Contemporary Linguistic Analysis An Introduction 9th Edition – William OGrady

(5) Rarely has he ever deceived me. When the direct object was a pronoun, the subject-object-verb order was typical. Hēo hine lǣrde. She him advised ‘She advised him.’ The subject-object-verb order also prevailed in embedded clauses, even when the direct object was not a pronoun. (7) þa hē þone cyning sō hte, hē bēotode.

when he the king visited he boasted ‘When he visited the king, he boasted.’ After case suffixes were lost during the Middle English period through sound change, fixed subject-verb-object order became the means of marking grammatical relations. As table 8.33 shows, a major change in word order took place between 1300 and 1400, with the verb-object order becoming dominant. TABLE 8.33 Word order patterns in Middle English Year Direct object before the verb (%) Direct object after the verb (%) From SOV to SVO Just as languages can be classified in terms of their morphology, they can also be grouped on the basis of the relative order of subject (S), object (O), and verb (V) in basic sentences.

Almost all languages of the world fall into one of three types: SOV, SVO, or VSO, with the majority of languages being one of the first two types. Just as languages change through time from one morphological type to another, they can also change from one syntactic type to another. A case in point is found in the history of English, which shows the development from SOV to SVO syntax.

Evidence indicates that the earliest form of Germanic from which English descended was an SOV language. Indeed, this order can be seen in one of the earliest recorded Germanic sen- tences, which was inscribed on a golden horn (now called the Golden Horn of Gallehus) about 1600 years ago. Historical linguistics: the study of language change (8) Horn of Gallehus ek HlewagastiR HoltijaR horna tawido Hlewagastir of Holt horn made ‘I, Hlewagastir of Holt, made the horn.’ Another type of evidence for an earlier SOV order is found in morphological fusion (see section 8.3.1).

Since fusion depends on frequently occurring syntactic patterns, it can some- times serve as an indicator of earlier syntax. The OV compound, very common in Old English (as well as in Modern English), likely reflects an earlier stage of OV word order (see table 8.34). TABLE 8.34 Old English compounds with OV structure manslæht ‘man’ 1 ‘strike’ ‘manslaughter, murder’ æppelbǣre ‘apple’ 1 ‘bear’ ‘apple-bearing’ If the earliest Germanic was SOV and Modern English is firmly SVO, then Old English rep- resents a transitional syntactic type.

Convinced at once that, in order to break loose from the beaten paths of opinions and systems, it was necessary to proceed in my study of man and society by scientific methods, and in a rigorous manner, I devoted one year to philology and grammar; linguistics, or the natural history of speech, being, of all the sciences, that which best suited the researches which I was about to commence. PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON, WHAT IS PROPERTY?

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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