Syntax diachronic approach. Structure of the sentence. Simple sentence. Complex/compound sentence. (7th lecture)

Syntax

The structure of the sentence in OE as well as in ME was the same. W-O is rather liberal, and in some cases influenced by the French language. Post position of the adjective which is characteristic for the French penetrates into the English syntax, especially when the adjective is borrowed from French (weel she soong the service dyvyne (she sang very well at divine service). The ties between words are practically the same in both periods. But it lost some positions as compared with the OE. The predicate of the sentence agrees with the subject, repeating the person and the number of the noun or pronoun. This agreement is especially prominent with the third and the second person singular. (Verba, 152). As the category of number is still preserved adjectives and pronouns partly agree in number with the nouns they modify. ME impersonal sentences still are used without formal subject. For negations negative particle ne is used and such formations as nought/nat appeared. One predicate group could contain several negative words.The structure of the sentence in ENE is conditioned by the previous development of its morphology. With the practical loss of endings by the nouns and adjectives, their position in the sentence becomes quite relevant to the meaning they render – so the direct w-o prevails, the subject precedes the predicate in non-emotional sentence. Agreement as a means of grammatical connection of the words is limited to the demonstrative pronouns that preserve their plural form. The predicate agrees with the subject when it is expressed by the verb to be or the passive form. Joining (присоединение) becomes the main way of connecting the words in the sentence.

The simple sentence: The connection between the parts of the sentence was shown by the form of the words as they had formal markers for gender, case, number and person. As compared with later periods agreement played an important role in the sentence. The order of words was relatively free. The presence of formal markers made it possible to miss out some parts of the sentence which would be obligatory in an English sentence now. The formal subject was lacking in many impersonal sentences (though it was present in others). One of the most important features was multiple negation within a single sentence or clause. The most common negative particle was ne, which was placed before the verb, it was often accompanies by other negative words, nāht or nōht (which was later shortened to not)

Ne con īc nōht sinЗan… īc nāht sinЗan ne cūðe (I cannot sing (lit. cannot sing nothing) I could not sing.

The sentence was made up of the same parts, except that those parts were usually simpler. Attributive (определение) groups were short and among the parts of the sentence there were very few predicative (предикатив, именная часть сказуемого) constructions. In the course of history the structure of the simple sentence in many respects became more orderly and more uniform. But the sentence came to include more extended and complex parts. In ME and ENE with most of endings leveled or dropped the relationship between the parts of the sentence were shown by their relative position, semantic ties, prepositions and by a more rigid (жесткая) syntactic structure. Every place in the sentence came to be associated with a certain syntactic function. E.g. the pronoun hit (it) in OE (formal subject) was used only in impersonal sentences indicating weather phenomena. In ME the subject it occurs in all types of impersonal sentences. The subject of the sentence became more varied in meaning as well as in the forms of expression. Some types of compound predicates had turned into simple. Double negation went out of use.

Compound and complex sentences: they existed since the earliest times. Coordinate clauses were mostly joined by and. Repetition of connectives at the head of each clause was common in complex sentences: Þā hē Þær tō Зefaren wæs, Þa ēodon hīe tō hīora scipum (then he came there, then they went to their ship). The pronoun and conjunction Þæt was used to introduce object clauses (объектный оборот), and adverbial clause (придаточное). Some clause are regarded as intermediate between coordinate and subordinate. They are joined asyndetically (бессоюзно), and their status is not clear. In ME and ENE differentiation between compound (сложносочиненное) and complex (сложноподчиненный) became more evident. Many new conjunctions and other connective words appeared during the ME period: bothe…and, , numerous connectives developed from adverbs and pronouns – who, what, which etc. In the 16-17 cs/ the structure of the sentence became more complicated and was further perfected in the 18^th c.

So, The syntax of Old English was much more flexible than modern English because of the declensions of the nouns. But there were certain rules. Word-order was not completely free. The case endings told the function of the word in the sentence, so word order was not very important. But as the stress began to move to the first syllable of words, the endings were not pronounced as clearly and began to diminish from the language. So in modern English, word order is very important because we no longer have declensions to show case distinctions. Instead we use prepositions. The general word order was subject - verb - object, but it did vary in a few instances:

1. When an object is a pronoun, it often precedes the verb.

2. When a sentence begins with an adverb, the subject often follows the verb.

3. The verb often comes at the end of a subordinate clause.

Let’s scan the examples:

SVO order:

He (S)  hæfde (V)  þa (O)  [i.e. Hamtunscire] oþ he (S)  ofslog (V)  þone aldormon (O). (He had it [i.e. Hampshire] until he killed the ealdorman)

VSO order:

Þa geascode (V) he (S) þone cyning (O) (Then he discovered the king)

OSV order:

Hiene (O) þa  (S) on Andred adræfde (V) (Cynewulf then drove him into [the forest] Andred)

VOS order:

Ða on morgenne gehierdun (V) þæt (O) þæs cyninges þegnas (S) (Then in the morning the kings thegns heard that)

Thus you can find that word-order wasn’t free. The sentences were structured. You can see the development of word-order in Old English. And structure SVO was distinct in Middle English, because in that period there were fewer inflections to mark the function of words in a sentence, there was less variation of standard patterns than in Old English. Though writers of verse had more freedom than prose writers to alter the word order for stylistic or metrical effects, provided that the relationship between the words was clear from grammatical form or context. In any way English syntax changed drastically during the Middle English period. The changes in syntax were hastened by the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, but they were not a result of contact with the French language, and they did not happen overnight.