Language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma. Bickerton, Derek. 1984. "The language bioprogram hypothesis". The Behavioural and Brain Sciences 7.173-221. Borer, Hagit. 1984. Parametric Syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. Chevallet, A. de. [1850] 1853-1857. Origine et formation de la langue française. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale. Diez, Friedrich. 1820a. Review of Raynouard (1816). Heidelberg Jahrbuch derLitteratur 1820.675-684. Diez, Friedrich. 1820b. Die Poesie der Troubadours. Zwickau: Schumann. Diez, Friedrich. 1836-1844. Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen, 3 vols. Bonn: Weber. Du Méril, Edélestand. 1852. Essai philosophique sur la formation de la langue française. Paris: Franck. Fauriel, Claude Charles. 1854. Dante et les origines de la langue et de la littérature italiennes. Paris: Durand. Goebl, Hans. 1987, "Points chauds de l'analyse dialectométrique: pondération et visualisation". RLiR 51.63-118. Guiter, Henri. 1987. "Etalonnage d'une méthode géolinguistique". RLiR 51.55-62. Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. 1986. "'Un souffle d'Allemagne ayant passé': Friedrich Diez, Gaston Paris and the genesis of national philologies". RPh 40.1-37. Harris, Roy. 1977. On the Possibility of Linguistic Change. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 12

On this question cf. Harris (1979).

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Jaeggli, Oswaldo. 1982. Topics in Romance Syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. Le Page, Robert B. & Andrée Tabouret-Keller. 1985. Acts of Identity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewis, George Cornwall. 1835. An Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages. Oxford: Tallboys. Lloyd, Paul M. 1979. "On the definition of 'Vulgar Latin': the eternal return". NM 80.110-122. Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1890-1902. Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. Leipzig: Fues (Reisland). Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1901. Einführung in das Studium der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft. Heidelberg: Winter. Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1906. Die Ziele der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft Vienna: Holzhausen. Popper, Karl. 1957. The Poverty of Historicism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Posner, Rebecca. 1976. "The relevance of comparative and historical data for the description and definition of a language". YPL 6.75-87. Posner, Rebecca. 1986. "La créolisation - alteration typologique?" Etudes créoles 9.127-134. Posner, Rebecca. 1987. "Creolization and Romance syntactic change". Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics ed. by Anna Giacalone Ramat, Onofrio Carruba & Giuliano Bernini, 473481. (= Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 48.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Posner, Rebecca. Forthcoming a. "Histoire de la grammaire comparée romane". Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Posner, Rebecca. Forthcoming b. "Entre Raynouard et Diez: Sir George Cornwall Lewis". Paper given at the XVIIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes, Trier, 1986. Posner, Rebecca. Forthcoming c. "Theories of linguistic change in 19th century Romance comparative studies". Raynouard, François-Juste-Marie. 1816. Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours. I: Grammaire romane ou Grammaire de la langue des troubadours. Paris: Firmin Didot. Raynouard, François-Juste-Marie. 1818. Review of Schlegel (1818). Journal des Savans 1818.586-593. Raynouard, François-Juste-Marie. 1821. Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours. VI: Grammaire comparée des langues de YEurope latine. Paris: Firmin Didot. Raynouard, François-Juste-Marie. 1836. Influence de la langue romane rustique sur les langues de l'Europe latine. Paris: Crapelet. Reill, Peter H. 1976. "Philology, culture and politics in early nineteenth century Germany". Friedrich Diez Centennial Lectures. Supplement to RPh 30.18-29. Rizzi, Luigi. 1982. Issues in Italian Syntax. Dordrecht: Foris.

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Rizzi, Luigi. 1986. "On the status of subject clitics in Romance". Studies in Romance Linguistics ed. by Oswaldo Jaeggli & Carmen Silva-Corvalán, 391-419. Dordrecht: Foris. Safir, Ken. 1986. "Subject clitics and the NOM-Drop parameter". Syntax and Semantics 19.333-356. Schlegel, August Wilhelm. 1818. Observations sur la langue et la littérature provençales. Paris: Librairie grecque-latine-allemande. Sismondi, J.C.L. Simonde de. 1813. De la littérature du midi de l'Europe. Paris: Treuttel et Würtz. Trabant, Jürgen. Forthcoming. "Entre Raynouard et Diez: Humboldt romaniste". Paper for the XVIIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes, Trier, 1986. Wey, Francis. 1848. Histoire des révolutions du langage en France. Paris: Firmin Didot.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL CHANGE IN WORD FORMATION AMANDA V. POUNDER Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 0.

Introduction.

The diachronic dimension of word-formation systems is highly complex due, among other things, to interaction between the word-formation subcomponent and other components of grammar, in particular the lexicon. However, there is no justification for the common dismissal of word formation as synchronically and diachronically chaotic. The development of wordformation systems can and should be investigated methodically. For example, more clarity can be achieved by distinguishing local change - events occurring on the level of the individual word formation and word-formation paradigm and global change - events occurring on the level of the word-formation rule, operation, and process. Essential to the interpretation of events in diachronic description is recognition of the fact that global and local change are subject to different conditions and are thus separate although mutually dependent phenomena. 1.

Productivity.

The concept of productivity has long been central to synchronic and diachronic description of word formation. Here is not the place to provide yet another definition or an extensive discussion of the relevant literature; the following points must suffice. Productivity in word formation is: (a) (b) (c) (d)

a property of a morphological operation; gradable and relative; dynamic; relevant to (i) synchrony and (ii) diachrony.

Point (a) contains the notion 'morphological operation', which can be informally characterized as containing a form rule and a semantic rule. The import of this point is that affixes, paradigms, words and other morphological or lexical units cannot be said to possess this property, and hence that

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expressions such as 'productive affix' are meaningless. The characterization of productivity as a property implies that in one sense at least, it is absolute: an operation is either productive or non-productive at a given point in time. Concerning point (b), in another sense, of course, productivity is relative in that given a morphological system with more than one operation with similar potential applicability, one will be more productive than another. Indeed, the only meaningful way of measuring productivity seems to be through comparison. This leads to the extremely difficult question of how to measure productivity in any concrete sense, which I shall return to presently. Concerning point (c), the opposition dynamic vs. static corresponds to points (a) and (b) above. Dynamicity is relevant to operations, that is, to the word-formation act itself. The static dimension corresponds to the inter- and intraparadigmatic relationships between lexical units (stems and complex units, complex units amongst themselves), and is only indirectly related to productivity. Concerning point (d), it is the synchronic aspect of productivity that has received the most attention in recent years. However, at least as important as the productivity of operations at a given moment in a given system are the gains and losses of these operations relative to each other; neglect of the diachronic dimension can lead to incomplete understanding of the synchronic. For example, consider the question of the relationship between 'restrictions' on operations or the size of the domain (scope) of operations and the degree of their productivity. It has repeatedly been suggested (cf., for instance, Booij 1977:120ff., Schupbach 1984) that the scope of an operation should be a measure of or even defined as equivalent to the degree of its productivity. It is not to be denied that there does appear to be a connection between high(er) productivity and large domains (= few restrictions). However, that this cannot be equated with productivity in any absolute way is shown by the existence of other relations. For example, an operation can be quantitatively very productive in that it produces many words within a very limited range; other examples of operations do not appear to play any part in active word formation in spite of their broad domain (e.g., the set of operations affixing -sam in modern and earlier stages of German). A more reliable indicator of productivity is the diachronic observation that the domain of applicability of an operation is being expanded or reduced. As well, the actual rise or drop in the frequency of word-formation acts must not be neglected. Productivity itself might be informally characterized as the probability that a given operation be applied to a stem of type Τ in subsystem S of the language L at a time Z. The question remains, as to how the domain of an operation and how changes in the domain may be determined.

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413

Domain definition and diachrony.

The definition of the domain of a word-formation operation provides at the same time the basis for comparison with other operations and the potential loci for language change on the systemic level. Such a definition contains the following: -

The 'syntactics' of the operation (a) stem conditions - phonological (e.g., final phoneme (class), lexicophonological class, number of syllables) - morphological (e.g., morphologically complex, compound) - lexical (e.g., (i) semantically/pragmatically determined lexical class (e.g., animal designations, activity designations); (ii) foreign, native; (iii) gender, class, etc.) (b) conditions on the operation itself - terminality of the operation (i.e., if another operation can be applied to the result) - recursivity - morphophonological processes at boundaries (secondary formal word-formation rules)

Also relevant are the domains of the corresponding formal and semantic rules and of the formal rule elements themselves (affixes, etc.): -

Rule element (a) number of operations containing it1 (b) (morpho)phonologically or lexically conditioned variants

- Form rules and semantic rules (a) number of semanticruilesco-occurring with a given form rule (b) number of formal rules co-occurring with a given semantic rule, both of these to be calculated over the whole (sub)system and within the lexical class. Incidentally, the number and variety of criteria in this minimal list 1

Each combination of form and semantic rule corresponding to one syntactic rule (e.g. Verb→Adjective, Verb→Verb, Noun → Verb) is considered a separate operation.

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indicate that more than an approximate comparison of two operations is very difficult, as one may be more 'tolerant' regarding phonological stem criteria, while the other occurs in more lexical classes, etc. This is evidence for the probably unwelcome conclusion that productivity is an informal property incapable of quantification. Besides a comparison of two or more operations in every point, it is of course necessary to compare these values to the "system-defining properties" (cf. Wurzel 1984; cf. "kanonische Erwartungen" in Pounder 1987), i.e. to that which is 'normal' in the particular subsystem of the language in question, for example, the normality of morphophonological processes accompanying the formal operation, operations containing native elements applying to foreign stems and vice versa, and the normality of variants in the formal rule element. Here the unavoidable circularity in the system definition becomes apparent. These properties are determined on the basis of all existing relations on lower structural levels in the system; these relations are then measured against the system-defining properties. On the level of system-defining properties there can be observed expansions and reductions of the scope of a given operation, of general stem conditions (i.e. for the set of all operations), of the normality of morphophonological processes and of sets of operations 'assigned' to lexical classes. These are all examples of global or systemic change. Changes in the relative productivities of operations are changes - on a minute scale - in the whole subsystem. If the productivity of an operation increases in a 'new' domain, i.e. one not corresponding to the relevant system-defining properties (for example, a 'foreign' operation on a native stem or vice versa), a new system definition may be in order with far-reaching results. This implies a transition from 'abnormal' formations in the first stages of expansion (subject to conservative normative activity) to acceptability. It is probably impossible to define precisely the number of operations necessary to allow reanalysis of the system leading to new defining properties. Returning to the question of operations with intersecting domains in a word-formation (sub)system, both productive in the absolute sense, a change in their relations might take place according to a scenario such as the following (please note that the change is by no means necessary, that is, the intersecting domain alone is by no means a sufficient antecedent condition for change). Operation A has the wider domain; operation  begins to gain in productivity. As a result of increased formation activity, an analogic extension of the domain takes place, probably quite independently of A, at least at first. This extension will likely include pragmatically/semantically determined lexical classes, morphological structure classes or the like. Growth is often to be observed in

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several directions. It is more difficult to chart the progress of a slackening or reduction of productivity of an operation. Such a reduction is usually supposed to be the result of the operation's insufficiency in some way or of its overproductivity (cf., for instance, Schupbach 1984:40, 48), whereby this insufficiency is resolved by homeostatic-teleological compensation through the 'new' operation B. Similar catastrophe theories are to be found, e.g., in Gawelko (1977:83ff=), who speaks of productivity cycles in which an operation necessarily passes through the stages of minimal - maximal - zero productivity, whereby other operations in the system merely interfere with its inevitable downfall. Such 'explanations' do not seem very plausible, aside from all logical objections towards teleological explanations; moreover, they cannot be supported by data in microinvestigation. Any reduced productivity of Operation A is more probably a byproduct of the expansion of Operation  (indirect causality). Other possible paths of development include the 'zero path', that is, two productive operations in the same domain, or expansions and reductions of both domains whereby the remainder is well defined (partial specialization), etc. The whole development is a complex chain of microevents, containing innumerable points of potential branching. Each turn of events is dependent on many factors, including the aforementioned system-defining properties on lower structural levels, but most importantly on the lexical/morphological constellation of the word-formation paradigm.2 These include such system-defining properties as: - size of the paradigm (number of branches from the same stem with the same syntactic rule, e.g., Verb → Adjective); - complexity of the paradigm (number of secondary branching nodes) ; - form-meaning relationships, such as: (a) word-formation synonymy (two or more paradigm members with at least one common semantic rule); (b) word-formation polysemy (a paradigm member formed with two or more semantic rules); - (typical, regular) correspondences between formal and semantic rules. These relationships are extremely important, as they are decisive for the fate of the relevant word-formation operations. If, for example, wordformation synonymy is 'normal' (in the (sub)system, in the given lexical class), then it is less probable that Operation A will be 'squeezed out' by an increasingly productive B. Thus it can be affirmed that a 'Blocking Principle' à la Aronoff cannot be considered a universal systemic law. 2

For definition and illustration of word-formation paradigms see Pounder (1977) and Pounder (Forthcoming).

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These points serve, on one hand, to limit the extent to which the domain of an operation may expand and, partially at least, to determine the direction of this expansion. On the other hand, in the case of (at least) one rapidly expanding or diminishing domain, a corresponding change in paradigm-related system-defining properties may take place. Thus, there exists a spiraling cause and effect relationship between the typical paradigm and other system levels, parallel to the operation-related properties. These systemic properties must, however, be seen as an abstraction, that is, a summation or generalization of all existing paradigms, operations, processes, etc. The chain of microevents in morphological change is dependent on the prevailing system-defining properties which form a framework for possible change. In the case of expansion and reduction, events can occur outside these boundaries so that the possibility of new properties arises. A hypothesis may be proposed stating that systemic global change is inherently deterministically caused, even though the historic chain is so intricate that prediction is practically very difficult, so that post hoc interpretation is usually substituted for it (reconstruction of the relevant microevents is difficult enough!). 3.

Systemic and non-systemic local change.

The now often-mentioned microevents make up a part of what is here meant by 'local change' and consist of the following types: (a) word-formation acts (formation of one word by means of a wordformation operation); (b) cognitive operations (all operations leading to analogical extension and reanalysis). Both of these may lead to reanalysis of formal and/or semantic relations in the paradigm and restructuration of form-meaning correspondences of motivation in the paradigm. It should be possible to determine the sufficient antecedent conditions for such events. It may be assumed that not immediately predictable events of this type - the exact moment of a word-formation act, reanalysis of a particular complex form - are subject to paradigm-specific conditions, so that these events (or non-events such as the non-existence of a particular word-form) do not need to be explained with reference exclusively to higher-level system properties. This means among other things that there is no such thing as

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'gaps' in productive operations or in word-formation paradigms.3 It should be emphasized that two different sorts of causality are involved here: systemic and independent or extralinguistic causality. The relevance of the individual word-formation act to productivity can be described as follows: every word-formation act by means of a productive operation serves to reinforce this productivity by adding to the body of candidate stems. Thus minute increases in productivity are minute changes in the balance between different operations in the system. On the other hand, word formation by non-productive operations is still possible (this belongs to the realm of morphological creativity; cf. van Marie 1985, Pounder 1987:542ff.), but does not affect the system or the mentioned balance in the same way. In this respect as well, productivity is always diachronic (cf. Section 1). There is yet another type of microevent: change excusively on the nonsystemic level (where system = word-formation system). Points of change include: - elements of lexical meaning (regular or circumstantial); - lexical semantic relations between paradigm members, such as lexical synonymy, lexical polysemy; - stylistic, emotional-expressive, regional, frequential, or other types of markedness. All of these types of element may be tied to one or more operation or paradigm member. Here, parallel to systemic (word-formation) levels, loss and gain of features may be observed. These events differ from the preceding in that they are dependent on the individual paradigm, but not necessarily on the subsystem. Separation of lexical aspects of paradigm members from wordformation aspects prevents systematic features of a 'lexicalized' word from being ignored (cf. the frequent ploy of declaring all nuisance examples as lexicalized so as to avoid having to account for them). Here also important phenomena, such as the 'Blocking Principle' and functional splits, should be situated as paradigmatic relations that do NOT extend beyond the single paradigm (as opposed to systemic relations). By functional split is meant the situation in which an original or potential synonymy in the paradigm is fully or partly resolved into a one-to-one

3

A word-formation paradigm is, as opposed to an inflectional paradigm, an open system, so that the expressions 'defective word-formation paadigm, and 'paradigmatic gap' have no meaning.

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correspondence between meaning and form. The following types are all common: (a) original/potential word-formation synonymy and polysemy → one form rule to one semantic rule; (b) the above synonymy with or without polysemy AND lexical synonymy and polysemy → differentiation on the lexical level; (c) word formation and lexical synonymy with or without polysemy → differentiation through stylistic or other marking of one or more participan(s) in the relation. Again, it must be stressed that such changes cannot be systemic and must not be attributed to systemic insufficiency, need for economy or other functionalisic principles. They originate rather in a universal norm, related to normative consciousness, which is the object of interest in natural language theories. Unequivocal form-meaning correspondences are by no means necessary for efficient communication, as can be seen in the fact that natural languages are full of synonymy and polysemy. Potential ambiguities are regularly resolved in the spoken chain. States of differentiation such as the above are in addition unstable: analogic processes often cause synonymy and polysemy among paradigm members as well as transfer of stylistic features. Events in the chains (a), (b) and (c) above are principally unpredictable, as is the direction or manner of the event, especially where non-systemic elements are concerned (e.g., which element of lexical meaning will serve to differentiate the paradigm members in question). The following hypothesis may be proposed: the kind of change described here is principally different from systemic change. Polyvalent relations are not causal in the sense of their being necessarily resolved by monovalent states. Further, events of this nature are irrelevant to productivity and irrelevant to the development of wordformation (sub)systems. The preceding may be summed up in the following hypotheses: (a) global change is systemic change; (b) local change is of two types, systemic and non-systemic; (c) there exists a circular causality between the system-defining properties on higher structural levels (process, operation, rule) and microevents of the systemic type. This is not the case with microevents of the non-systemic type.

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4. Example: the development of a subset of the German deri­ vational system. In order to render the foregoing more concrete, I shall examine some of the circumstances surrounding the fate of two operations in the German derivational system. The general domain is desubstantival adjective derivation from native stems. 4.1. Phase I: 1550-1750. A study of approximately 1300 paradigms permitted the identification of the following system-defining properties: - Derivation is a very active process among compounding, participle formation, serial compounding (e.g., with elements such as -mäßiig, -ähnlich, -reich, -artig); it is the foremost process for many wordformation meanings in different lexical classes; - The subsystem contains many operations, with a total of eight different form rules (i.e. eight suffixes not counting complex variants such as -enhaft, -erlich corresponding to -haft, -lich ). 4.1.1. System-defining properties for word-formation para­ digms. - Large paradigms are normal, especially in abstract lexical classes (over two branches). - Complexity is normal (embedding), e.g tugendhaft, tugendhaftig "vir­ tuous"; fruchtbar, fruchtbarlich "fruitful, fertile". - Word formation synonymy and polysemy are normal. - Variants are normal (phonological, morphological), absence or presence of secondary form rules such as Umlaut, ge- prefixation, e.g. saftig, säftig "juicy"; geschmackicht, schmackicht "tasty". 4.1.2. -icbt. The domain of the set of operations containing the form rule with the rale element -icht is as follows: - It is represented in all pragmatically-semantically determined lexical classes; it is very frequent, especially in concrete classes where it always involves primary operations; it is very often the only paradigm member; - It appears in cumulative series (e.g., DORN-, dornicht - dornichtig "thorny".

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The form rule is combined with at least five semantic rules and is the most frequent partner for all of these in the concrete classes. It is frequent with "WITH"(e.g., geschmackicht), the quantitatively most important meaning overall, in the abstract classes. Formal rule element: -icht has several variants, e.g. -echt, -acht, -et; there are regional tendencies here, but in general these are free variants, not lexically (paradigmatically) fixed. Paradigm: word-formation synonymy with other members is normal (occurs frequently with operations with -haft, -ig, -en ); word-formation polysemy is frequent, depending on lexical class. 4 . 1 . 3 - -ig. The domain of the set of operations containing the form rule with the rule element -ig is as follows: - It is represented in almost all lexical classes; it is a relatively important set of operations, especially in abstract classes where it is one of the two or three most frequent; it plays a very subordinate role to operations with -icht in concrete classes, although taking second place; it is seldom the only paradigm member in concrete classes; - It appears in cumulative series (e.g., SÜND-, sündig - sündiglich "sinful". There are not as many operations with -ig, as the set of semantic rules co-occurring with the form rule is smaller; it is most frequent with "LIKE" (beumig "treelike") and "WITH" in particular. Formal rule element: the suffix -ig has no longer any formal variants. Paradigm: word-formation synonymy is normal; word-formation polysemy is rare in comparison with formations containing other suffixes. 4 . 2 . Phase II: 1750-19th century. A study of the systemdefining properties of the derivational subsystem under discussion allows the following comparison: - Derivation is still a very active process; however, compounding and serial compounding are becoming increasingly productive, especially in the concrete classes where they are in some places replacing derivation as the primary process; contemporary grammarians frequently express

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preference for another process or remark on its higher frequency in individual paradigms; this is very dependent on lexical class; - The number of operations in the system is unchanged, although some are becoming less normal in some classes (relatively unproductive in Phase I already). 4.2.1. System-defining properties for paradigms. - Paradigms are becoming smaller (the number of large paradigms is decreasing); paradigms with only one member are the rule in most concrete classes; paradigms with one or two members are normal in abstract classes. - Paradigms are becoming formally less complex: reduction of embedding at first in concrete classes, more slowly in abstract classes. - Word formation synonymy is becoming rarer; there are occasional examples of semantic differentiation on the word-formation level, accompanied by reduction of polysemy. - Variants of all kinds are less normal (they disappear very gradually; one variant or another becomes lexicallyfixedwithout there being any marked preference for a given type; intraparadigmatic relations determine whether the form with the ge- prefix or the Umlaut goes or stays). 4.2.2. -icht. The following changes in the domain of the set of operations with theruleelement -icht have occurred: - It has a new distribution: operations are still well represented in concrete classes, although taking second place to operations with -ig; they are no longer normal in abstract classes. The number of operations in the set is dwindling as certain semantic rules tend to be restricted with other processes. However, the most important rules, "LIKE" and "WITH", combine to form productive operations. Formal rule element: variants are no longer normal; some persist regionally. Paradigm: in general, word-formation synonymy is present, especially when a paradigm contains an operation with -ig; polysemy is also normal. 4.2.3. -ig. The following changes in the domain of the set of operations with the rule element -ig have occurred:

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- It has a new distribution: there is a remarkable increase of productivity in concrete classes; it is stable in abstract classes. The form rule is becoming more flexible, as combinations with "LIKE" are more common than before. Paradigm: in general, word-formation synonymy is present, depending on lexical class and paradigm structure, namely when formation with -icht is present. 4 . 2 . 4 . In Phase II there is an ever-increasing number of paradigms in the concrete classes containing productive operations with -icht and -ig; in fact, their domains in these classes are approaching identity. Essential for the following development is a point at which the two operations are equivalent in scope and productivity. A possible direction of change might be a systematized functional split in the concrete classes, meaning that one formal rule would be paired with "WITH" the other with "LIKE", thus reducing the total number of operations. Such a split was even explicitly championed by such normative grammarians as Adelung (around 1800). However, circumstances seem to oppose such a development; not every lexical class allows such a nice split between the two semantic rules (e.g., the large class of 'landscape' designations such as WALD- "forest", BERG- "mountain, hill"), in which the primary rule is definitely "WITH". In addition, the fact that the rule with -icht was so productively matched with "WITH" is not favorable to an elimination of such a combination. A much different development took place, with drastic consequences for the set of operations with -icht The identical combinatorics of the respective operations allowed a reanalysis of the rule element -icht, now made susceptible through the loss of its variants, as a variant of -ig, i.e. as -(ig + t). This reanalysis has a parallel in the deadjectival adjective derivation system: the complex variant -elicht was reanalysed as -(1 + icht ). As part of the general tendency to eliminate paradigmatic variation and variation of the rule element, the 'variant' -icht gradually disappeared from the concrete classes as well. This served in addition to support the general reduction in the size of paradigms. As well, the productivity of the set of operations with -ig was increased even more. The actual elimination of -icht formations in the concrete classes took place very gradually, paradigm by paradigm. They survived longer in the spoken language. In the Modern German language, the set of operations with -ig are by far the most productive - and are indeed in some classes practically the only

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ones (landscape designations, for example). There are no remnants in the standard language of the once so productive operations with -icht The study of a total of almost 4,000 paradigms from about 1,300 stems confirmed that each such constellation has its own history. The manner of conforming to new system-defining properties is in each case different. A striking example of this is to be found in the typical paradigm structures: each lexical class manifests a subset of all possible/typical structures (= operations contained in a paradigm). A subset of this in turn represents the systemdefining properties for the class. In many classes changes in these structures can be observed: new frequent types come into being (through paradigm reduction, new formation, through newly productive operations, etc.); others fall away. This is easy to calculate statistically, but on the basis of the available data it is often impossible to predict that in a certain class (e.g., designations of 'emotional state') paradigmatic structures containing-igoperations are typical (e.g., stem + -ig; + -lich), it may still very well occur that a reduction from a larger structure will eliminate the -ig- formation, leaving a less productive operation (e.g., MÜH-, originally with mühig, mühsam, mühlich ; in Phase II not mühsam but mühig has disappeared ("with trouble, pains")). Typically, representatives of the primary types have several sources. Given a particular paradigm structure in Phase I, it is not immediately apparent how many members will 'survive' and which these will be. Similarly, it is not predictable which derivational paradigms will be eliminated in favor of other processes. Lack of space prevents me from presenting the interesting studies of Gawelko (for French), Vinogradov et al., and Mal'ceva (for Russian) in detail. These researchers reported very similar patterns of development. The lexical class seemed to play the primary role evidenced in the German subsystem as well. A comparative study would certainly be of interest, as the antecedent situation described here as Phase I resembles that in earlier stages of Russian and French. The following period was characterized in all three cases by similar extra-linguistic characteristics not yet mentioned here, such as intensive normative activity, and the development of modern written and spoken standards. The very different outcomes illustrate the numerous potential branchings of historical causal chains. 5.

Conclusion.

A systematic investigation of a word-formation system requires a rigorously observed separation of local from global developments and systemic local from non-systemic local developments. Only in this way can

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the interaction between lower- and higher-level structural changes be accurately captured. The example given of changing productivities was meant to illustrate such an interaction. The complex role of the lexicon also becomes apparent: the lexical class seems to be a major structural category, acting much as an inflectional class paradigm does; on non-systemic local levels, relationships between form and lexical meaning add another dimension to the wordformation paradigm and are as much a part of it. Isolation and identification of microevents of all kinds are necessary in order to determine sufficient antecedent conditions for change and to make prediction possible. REFERENCES Booij, G. 1977. Dutch Morphology. A Study of Word-Formation in Generative Grammar. Amsterdam: de Ridder. Gawełko, M. 1977. Evolution des suffixes adjectivaux en français. Wroclaw: Akademia Nauk. Mal'ceva, LM. 1966. "Iz nabljudenij nad slovoobrazovaniem v jazyke ΧνΠI-ogo veka (na materiale odnokorennyx parallelej -ost', -stvo, i -ost', -ie)". Process formirovanija leksiki russkogo literaturnogo jazyka (ot Kantemira do Karamzina) ed. by Ju.S. Sorokin, 259-264. Moscow: Nauka, van Marie, J. 1985. On the Paradigmatic Dimension of Morphological Creativity. Dordrecht: Foris. Pounder, A. 1987. Systemangemessenheit in der Wortbildung am Beispiel desubstantivischer Adjektivableitung im Deutschen. Unpublished thesis. University of Vienna. [English translation in preparation.] Pounder A. Forthcoming. "The semantic organization of word-formation paradigms and diachrony". International Conference on WordFormation. Veszprém, 1986. Schupbach, R. 1984. Lexical Specialization in Russian. Columbus: Slavica. Vinogradov, V.V., ed. Izmenenija v slovoobrazovanii i formax suščstvitel'nogo i prilagateVnogo v russkom literaturnom jazyke XIX-ogo veka. Moscow: Nauka. Wurzel, W. 1984. Flexionsmorphologie und Natürlichkeit Ein Beitrag zur morphologischen Theoriebildung. Berlin: Akademieverlag.

GERMANIC VERSCHÄRFUNG: TYING UP LOOSE ENDS JENS ELMEGÅRD RASMUSSEN University of Copenhagen

0. The Germanic Verschärfung problem, i.e. the question of the IndoEuropean background of the Proto-Germanic geminate glides /jj / and /ww/ which assumed occlusion in Gothic and Norse (giving thereby Gothic ddj / ggw, Norse ggj / ggv) while reflected in West Germanic as diphthong + j or w, is now clear beyond any reasonable doubt. Following preliminary laryngeal work by Smith, Jr., 1 Lehmann 2 and Lindeman, 3 and a happy 1

Smith, Jr. (1941). Lehmann (1952:36-46), with the rule on page 46 "PGmc. -w- was lengthened after any short vowel when reflex of a laryngeal followed -w-; PGmc. -j- was lengthened after i when reflex of a laryngeal followed - j - , and after a when reflex of a laryngeal preceded or followed - j - * (repeated in Lehmann 1965:215). Lehmann's examples of "aXy" > /jj/ are: (a) Crim.Goth. ada : Lat. ōvum; (b) Goth. daddjan; (c) OHG hei "dry" : Lith. kaistù "become hot"; (d) MHG heie "hammer" : Lat. caedõ; (e) ON skeggja; (f) OSwed. prægge "covering" : Skt. Lat. intrūre; (g) Goth. twaddje genitive of "two". Items (b) and (e) are shown below (Sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.3) to contain two ƒ s from of old; (g) has had * -, not *■ cf. footnote 4 below. The same goes for (c) and (d) (the a-vocalism of caedõ does not prove laryngeal, preceding or otherwise, *' and * being simply different 'root extensions'. For these and item (a) see the list of material in the Appendix; for prægge the etymology may be called in question (Proto-Norse /, may also be from PGmc. but this does not appear to offer a plausible connection either). 3 L i n d e m a n 1964. Lindeman's rules may be paraphrased like this: (a) normal development: (b) emphatic development: already in the Indo-European protolanguage (perhaps only extra-Anatolian). Thus, Verschärfung "n'était possible que par la présence d'un élément expressif assez fort. On a donc affaire ici à une création expressive " (Lindeman 1964:182). The expressive force could be lost, so that its absence in the specific examples ("egg", "suckle", "of two", "wall", "build", "dew", etc.) "ne présente par conséquent pas d'objections sérieuses contre notre hypothèse" (Lindeman 1964:183). Even granting that this could be so (and it is not easy to disprove that a thing that is not there has been lost), one would have to insist that the idea completely neutralizes the probative force of any observations we can make. This hypothesis will therefore have to be kept in mind as the last resort to be appealed to only if nothing else proves to work. 2

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observation by Karl Hoffmann, 4 Jay Jasanoff was able to spell out the development in detail a decade ago: IE i- and u- diphthongs followed by ) lost the laryngeals and laryngeals (i.e. sequences of the structure aįha, filled the resulting hiatus with a replica of the preceding semivowel, i.e. (Jasanoff 1978). Jasanoff was able to prove his point by detailed analyses of practically all the etymologically transparent words that present Verschärfung. Let me just illustrate the idea with such well-known items as: (1) Goth. -waddjus, ON veggr "wall" from PGmc. *wajj-u-/*wajj-a-, in origin a root noun meaning "wickerwork", from the root "to twist" and so obviously reflecting a Proto-Indo-European word-stem with accusative singular which developed through pre-Gmc. > *wajju-.5 (2) ON hqggva, Ger. hauen, identical with OCS k o v q "I strike", originally containing a root-final laryngeal as seen, among others, from -e/o- > pre-Gmc. * e/athe Lith. infinitive káuti "to forge": IE * > *haww-i/a-. The bulk of the material complies with this interpretation, and one could perhaps put the matter aside as one of those chapters in historical linguistics where a definitive solution has indeed been found and move on to something else. The reason why I still want to highlight this piece of G e r m a n i c phonological history is that I think a number of loose ends still remain to be tied up. I shall try to show that Jasanoff s rule, though as certain as anything we know for sure, needs some restriction. I shall also try to demonstrate that our general knowledge of the diversification of Proto-Germanic demands that we imagine the phonetic side of Verschärfung in a fashion which I believe most scholars will find surprising. I shall group my observations into a few meaningful categories.

4

Hoffmann (1976:651), note 2 on the genitive and locative dual morphemes: if RV G/L.du. hánuoh (hánu- "jaw") and Gãthic Avest. h "of the two existences" (ahu- ) are both trisyllabic, the case ending must have had an initial laryngeal which may in turn explain Goth, twaddje "of two" as being from *< - + analogical genitive plural ending. Repeated by Lühr (1977:73) and Jasanoff (1978:83f.). On the amendment I deem necessary for the desinential segment, see the Appendix. 5 On the morphological analysis see Jasanoff (1978:84); cf. also OE wag, nominative plural with consonant-stem inflection pointing to nominative plural

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1. First, there are some cases where Verschärfung is predicted by the rule but fails to appear. These may be subdivided into three groups. 1.1. There is no gemination after a vowel which was unstressed in Proto-Germanic, i.e. after non-first vowel. This is seen from the Goth. 1st (Ved. bháreyam, singular optative bair, ON bera, from IE type seen in Arcadian Gk. exelaúnoia ) which apparently did not give a Germanic form ending in -ajju, which would have been Goth. **bairaddju, ON **berugg, but instead shows the normal reflex of a SINGLE intervocalic /į/. Even if this is the only safe example I have been able to find (cf., however, Section 1.3.6 below), it seems very reasonable in view of the very strong reductions of Germanic vocalism outside the root syllable that the gemination rule should be given the restriction that it only applies after the first vowel of the word. This in turn rather obviously means that Verschärfung wasfinallyprocessed in a linguistic state that already had thefixedinitial stress of Germanic as we know it. 1.2. The adjective raw, OE hréaw, OSax. hrāo, ON hrár, mostly taken to represent PGmc. *hrawaz, has been utilized by Beekes6 to refute the laryngeal interpretation of Verschärfung. The word is obviously derived from all the word for "blood in wounds", Avest. xrū-, MIr. crú, Slovene "blood") from *krū-, older *kruh2-, the weak alternant of an old root noun The laryngeal is proved by the s- stem (Ved. krávis-, Gk. kréas ) "meat", and a reconstruction involving a segment * seems inescapable. Beekes posits *krouh2o-s and sees in the product *hrawaz a proof of the non-validity of some of Lehmann's and Lindeman's rules. However, the Finnish loanword raaka "raw" has a long /a/ and appears to have been borrowed from a Northwest Germanic form with a from PGmc. e the Indo-European protoform being then *kreuh2-o-s which I would take to be a vrddhi adjective "bloody" derived from the noun *kreuh2-/*kruh2"blood" with which the word is justly connected by everybody.8 It is now interesting to note that Jasanoff himself (1978:84) cites Finn, nevä "fresh (of food)", a very old borrowing from Gmc. *hrēwa- taken over before the 6

Beekes(1972). As strongly suggested by the series xrū : crú : the generalization of the zerograde form of the "weak" cases was carried out in pre-Proto-Indo-European times already. 8 If the paradigm of "blood" itself did not contain any full-grade forms in Proto-IndoEuropean (see footnote 7), the vrddhi adjective which is plainly based on the alternant must have been formed in pre-Proto-Indo-European times also. This is of some interest since vrddhi derivatives are productive in many branches of Indo-European. 7

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food)", a very old borrowing from Gmc. *hrēwa- taken over before the change of ë to ā, in which he claims that it was precisely the vowel length that caused the lack of gemination of the-w- which was then, according to Jasanoff, transferred to *hraw-a-. However, the semantic near-identity and the obvious status of "bloody, raw" as a vrddhi derivative from "blood" make it almost certain that rievä and raaka are in reality two stages of the development of the very same word borrowed by Finnish in different periods and in two different specializations within its semantic range, the renewed borrowing being quite possibly facilitated by a semantic change within Finnish whereby rievä ceased to be synonymous with the adjective "raw" of the Germanic neighbors. We see, then, that Verschärfung did not fail to arise after a long vowel, for t h e / k / of raaka can hardly be anything other than a rendering of the velar increment that arose in the Germanic glide gemination (cf. especially the weak alternant, e.g. genitive singular raa'an from *raa a-η); it appears, then, that this velarization only arose after the stage reflected by rievä had been left. We see here the first indication of the logical counterpart of Verschärfung, which I shall call ENTSCHÄRFUNG, i.e. the obliteration of the velarization produced by the gemination. Even so, Jasanoff is certainly right in his observation that "in descriptive terms, Verschärfung after long vowels is simply not encountered" (1978:84), and it is a mark of the high quality of his paper that it contains not only the discovery of an important regularity, but also points out one of its main restrictions. I would like to add a few extra indications of this constraint: 1.2.1. Thus, Ger. sprühen and MHG spræwen which reflect ProtoGermanic long vocalisms, *sprōw-ia-/*sprēw-ia-, do not present the diphthong + /w/ structure of the etymologically related word Spreu, OHG spriu, genitive spriuwes, which has a short vowel. 1.2.2. Also Ger. glühen and ON glóa reflect *glōw-ia- and *glōw-afrom a lengthened-grade verb, causative-iterative * e-, base verb -e/o-, without Verschärfung as against the short-vowel probably *g h l adjective *ghlouh-o-s with regular sharpened reflexes in ON gloggr "clear", Goth. glaggwo "carefully". 1.3. A number of examples present pseudo-problems for Germanic in not exhibiting the reflex of a laryngeal simply because the latter had been lost by regular development before the time of the glide gemination.

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several interpretations. If the suffix is *- ο-, the protoform may have been either *ka h- o- or *ko h- o- in which, one might argue, the sequence *- h~ was not antevocalic. However, Sievers' Law would then be expected to change *- o- into *-io- after a long syllable so that the problem would arise anew. Now Pinault has demonstrated that interconsonantal laryngeals were dropped before the semivowel already in the Indo-European protolanguage (Pinault 1982). If this rule applied before Sievers' Law, the result would be *ka o-/*ko o- with no laryngeals, and therefore no Verschärfung. If Pinaulfs rule applied after Sievers' Law, there is still a possibility of vindicating an underlying form *ko h- o- (but not *ka h- o-), since this would be subject to the laryngeal-dropping rule applying in morphological ograde formations as originally discovered by de Saussure. Therefore, there is a very good chance that the Proto-Indo-European form was either *ka o- or *ko o- without the proper environment of Germanic Verschärfung in any case. 1.3.2. The example Goth, awi-ìiup "thanks, praise" is trickier. The old etymology connecting it with Skt. ávati "helps, favors", ūtí- "help" seems a sound one indeed and demands a root-final laryngeal in *(h)a h- "to favor". As -liup is properly "song" (Ger. Lied, OHG Hot ), the compound is highly reminiscent of the Gaulish personal name Auicantus meaning something like "hymn of praise" (either as a determinative compound "he who is the hymn-ofpraise [of the clan]?" or as a bahuvrihi "he whose song is one of praise"). We are therefore dealing with a first compositional member *(h)auh-i-, which must be the 'Caland form' of the s- stem seen in Skt. ávas- "help, favor, mercy", just as Gk. krátos "strength" is replaced by krati- in compound personal names (Kratí-demos, Kartí-nikos). However, if a protoform *(h)ayh-i-le tois to escape giving Germanic Verschärfung, there is hardly more than one natural explanation which may, then, be suggested as the last resort despite its ad hoc nature. The root was indeed *hauh- with two laryngeals, the second of which was dropped in pre-Germanic by spontaneous dissimilation and so could not trigger Verschärfung: *ha h-i- > *ha i- >PGmc. *awi-. 1.3.3. The explanation by dissimilatory loss is not so far-fetched as it may appear. We have an entirely parallel case in the Gothic kinship term awō "grandmother" which is obviously connected with Lat. avus and Hitt. huhhas, both "grandfather". The latter form points to IE *h2auh2os, the feminine of which would be expected to give Gmc. *awwō-.9 The single glide of awõ 9

The -stem inflection of awōn- of course merely repeats the problem posed by words like qinō "woman" or tuggö "tongue" where Germanic has added /n/ to an inherited stem

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now in all probability reflects loss of the second laryngeal of the proto form by dissimilation: in point of fact the feminine of this word contained THREE laryngeals in the protoform *h2a h2ah2 1.3.4. There is a discrepancy between Goth, sniwan from *snew-aand OE snēowan from *sneww-a-, both meaning "to hasten". That the root did end in a laryngeal is clear from the Verschärfung of ON snoggr "quick" from *snaggw-u-/-ia- and the acute accent of SCr. snu pin (infinitive snòvati "einfädeln"). The corresponding verb in Norse is snúa "to twist" which by its ablaut points to an old athematic verb. We may posit *sné a-ti, *snuh-mós, subjunctive *sné h-e-ti, of which only the last form should give Verschärfung. The individual dialects have then simply generalized different allomorphs of the paradigm.10 1.3.5. OIc. lé, genitive ljá "scythe" from *lewan- and OHG lō, geni­ tive lōwes "id." believed to be from *lawa- (e.g. Pokorny, IEW 682) both belong to Skt. lunati "severs" which points to a laryngeal-final root *leuh-, cf. the expected Verschärfung in OIc logg "notch (in the staves of a barrel)" from *lawwõ < IE *louh2-áh2. The only way out is lengthened grade, most probably an r/n-stem neuter *lé h-n with dative *lé -- (the type dative *hįékw-n-ei "liver"), whose alternants would give Gmc. *lew- and *le -n- with no Verschärfung anywhere. Then lō is best derived from a lengthened-grade form also, i.e. Northwest Gmc. *lāw-a- from PGmc. *lēw-a-, pre-Gmc *l* h-on- with dialectal transfer to the o-stem class. 1.3.6. Finally, lack of Verschärfung is disturbing in Goth, unskaws "sober-minded" and OIc. ørskár "prudent", both from the root *(s)ke h1"pay attention" of OSax. scauwōn "schauen" and Lat. cavēre, cf. the vocalisms of Skt. kaví- "sage" and ā-kūti- "intention " as well as the intonation of SCr. cuti "to perceive", all demanding a laryngeal. We therefore expect Gmc. *skawwa-, but find *skawa- without gemination. I think the obvious solution is that these words are compounds, so that the expected geminate would not follow the first vowel of the word. This may in turn be used to support the explanation of Goth, bairau (Section1.1above). ending in *-ah2-. Did this originate in "woman" as an analogical reformation modelled on the word *mann- "man" (from *mon )? 10 As an alternative to the subjunctive theory which would, under a strict Stammbaumlike concept of Proto-Germanie, demand the positing of this mood as a separate category for the final phase of the Germanic linguistic unity, one may suggest that the geminate /ww/ originated in the infinitive or the preterite (Indo-European perfect) and was generalized in Old English from there.

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1.4. We may therefore formulate the statement that Jasanoff s rule works unrestrictedly after the first stressed vocalic mora of the Germanic word. It appears, however, that, at least for the position after long vowels, this is due to a relatively recent loss of the velarization that was caused by an earlier less restricted application of the rule. 2. Special attention may be given, after the rule has been formulated, to a few cases of Germanic /jj/ which I interpret differently from previous researchers. 2 . 1 . In three words /jj/ is not from /i/ + ¡h/, but has been along. The cases are:

+

all

2 . 1 . 1 . Goth, daddjan "suckle" is by its meaning a causative and thus not identical with Skt. dháyati "sucks", but contains both the of the root and that of the causative suffix *-i -e/o-. Although the exact ablaut properties of the root are less than certain, an alternating root form *dheh1 -/*dhh1e ,- and a reconstruction *dhh1o -é e-ti for daddjan and OCS doiti may be accepted as offering the smallest amount of structural difficulties.11 2 . 1 . 2 . The theonym OIc. Frigg, the love goddess appearing also in OE Frīg-dæg "Friday", PGmc. *frijjō, clearly belongs to the stem of Skt. priyá"dear", being either a feminine made by the suffix of Ved. at a time AFTER *prih 2 -ó- had passed to *pri -ó- or - perhaps more probably - a hypocoristic form derived by a synchronic process *frij-a- → *frijj-õ; in the latter case the /jj/ will have arisen through a process of expressive gemination.12 2 . 1 . 3 . OIc. skeggja "halbard" from PGmc. *skajjõn- is obviously connected with OIr. scían, Welsh ysgien "knife" (PCelt. *ski enā). The root is of Gk. skháō, Skt. chyáti "cut", the derivation being clearly an ablauting n- stem, IE *s -ōn, genitive * -én-s with an automatic glide in the weak stem which was generalized in Germanic, giving a 11 I treat the morphophonemic behavior of the 'long diphthong' roots in Part 1, Chapter 1, of Rasmussen (1989). 12 I fail to see the foundation of Jasanoff's derivation of *frijjõ- from an earlier *frijō-, supposedly a e/o- adjective *prih- o- in the feminine (Jasanoff 1978:86f., following Kuryłowicz). If the words for "owl" which Jasanoff adduces as parallels are onomatopoeic anyway, OIc. ugla (*uww-) and OHG uwila (*ūw-) do not have to represent the regular outcomes of the same Germanic protoform.

JENS ELMEGÅRD RASMUSSEN

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hybrid stem explained.

ōn(-)

from which the form with -ggf- can plausibly be

2.2. A fourth example deserving a comment is the verb "went", Goth. iddja, OE ēode. I disagree with Cowgill's derivation from the root "h1e "to go" (Skt. éti, OLith. eiti "goes", etc.) departing from a 3rd plural imperfect "*ei t" (Cowgill 1960), since Ved. yan, injunctive yan, shows that the actual form of this was *e-h ent which could not give Verschärfung. I accept, on the other hand, Lindeman's connection with the Skt. verb y ti "goes" (Lindeman 1967), but I must reject the further interpretation of this root as an extension of *h1e - which led Lindeman to postulate a number of improbable sound changes in these words. On the strength of Vedic forms like imperfect áyãt, perfect yayáu, aorist áyāsam the root may be posited as * eh2- without initial laryngeal so that the Proto-Indo-European perfect of this verb should form 3rd singular h2-o13 and 3rd plural On their way to Proto-Germanic, these alternants would become *ijō > * jō > *eõ and *jejj- > *jijj- > *ijj- respectively involving the known changes of ji to i, 'a-umlaut' ( iCō >eCō), loss of intervocalic /j /and 'i-umlaut' (eCj > iCj). By normalization according to the pattern of the weak preterites, the form *eō gave OE ëo-de, ëo-don, while *ijj- gave Goth, iddja, iddjedum, etc., without any problems. 3. A full survey of the relevant material - based primarily on Lindeman's fundamental 1964 monograph - shows that there is not a single counterexample to Hoffmann's and Jasanoffs rule (with the restrictions mentioned above). I append a list of full analyses, including a few fresh etymologies of my own.15 13

On the derivation of Ved. -au /-ā of 1st and 3rd singular perfect forms like dadáu, jajnáu, etc., from regular structures in *-οh-h2e/*-οh-e see the analysis in Part 2, Chapter 1, of Rasmussen (1989). Cf. also the comparable explanation given by Cowgill (1985:27). I assume an assimilation of vowel timbre which was apparently not impeded by the intervening laryngeal so that the Proto-Indo-European form ended in *-oh-o with or without a following sandhi increment/-../. 14 For the interplay of i/u and e in the reduplication, which I consider was governed originally by the accent, cf., most instructively, Avest. buuauua vs. 3rd plural babrə reflecting *bhu-bhd h1-e, (the latter allomorph being supported by the invariable Vedic stem babhū- ). The matter has been dealt with in my paper "The make-up of Indo-European morphology'' (preprinted in Rasmussen 1984). 15 Bammesberger's Studien zur Laryngaltbeorie (1984) contains a number of hostile comments on the laryngeal explanation of the Verschärfung forms. As elsewhere in that book, the non-laryngeal alternatives presented are mostly plainly inferior to the theories they

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4. In closing one may address the basic question of the dialectal position of the Verschärfung isogloss within Germanic. It appears to be the only significant innovation combining Norse and Gothic. All other post-ProtoGermanic changes unite Norse and West Germanic, thus the lowering of ë to if; the development of ζ towards r; of word-final -ō to -u; and of the inflectional endings *-a-maz (whether dative plural of IE o- stems or 1st plural present of thematic verbs) to -um instead of Goth, -am; further the analogical reformation of the 2nd plural personal pronoun, Goth. jus, to *j ζ (after *wîz "we"); and, most spectacularly perhaps, the replacement of verbal redup­ lication by the è 2 - structure. All of this can only be explained by the assumption that Norse and West Germanic remained undivided for some time after Gothic had left the old community. With this background, the very striking coincidences ggv / ggw and ggj / ddj between Norse and Gothic look absurd, indeed so absurd that they cannot be innovations at all. As Finnish raaka showed (Section 1.2 above), Verschärfung can also disappear. Therefore, in the dialectal distribution of Verschärfung, the innovation probably lies on the side of West Germanic which shows not lack of Verschärfung, but ENTSCHÄRFUNG of a velarized Common Germanic pronunciation. 4 . 1 . That West Germanic indeed does eliminate a velar element in geminated glides may be seen from a few interesting cases of a sound law are meant to improve upon, a sole exception being the statement on Goth, daddjan (p. 82, note 3) where the laryngeal interpretation was replaced by one involving two morphologically motivated / į / ' s by earlier researchers already. The reproach, "... die wortbildungsmässigen Zusammenhänge werden meist nicht genügend berücksichtigt" (Bammesberger ibid), is ironically illustrated by Bammesberger's criticism of the derivation of Goth, waddjus from -, where Bammesberger appears not to have grasped the wisdom of Jasanoff s morphological argument (Jasanoff 1978:84) of the attested forms as exactly the ones one would expect from an Indo-European root noun. It is difficult to see the logic of the suggestion on page 85 that Gmc. *hawwana-, the infinitive "hauen", may have its /ww/ from a suffixal formation *kawa-wo-, allegedly parallel to the spread of/w/ in OE sāwan which is known to be post-Proto-Germanic. That *heww- and *beww- ("bauen") are supposed to have their second /w/ 's from the 1st dual form in *-we (pages 85 and 86) is even contrary to elementary rules of Indo-European phonotactics: the 1st dual perfect of *ka hand *bh ah 1 -/*b h e h 1 - can of course only be *ke-kuh- e, *bhe-bhuh- e, so that a consonantal /w/ of the root segment is simply excluded. Also the explanation of Gmc. *ijjof Goth, iddja as from *e-ey-, a reinterpretation of *-, the 'weak alternant' corresponding to *ey- as TeK- to TeK- (gēbun : giba, etc., in Gothic terms), supposing a development *e-ey- > Gmc. *ijj-, is not logical if it is PRESUPPOSED that the actual pronunciation was already *ēy-; and, incidentally, the whole line of reasoning is at variance with the known fact that the root of Skt. étí "goes" was *h1e -, not vowel-initial *e -. Bammesberger's "klares Gegenbeispiel" Gmc. *hrawa- "raw" (p. 86) has been explained above.

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which was suggested by F. Kluge in 1913 (Kluge 1913:75, cf. also Lindeman 1964:119), namely the development of original *-j - + -j- to WGmc. idiphthong + The two cases are: (a) OHG reia, OE rage "female roe". The corresponding word for the male or of the species as such is OHG rēh (n.), rēho (m.), OE rā / rāha "roe" which points to PGmc. *raiha-; from this the feminine is obviously a jō- derivative with Verner's alternation, i.e. - so that the preGermanic fonns *ró k-o-s (*-o-m) : *ro k- áh2- are much like Ved. "wolf : "she-wolf. (b) Ger. Blei, Bleibe, OE blage (name of a fish) from cf. for the velar Swiss Ger. blicke, Swabian blecke from *bliG-n- (G = a velar spirant, pre-Gmc. *k or *gh). In both words we find a West Germanic reflex -jj- where the morphological analysis demands (*-jg-j-). This means, of course, that if the Proto-Germanic reflex of geminated /j/ was velarized already, the velarization would be expected to disappear in West Germanic anyway. 5. My solution is therefore that the geminated glides /jj/ and /ww/ whether inherited or produced by the Hoffmann-Jasanoff rule - in pre-ProtoGermanic assumed some degree of velarization, and that Norse -aggja-/ -aggva- and Goth. -addja-/-aggwa- represent two equally likely, but inde­ pendent, continuations of that process while West Germanic -aija-/ -auwa- reflects a REGULAR loss of the velar component of sequences which in Proto-Germanic must have sounded something like -aiyia- /-auyųa-. We thusfindourselves forced to give up Verschärfung as a dialectal phenomenon in Germanic but, by recompense, we may have gained a more accurate insight into the phonetics of Proto-Germanie.

REFERENCES Bammesberger, Alfred. 1984. Studien zur Laryngaltheorie. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Beekes, R.S.P. 1972. "Germanic Verschärfung and no laryngeals". Orbis 21.327-336. Cowgill, Warren. 1964. "Gothic iddja and Old English ēode ". Language 36.483-501.

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Cowgill, Warren. 1985. "PIE *du o '2' in Germanic and Celtic, and the nom.-acc. dual of non-neuter o-stems". MSS 46.13-28. Emout, A. & A. Meillet. 1959-1960. Dictionnaire de la Langue latine. Histoire des mots, 4th ed. Paris: Klincksieck. (= Ernout-Meillet.) Hilmarsson, Jörundur. 1984. "East Tocharian kñom 'the expanded hood or neck of a serpent'". KZ 97.287-290. Hilmarsson, Jörundur. 1986. Studies in Tocharian Phonology, Morphology and Etymology. Reykjavik: Hilmarsson. Hoffmann, Karl. 1976. Aufsätze zur Indoiranistik, 2 vols. ed. by Johanna Narten. Wiesbaden: Reichert. Jasanoff, Jay. 1978. "Observations on the Germanic Verschärfung". MSS 37.77-90. Kluge, Friedrich. 1913. Urgermanisch. Vorgeschichte der altgermanischen Dialekte. (= Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, 3.) Strassburg: Trübner. Koivulehto, Jorma. 1977. "Germanisch-finnische Lehnbeziehungen: drei Wörter mit fi.-aw- - urgerm. -aww- > urn. -aggw- ". FUF 42.132-147. Lehmann, Wilfred P. 1952. Proto-Indo-European Phonology. Austin: University of Texas Press. Lehmann, Wilfred P. 1965. "Germanic evidence". Evidence for Laryngeals ed. by Werner Winter, 212-223. The Hague-London-Paris: Mouton. Lindeman, Fredrik Otto. 1964. Les origines indo-européennes de la "Verschärfung"germanique. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Lindeman, Fredrik Otto. 1967. "Gotisch iddja und altenglisch ëode". IF 72.275-286. Lühr, Rosemarie. 1977. "Germanische Resonantengemination durch Laryngal". MSS 36.73-92. Mayrhofer, Manfred. 1986. Indogermanische Grammatik. I, 2. Halbband: Lautlehre: Segmentale Phonologie des Indogermanischen. (= pp. 73181.) Heidelberg: Winter. Morris-Jones, John. 1913. A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pinault, Georges-Jean. 1982. "A neglected phonetic law: the reduction of the Indo-European laryngeals in internal syllable before yod". Papers from the 5th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 265-272. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pokorny, Julius P. 1959-1969. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörter­ buch, 2 vols. Bern: Franke. (= Pokorny IEW. ) Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. 1984. "The make-up of Indo-European mor­ phology". Arbejdspapirer udsendt afInstitut for Lingvistik, Københavns Universitet 4.119-134. (Now also Diachronica 4.107-122, 1988.) Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. 1985. "The Indo-European origin of the BaltoSlavic -ē-and -ā- preterite". Papers from the 6th International Con­ ference on Historical Linguistics ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 441-450. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

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Rasmussen, Jens Elmeg rd. 1989. Studen zur Morphophonemik der indogermanischen Grundsprache. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissen­ schaft. Schindler, Jochem. 1969. "Die idg. Wörter für 'Vogel' und 'Ei'". Die Sprache 15.144-167. Schindler, Jochem. 1972. "L'apophonie des noms-racines indo-euro­ péennes". BSL 67.31-38. Smith, Jr., Henry Lee. 1941. "The Verschärfung in Germanic". Language 17.93-98. APPENDIX: List of Examples16 1.

PGmc. /jj/.

1.1 /j/ + /j/. (1) (2) (3)

Goth, daddjan, OSwed. dæggia "suckle" < *dhh1 e-ti = OCS doiti. Section 2.1.1 above. Comparably Lü., p. 84, note 4; Jas., p. 85. ON Frigg, etc. < *frijjõ (< »pri ). Section 2.1.2 above. ON skeggja < *skajjōn- < with analogical glide from genitive Section 2.1.3 above.

1.2. * h-with (reasonable) certainty. (4)

(5) (6)

(7)

OE hwa(i)g (.), Eng. whey, Dutch wei < Gmc. *hwajj-a-. I suggest a comparison with Skt. ks rá- (.), Gāthic Avest. "milk" under a root * -, whence * Goth, iddja from stem *ijj- < h2- originating in 3rd plural perfect. Section 2.2 above. OE clag (.), OSax. klei "clay", Dan. klæg "claylike" < Gmc. *klajj-a-, from *gloįh-o-, a *bhorós-formation from the root of OIr. glenaid, OHG klenan "to stick" (*gli-n-ǔ-). Goth, twaddje, ON tveggja, OHG zweiio, genitive of numeral "two" < Gmc. *twajj-ōn < IE Hoffman-Lühr-Jasanoff s is a mistake using the LOCATIVE dual ending which, as we know from Avestan, was not identical with the genitive dual morpheme in Proto-Indo-European (see the references in footnote 4). I take the ending *-oh3s to be properly the thematic allomorph containing the 'thematic vowel' *-o- + the dual morpheme *-h3- + the zero-grade of the case-ending *-os. The segment 1- appears to be optional (cf. RigVeda ayóh : asya beside enoh :enān), wherefore I take it to be originally the NEUTER dual ending which is known to have had 16

In the list the abbreviations Jas., Li., and Lü. stand for Jasanoff (1978), Lindeman (1964) and Lühr (1977) respectively.

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this form. The hybrid structure of the oblique case forms of the dual is one of many signs of early decay of the dual category. The protoform is directly continued by Younger Avestan duuaii The locative was probably *-o- h1-h1-oh3u (Avest. zastaiiö "in the hands"), an originally endingless locative with added topicalizing particle *-u, i.e. dual *-h3-u like plural *-s-u. Like tveggja also beggja, genitive of "both". (8) Goth. -waddjus, ON veggr, OE wäg, plural wæg "wall" from Gmc. *wajj-u-, *wajj-iz, IE *uoįh-es "twisting" : Skt. váyati, Lith. vyti, OCS viti, etc. Section 0 above. 1.3. Insecure examples of *-ih-. (9)

Crimean Goth, ada "ovum" (in reality plural = Biblical Goth. *addja?), ON egg, OE g, OHG ei (dative eiie ) < Gmc. *ajj-a- (.). The Indo-European languages differ somewhat in the details: is indicated by Gk. õión, Lat. ovum (with loss of intervocalic after antevocalic *ō had ceased to give /äw/) and Welsh wy (MorrisJones 1913:107), while the *ō om reflected by SCr. jáje, Iranian *Iya(ka)- (Osset. ay ) and Arm. ju ( io- by assimilation) is no doubt a reduction of this form. The Germanic form is precarious in two ways, Verschärfung being almost certainly re­ stricted to the position after short vowels (Section 1.2) and, even more certainly, caused by a laryngeal for which we seem to have no real evidence in this word. How­ ever, if Schindler's morphological analysis of the word as a hypostatic prepositional compound "das beim Vogel Befindliche" with the noun corresponding to Lat. avis as the second member (Schindler 1969) is correct, these obstacles may perhaps be over­ "bird" (meaning nominative come. Schindler's reconstructions are: i-s, genitive -s, cf. Schindler 1972:33) : -óm "egg". If the lack of lengthening in the Vedic nominative singular vel· (Ind.-Ir. *uais) is to be explained at all, it demands a stem ending in TWO consonants, so one would like to posit a stemfinal sequence *-įh-, probably *-ih1-judging by Gk. aietós "eagle". Since both Lat. avis and Arm. haw "cock" appear to demand a vowel /a/, one would further prefer to take the *-ih1- element as belonging to a suffixal segment. Hitt. šu-wa-iš "bird" and Welsh hwyad, Breton houad "duck" (Celtic *swijeto-, cf. Morris-Jones 1913:101 where the reconstruction is further backed by the Gwynedd dialect form ch adan ) both show 'mobile s- ' which is not otherwise known before vowels, wherefore one would believe the a- to have been preceded by a laryngeal which because of the Hittite form h1-s, genitive cannot be /h2/. This gives the Indo-European reconstructions *h *h h1-s "bird", *o-h h1-o-m "egg" (preposition of Gk. o-kéllō : kéllō, both "run ashore", compositional type of Ved. upa-bd-á- "trampling", properly "[that which is created] under one's feet"). Since laryngeals do not affect syllabification in the second member of compounds (the ábhva-m rule known from the Vedic outcome of IE as if antevocalic), the word "egg" may be expected * -bh h1-o-m with consonantal to have been a disyllable in Proto-Indo-European, despite its complicated make-up. Now we simply have no other relevant material to show us what the regular Germanic outcome of intervocalic *-h h- is. If we see that it coincides with the reflex of intervocalic *- h- in *ajja-, we have no basis for taking this as irregular. If laryngeals are lost before vowels at about the same time as they give length before consonants, the immediate reflex of *oh ho- would be *ō .-, whence, with glide insertion,

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* - and, with Osthoff s shortening, * It then seems that - was reduced to -. - before the simplification of the geminates after long syllablcs, thus giving the pre-form *o o- pointed to by PGmc. *ajja-. Thus, "egg" in the last analysis appears to represent /jj/ from intervocalic /įh/ like the rest of the material. (10) OIc. sókn-heggr (Lex.Poet. "kamp-hagg", a kind of warrior) is connected with the personal names OHG Haiio, OSax. Heio and further perhaps with OCS cěna "price" (references in Li., p. 120). If a laryngeal may be seen in Lith. káina, Gk. m the word would be an adjective *kw h-o-s "paid for, hired, soldato". The development of the initial is as in *halsa- "neck" from *kwol-so-. (11) OSax. leia (f.) "reef, rock in the sea", Mid.Dutch leie, Mod.Dutch lei, Ger. Lei "slate (material)" from *lajj-a-/-ō is not related to Gk. laas "stone" (thus Li., p. 120, after Kluge) which is *lah2s-ə2- (Eichner apud Mayrhofer 1986:133). I suggest a connection with the root of Lat. lino "stick, cling to". OIr. lenaid "follows" (*li-n-a-), i.e. *loih-o- meaning approximately "slippery thing". (12) Dan. blegn, blegne "blister", according to Falk & Torp, Et.Wb., from *blajjinõn-as opposed to *blajjnōn- which is posited for OSwed. blena, OE biegen, Eng. blain, looks at first glance as a plausible case of 'expressive' gemination. However, if the root is *bh h- (none of the material given by Pokorny, IEW, p. 156, is diagnostic as far as the /-h-/ goes, unless one wants to stake everything on Gk. ph "doorpost" as meaning originally "swollen thing"), we may have *blajjena- and *blaina-, of which the former would be the participle of a Class VI strong verb, possibly meaning "swollen" or "inflamed", while the latter would have the shape of the word type seen in Gk. pórne "prostitute", i.e. IE *bh1oi-nah2 "swelling" or "inflammation". In that case the laryngeal should only show in the participial form, not in the substantival derivative. 1.4. Unclear examples. (13) OIc. gneggja, OE hnægan, OSax. participle hneihida "neigh" < *hnajjō- is ob­ viously onomatopoeic. My instinctive impression is that the word would be unsuitable as a rendition of the neighing of a horse before the sound shift, wherefore I would consider it a novel creation of Germanic. (14) OHG hei "dry", 3rd plural preterite ar-beigëtun "they dried out" from *hajj-a-, *hajj-ē-. A root kai- is posited (Pokorny, IEW, p. 619) on very insecure grounds, the form *ka h- which would explain the /jj/ being also entirely possible. (15) MHG heie "Schlägel", Mid.Dutch heien "to ram" < *hajj-V-. (16) OHG hwaiion, MHG weijen "to neigh". Pokorny (IEW, p. 628) posits comparing Lith. "breathe squeakingly", but the words may also simply be independent Elementarbildungen. (17) OHG scrîan preterite screi "scream", noun screi < Gmc. *skrajj-a- of uncertain antiquity (Pokorny, IEW, p. 570). (18) OSwed. pragge "a covering" is completely opaque, cf. the observations in footnote 2. It should be pointed out that the words of this section (examples (13)ff.), excepting perhaps the last one, may all have expressive gemination which would comply well with their semantics.

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2.

439

PGmc. /ww/.

2.1. *- h-reconstructiblewith (reasonable) certainty. (19) OIc. bygg, dative byggve "barley ", OE bēow, OSax. genitive plural beuwo "der Ernten". All from *beww-a- (n.) < IE *bhé h-o-m "growth", the word-type * -o-m "work", * érdh-0-m "word" from the root of Skt. bbávati "becomes, arises". For semantics, cf. Gk. pbutón "plant". As I intend to propound elsewhere, I take the ]), to be [ ] (spelled North Germanic reflex of PGmc. *-eww- (phonetically [ ] (spelled -yggi- ), cf. the same development in examples (20), -yggu- ), later [ (21), (25), (37) (and perhaps (23) and (32)) where the other Germanic languages also point to *-eww-. This development is obviously to be seen in connection with the raising of *e to iu > jú before velars and labials (sjúkr, djúpr, but brjóta ). This sound law makes the assumption of a special stem-formation with *-ja- for the North Germanic correspondences of ALL words that show reflex of *-ewwa- in the other languages superfluous. (20) OIc. byggva, byggja "build, dwell" is thus simply *beww-a-, identical with Skt. bhávati < *bhéuh1-e-ti, cf. OIc. búa, Ger. bauen of like meaning from the old aorist, Skt. ábbūt. (21) OIc. bryggja (participle bruggenn ), OE brēowan, OSax. breuwan, OHG briuwan (younger brūwan ) "brew", all from *breww-a- < *bhre h-e-, a reformation of -e-ti (Lat. feruō or ferueō OIr. beirbid) "ferments, bubbles" triggered by the ambiguous (indeed misleading) participle *bhruh-tó-s with regular metathesis. See Jas., p. 82, with footnote 9 (p. 89). (22) Goth, adverb glaggwö "meticulously", adjective OIc. glçggr / gløggr, OE glēaw, OSax. glau, OHG glauwër "clear, clearsighted" < *glaww-u- from a root *g h l e h/*ghlo h-/*ghluh-, cf. zero grade in OSwed. glūna "squint", East Fris. glūmen "lauern". On OIc. glóa, etc., as a lengthened-grade causative-iterative see Section 1.2.2 above. Li., p. 150. (23) OIc. bnçggva, preterite bnçgg, participle bnuggenn (also hnyggja ) "strike against, sever, bereave", OHG hniuwan, preterite hnou. The OIc. vocalism is normally analogical to bçggva (example (24)). From PGmc. *hneww-a-, IE *kne h-e/o-. In Gmc. further OIc. hnøggr (i-umlaut of-q-), Mod.Norw. nogg (-q- ) "scanty, stingy", OE bnēaw, MHG nou(we) "stingy, exact" from *hnaww-u-/*hnaww-ia-. Outside Gmc, cf. zero-grade in Gk. knóõ "I scratch", verbal noun knuma, Latv. knūt "to itch". Li., p. 143. (24) OIc. hoggua,OE bëawan, OSax.hauwan, OHG bouwan "hew" < Gmc. *haww-a-, from a root *kauh-, cf. Section 0 above. I disagree with Jas., p. 79, who assumes metathesis from *keh2u- on the basis of Toch.B kaut- "split" and Lat. caudex "treetrunk" considering these to be from an extension *keh2u-d-; instead, I posit two parallel roots, *kau-h2- and *kay-d- (cf. also footnote 2). Li., p. 144. (25) OIc. tyggva /tyggja "chew" (with analogical t- ), OE cē wan (participle cēaw, cuwon ), OHG kiuwan, all from *keww-a- < -e/o-, thematicization (sub­ - (+ productive junctive?) of -/*giuh- seen in OCS žijetu < *zjy-je- < *- e/o-), aorist ïǐva from aorist mid. *giuh-o-t (see Rasmussen 1985) and Toch.B 3rd singular present śuwam, Toch.A śwās, Toch.B 3rd plural śuwam, Toch.AB

440

(26)

(27)

(28)

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infinitive śwatsi reflecting - or uh- (with /h2 / or /h3 / ) or both. The same development is seen in MHG kiuwe "jaw" from *kewwōn- < IE * -ōn, cf. the accent of Lith. žiáunos, Latv. žaunas (feminine plural), Bulg. žúna "id." < -n(old neuter plural -ōn, genitive ). Li., p. 144. OIc. lçgg (f.) "notch (made by sawing)" < *laggwō < *lawwō < IE *lou2-áh2 (word formation like Lat. toga ), from a root *leuh- seen in the Skt. nasal present lunati "severs" (*lu-né-h-ti), corresponding root aorist mid. *luh-o elaborated to thematic present *luh-e-ti in Gk. lúō, Lat. luō, zero grade in participle *luh-no- (Skt. lūná- ) or *luh-tó- (Lat. solūtus). Li., p. 145. OIc. rçggr (.), rqgg (f.), OSwed. ragg "coarse hair, tuft of wool or„hair" < *raww-a-2/*raww-õ < IE *rouh-ó-s/*áh2 from a root *reuh- which seems to have formed a root present, 3rd singular * -ti, 1st plural *ruh-mos, 3rd plural *ruh-énti seen in Lith. ráuti, ráuja "pull, tear"; OCS ryti, ryjetu "dig, root"; OIc. ryja "rupfen"; OCS ruvati, ruvetu "tear to pieces"; Lat. ruŌ "I ruin". Li., p. 145. OIc. söggr "moist" (for *sqggr), OE sēaw (.), OHG sou, souwes "juice" < *saww-a- < *souh-ó-, adjective in different genders (Finn, sauvo "well" borrowed from the feminine), probably to the root *seuh- of the words meaning "rain", Alb. substantive shî < *sū, verb in Gk. b dei, Toch.B 3rd singular present su watą, Toch.A 3rd plural swinc from *seuǔ-/*suh-. If Hitt. subbai, suhhanzi and isbuwai, isbuwanzi, both "scatter, pour out", belong here (as * s ó h 2 - e and *suh2-ént > [sxwant] > [isxwánt] respectively), the laryngeal is /h2/. Li., p. 145f. OE scéawian (weak verb), OSax. scauwon, OHG scouwōn "schauen" < PGmc. *skaww-ō- supposing an Indo-European action noun *skou-áh2 or *skóuh2-s (cf. MHG schouwe and schou, -ouwes, OHG scou "Anblick, Gestalt" mirrored in Finn. kaava "pattern, model" as explained by Koivulehto 1977:137ff). Judging by Gk. koéõ, Lat. cayere "be attentive" the laryngeal is /h 1 /, i.e. IE *(s)kouh1 e-ti; on Goth, un-skaws, etc., see Section 1.3.7. Goth, skuggwa, OIc. skuggi, OE scQwa "picture, mirror, shadow" from *skuww-an- must be explained by paradigmatic analogy, since Verschärfung would here otherwise demand a sequence *-uuh- which is not phonotactically admissible in Indo-European: nominative *ské h 1 -õn > *skeww-ōn, locative *skuh1-én-i > *skuw-én-i, levelled to *skuww- in all forms.

Li., p. 146. (30) OIc. snöggr / snqggr "quick" from *snaww-u-/-ia-; the u- stem must represent an old root noun, IE accusative masculine singular *snóuh-m, feminine *snouh-ih2 (probably the ultimate origin of the ja- stem in the oblique cases of u- stem adjectives in Germanic). Root *sneuh- of OE snēowan "make haste". On Goth, sniwan and further ramifications, see Section 1.3.4 above. Li., p. 146f. (31) OHG spriu, genitive spriuwes "Spreu" from *spreuh-o-, cf. Ger. sprühen and see Section 1.2.1. Li., p. 147. (32) Goth, triggws "loyal, true" < *treww-a-, OIc. tryggr, OSax. triuwi, OHG gi-triuwi < *treww-ia-, from the root of OIc. trua, OHG trūēn, Goth, trauan "to trust", IE *dreyh-/*drah-, cf. OPruss. druwit (infinitive) "believe" and Lith. (adjective from preterite past participle) diutas, "hard, solid" (and Gallo-Romance *drūtos in French dm ?). Li., p. 148.

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2.2. Insecure cases of *- h-. (33) OE bēaw "gadfly" from PGmc. *baww-a- may be IE *bho h1-o-s "being'', especially if Lat. fūcus "drone" is not from *bho kwo- (thus Pokorny, IEW, p. 163) but belongs to *bh - "bee" as *bhoi-ko-s (Ernout-Meillet). (34) Goth, bliggwan "blow, beat", OHG bliuwan, OSax. bliuwid "er bleut" from *bleww-a-, cf. OIc. bleg (m.) "a blow" < *blaww-ida-n- (weak form of the participle of the iterative verb), IE *bh1 h-e-ti, *bhloyh-eįe-ti. Perhaps related to Gk. pblóõ "sparkle, boil over, gossip". (35) OIc. dçgg (f.), OE dēaw (m., n.), OSax. dou, OHG tou (.) "dew" from *daww-a-/-ō-, the obvious connection being with Ved. dhütá- "washed down" (about the soma) under a root *dheuh- which may or may not be identical with the root of Ved. dbavati, dbávate, Gk. théō, tbeíõ "run" (which would then be *dhéuǔ-ti, mid. *dh -to-r. Li., p. 143. (36) Swed. fnugg, fnagg, Dan. fnug "Flaum" from *fnaggwa- < *fnawwa-, cf. Finn, naava "Bartflechte (bark disease on trees)", Lapp.L nāvva "Flaum, soft hair" which Koivulehto (1977:142ff) explains as borrowings of these words. I venture to suggest an etymological connection with Gk. pnéõ "breathe, blow", ám-pnūto "regained his breath" (Homer) under a root *pneuh1-. As the root is obviously onomatopoeic anyway, there may well have been a form *pney- also, as seen in Gk. pneu ma "breath" which is proved Indo-European by the beautiful correspondence with Toch.A kñbm "inflated serpent neck" found by Hilmarsson (1984) (= Hilmarsson 1986:94-97). (37) OIc. bryggva/hryggja "hurt", OE hrēowan (preterite brēaw), OSax. breuwan (preterite hrau) OHG (b)riuwan "regret, repent" < *hreww-a- (for Norse cf. ad (19) above). The root is not safely identifiable, *kre h2- "to be bloody(?)", identical with the root of  w (Section 1.2) being merely a possibility. Li., p. 150f. (38) Goth, un-mana-riggws "cruel, untamed", according to WP to be connected with Gk. oroúō "rush forward", Lat. ruŌ "run, rush along" (perhaps identical with TUO "tear" of example (27)); if correct, this gives IE *h3reuh- (-o-in Gk. orou- perhaps from the intensive). Li., p. 151. (39) OIc. skrqggr "fox, devil, goblin", Mid.Dutch scbröuwel, OE scrēawa (n-stem) "shrew, shrewmouse" from Gmc. *skraww-a(n)- which points to *skroyh-o-; possibly zero-grade in OIc. hruor "scurf, crust", OHG rūda : s- mobile variant of *kreuh2("blood", etc., cf. (37))? Li., 151. (40) OSax. tou, Dutch touw, OFris. tauw "tow" < Gmc. *taww-a- < *do h-o-, possibly "dragging, hauling" connected with the following examples. (41) MHG zūwen, preterite zou, zouwen "hasten, succeed (cf. Russ. spex "haste" :uspéx "success"), draw" from *teww-a- < IE *de h-e/o-, a thematicization of *deuǔ-ti, mid. *duh-o-į (-ó-r) > Avest. duiie "chases away" (Ind-Ir. *duyai); zero-grade *duh-ropossibly in Skt. dū-á- "far". If Goth. taujan "to do", Gk. dunamai "I can" and Gaulish -dūnum "fortress" belong here, *dé h2-e-ti (/-tor) was the aorist subjunctive that went with *du-n-ǔ2-. On (40) and (41) see Li., p. 151f, and Li., p. 149, respectively. (42) OE pēaw "custom", OSax. thau "discipline", OHG katbau< *paww-a- < IE *touh-o-, probably from the laryngeal root of Ved. taviti "is strong, avails". Li., p. 151.

MÉCANISMES ET NATURE DU CHANGEMENT SYNTAXIQUE LE CAS DE LA PHRASE COMPLEXE EN INDO-EUROPÉEN ANDRÉ ROUSSEAU Université de Lille III 0. Nous avons fait choix d'un sujet syntaxique pour élargir les perspectives du changement linguistique et, à l'intérieur de la syntaxe, nous avons retenu la phrase complexe pour trois raisons: l'existence parfois contestée de la phrase complexe en Indo-Européen (cf. l'article souvent cité de E. Hermann); la dua­ lité des particules employés (les langues se partageant entre *yo- et *kwo- ur le relatif et les autres subordonnants); l'apparente divergence du germanique employant l'anaphorique *so/to-.1 Après avoir constanté qu'il y a évolution non seulement des signifiants de dépendance, mais surtout des CADRES SYNTAXIQUES de la phrase complexe, nous centrerons l'exposé sur l'analyse de MÉCANISMES du changement syntaxique en proposant ensuite quelques réflexions sur la NATURE de ce changement. Il est nécessaire d'opérer avec des concepts précis: plutôt que d'utiliser la terminologie traditionnelle jamais nettement définie, qu'elle soit d'origine latine (subordination/coordination) ou greque (hypotaxe/parataxe), il sera question ici de phrase complexe, dont nous proposons la définition 'provisoire' suivante: une prédication complémentaire ajoutée à un procès initial.

1 Certains auteurs utilisent ce critère pour nier l'existence ancienne de la phrase complexe en germanique, cf., par ex., Paolo Ramat, BSL 79:XIV-XV (1984). Le gotique apporte un témoignage décisif par ses deux implicatifs jabai "si" (qui se retrouve dans sa-ei "si quelqu'un"—"celui qui"; cf. Rousseau 1984:107-108) et -uh "si" (cf. ni-h "si ne pas"), qui correspondent tout à fait aux deux implicatifs des langues Indo-Européen anciennes (par ex. véd, yád et ca.

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1. Reconstruction descriptive de l'évolution de la phrase complexe en Indo-Européen Cette reconstruction repose sur une conception ÉVOLUTIVE de l'Indo-Européen, qui représente une succession de plusieurs états de langue étalés sur des millénaires (Watkins 1969:17). 1.1

Les principales marques d'énoncé dépendant.

Nous pouvons citer cinq marques principales qui, toutes, indiquent la dépendance d'un énoncé: l'emploi de particules (enclitiques); la postion initiale de la forme verbale personnelle; la tonicité de cette forme verbale; les cas obliques du nom verbal; l'apposition. Ces différentes marques peuvent être employées séparément ou ensemble pour certaines d'entre elles: (RV 6,51,2) "der ihre drei Geschlechter kennt, der Götter Geburt fern und nah, der Weise" Ici, trois marques d'énoncés dépendant sont associées: position initiale et toncicité de la forme verbale (véda) et position seconde de la particule relative (yds). 1.2

Les types d'énoncés complexe.

L'Indo-Européen possède une grande richesse d'énoncés complexes, fort diversifiés et appartenant visiblement 'a des types linguistiques différents. Nous nous proposons de distinguer et de caractériser six types: trois ont déjà fait l'objet d'analyses plus ou moins détaillées: énoncé corrélatif (Haudry 1973), énoncé lié (Dressler 1969, 1971), énoncé expansé (Gonda 1959); trois autres n'ont pas encore été identifiés en tant que tels: énoncé apposé, énoncé anaphorique, énoncé amplifié.

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1.2.1.

445

L'énoncé corrélatif.

La corrélation a été, en syntaxe Indo-Européen, successivement décrite par B. Delbrück (1888), W. Porzig (1923), A. Minard (1936) et J. Haudry (1973), tous spécialistes du sanskrit védique, langue où il est fait un usage abondant des corrélations, comme en témoignent les statistiques de W. Porzig (1923:288-289). La structure corrélative est caractérisée par la mise en oeuvre de trois types de relations étroitement associées entre elles: une relation SÉMANTIQUE variable établie entre deux contenus énonciatifs, respectivement la protase et l'apodose; une relation SYNTAXIQUE stable utilisant les outils syntaxiques par excellence que sont les particules, réparties sur la protase et sur l'apodose (corrélatif); une relation PROSODIQUE constante, où le verbe personnel de protase, à la différence de celui de l'apodose, est tonique. Ainsi, se trouvent créées les conditions d'existence d'un lien nécessaire et orienté entre deux procès. La structure corrélative fonctionne aussi bien pour l'implication (en "si") que pour les particules dérivées (par ex. temps, cause: lat. cum, quod) et notamment le relatif. Les principaux exemples sont indiqués en note. 2 1.2.2.

L'énoncé lié.

Nous rendons par ce terme la notion de 'gebundener Satz' introduite par W. Dressler dans la syntaxe de l'Indo-Européen (1969, 1971). La définition de l'énoncé lié tient au principe formulé par Dressler: la position initiale de la forme verbale indique le lien de cet énoncé avec un autre qui suit ou qui

2

Attestations d'énoncé corrélatif: (SB IV 1,3,3) "s'il est vivant, tu seras, toi, promptement de retour".

(Illiade 24, 768ss) "si quelqu'un s'en prenait à moi [...] alors, toi, tu le contrais". quod habuit, id perdidit "ce qu'il a eu, il l'a perdu". nu kuis tan pedasDUMURUnu LUGAL-us apas kisaru. (BOTU 23 A Π 37f) "wer ein Sohn zweiten Ranges (ist), der soll König werden". saei ni andnimiÞ Þiudangardja gudis swe barn, ni Þauh qimiÞ in izai. (Mc 10,15) "celui qui ne reçoit pas le royaume de Dieu comme un enfant, pourtant (litt.) il n'y entre pas".

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précède3. La forme primitive de l'énoncé lié correspond à la position initiale du verbe en protase, comme cela existe encore dans les langues modernes: Kommt er, so freue ich mich. Vient-il, alors je me réjouis. Cette position initiale du verbe personnel marque fondamentalement une attente, une suite, qui se réalise dans l'apodose. Ce type d'énoncé complexe est illustré par les exemplesfiguranten note.4 1.2.3.

L'énoncé expansé.

Nous transposons ainsi l'expression 'amplified sentence' de J. Gonda, dont la caractéristique réside dans le fait qu'un énoncé simple peut, en recevant une expansion, devenir un énoncé complexe. Ce type d'énoncé complexe a connu une certaine fortune en Indo-Européen grâce à la syntaxe, riche en cas, du nom verbal. En effet, la flexion du nom verbal témoigne par elle-même de son origine syntaxique au sein de l'énoncé expansé, car les formes anciennes attestées sont toutes des cas obliques — à l'exclusion du nominatif, qui est né par réfection tardive. Ainsi, à chaque cas était attachée une valeur particulière de circonstant (Meillet 1931): instrumental — accompagnement, cause; locatif — simultanéité; datif — finalité; génitif/ablatif — origine; accusatif — but, temps. Le védique est la langue qui atteste le mieux les diverses formes 3

W. Dressler (1971:18) écrit: "Anfangsstellung des Verbums weist auf einen weiteren verbundenen Satz, der vor oder nach dem vorliegenden Satz steht". 4 Attestations d'énoncé lié: m e - m a - i - m a - a t ku-e-da-ni na-an-kan

a-an-ti-i U.UL t i - i a - z i . .

(KUB XXVI 12III11s) "(if) the man to whom he says it, does not denounce him..." asid raja Nalo nama... (Nala) "Es war ein König mit Namen Nala..." (Illiade 22,393) "(si) nous avons acquis une grande victoire, (c'est que) nous avons tué le divin Hector" vincis, gaudes; perdis, ploras. (Tablette de Dessau n° 9453) "(si) tu gagnes, tu te réjouis, (si) tu perds, tu pleures". atsaihwiÞ armaion izwara ni taujan in andwairÞja manne du saihwan im, aiÞÞau laun ni habaiÞ fram attin izwaramma Þamma in himinam. (Mt 6,1) "gardez-vous de faire l'aumône en présence d'hommes pour être vus d'eux, ou sinon vous n'aurez point de récompense de votre Père aux cieux".

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casuelles de l'énoncé expansé, comme le montrent les quelques exemples cités en note 5. L'énoncé expansé a laissé au moins trois traces dans les langues IndoEuropéen: la construction dite du 'double datif';6 celle connue sous le sigle AcI (= accusativus cum infinitivo); une dernière évolution de l'énoncé expansé concerne le nom verbal au locatif-datif, qui, par thématisation, a directement donné naissance aux 'noms d'agent': got. manna weindrugkja (L 7,34) "homme à boire du vin"→"homme qui boit du vin". 1.2.4.

L'énoncé apposé.

Un énoncé apposé à un premier énoncé est considéré comme incident à celui-ci, car l'apposition fonctionne comme une marque de dépendance. Enoncé apposé et énoncé lié reposent sur le même fait de position syntaxique: la position initiale de la forme verbale, mais ils se distinguent par une distribution complémentaire en chaîne, l'énoncé apposé étant obligatoirement postposé: Enoncé lié: Enoncé apposé: Une autre différence, sémantique, est importante: alors que l'on peut rendre compte de l'énoncé lié à partir de la notion de verbe personnel, il est nécessaire 5

Attestations d'énoncé expansé: SANGA akuuanna yekzi (KBo Π 14IΠ 2f) "der Priester verlangt zu trinken" aita adam ahuramazdam jadiyãmiy (NRa53) "I implore Ahuramazda to grant this". (=Acc.) (RV 7,86,3) "I go to the wise to inquire". (=Dat.) (Illiade 6,227) "j'ai beaucoup de Troyens à tuer". faursnau sal bon mein leik du usf ilha (=Dat) (Mc 14,8) "d'avance embaumer mon corps pour l'inhumation". 6 exemple de 'double datif avec dédoublement de l'un en datif-sujet et datif-objet: brahmadvise sara ve h ntav u (D. objet D. sujet nom verbal) (RV 10,125,6) "pour que laflèchefrappe l'ennemi de la formule sacrée (du brahman)". LÚ

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d'avoir recours au concept plus large de prédicat pour embrasser l'ensemble des types d'énoncé apposé. Nous pouvons en effet distinguer trois types d'énoncé apposé (qui sont en général dispersés dans les manuels): type 1 (à prédicat verbal): gr. . "il conduit le peuple"; type 2 (à prédicat adjectival) plus connu sous le nom de 'bahuvrihi': got. laus-handus "vide (est) la main". type 3 (à prédicat nominal): (T.S.3,3,2 a)"le saman

L'énoncé apposé exerce deux fonctions: apposition à un GV (ce sont les incises à verbum dicendi (cf. lat inquit) et apposition à un GN, ce qui conduit fréquemment à une nominalisation: véd. janī, deva-patnī "femme, dont le mari est un dieu" (et non "maîtresse des dieux"). Pour les exemples, voir note 7. 1.2.5.

L'énoncé anaphorique.

L'énoncé anaphorique part d'un principe simple, inhérent à toute forme de discours: un premier énoncé est 'repris' en partie ou en totalité par un élément figurant dans un énoncé ultérieur. Cette reprise, cette anaphore revêt deux formes: anaphore d'un GV et anaphore d'un GN. Mais le problème essentiel est celui de l'interprétation de Γ anaphore fonctionnant comme relation

Attestations d'énoncé apposé: "des hommes, bons (sont leurs) chevaux". véd. gr. "il porte sa maison". lat. magnanimus "au grand coeur" got. armahairts "miséricordieux" freinais "libre (est) le cou" fidurdogs "(qui dure) quatre jours" hitt. da-iuga "(âge de) deux ans" salla-karta "au grand coeur"

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syntaxique: s'agit-il encore d'un pur lien anaphorique textuel, ou bien avonsnous déjà à faire à un lien relatif qui s'amorce?8 En fait, nous pouvons suivre l'évolution par le témoignage successif de trois langues. En védique, il ne semble pas qu'il y ait autre chose qu'une anaphore: tad va dev abruvan téd va gamam. (RV 1,161,2) "das sagten euch die Götter, darum bin ich zu euch gekommen" Le grec homérique est ambigu quant à l'interprétation du lien anaphorique: (¡Illiade 1,72) "grâce à sa faculté de divination, celle-là/que Phoebus Apollon lui avait donnée" En revance, le gotique a crée l'outil d'un lien de dépendance: sah pour un GN,Þaîuhpour un GV: