P in Old English. P-Stranding, Postpositions, and Particles in a Cartographic Perspective
Sede Amministrativa: Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN: Scienze Linguistiche, Filologiche e Letterarie INDIRIZZO: Linguistica CICLO XXIV P in Old English. P-Stranding, Postpositions, and Particles in a Cartographic Perspective Direttore della Scuola: Ch.ma Prof. Rosanna Benacchio Coordinatore d’indirizzo: Ch.mo Prof. GianLuigi Borgato Supervisore: Ch.ma Prof. Cecilia Poletto Dottoranda: Silvia Rossi Abstract This thesis investigates two peculiar phenomena affecting the prepositional phrase in Old English: (i) preposition stranding, obligatory with the relative particle þe and the R-elements (þær > ModE. there, her > ModE. here, hwær > ModE. where), and optional with the personal pronouns; (ii) the system of particles (and prevebs) of prepositional/adverbial origin. In his Old English Syntax (1985), B. Mitchell considered all these phenomena under a single section, remarking how difficult it was to draw a clear-cut distinction in Old English between prepositions, adverbs. separable and inseparable prefixes. This difficulty originates from the fact that in each of these phenomena the complement of the preposition either remains unexpressed or precedes its preposition. The preposition seems thus to occur alone and its syntactic status appears ambiguous between a preposition, an adverb and a preverb. Clearly, the problem is primarily terminological, yet it has also significant syntactic and theoretical implications. By adopting the recently developed accounts on the internal and external Cartography of PPs (Koopman 2000 den Dikken 2006, Tortora 2008, Cinque 2010, Svenonius 2010; Schweikert 2005, Cinque 2006), and the most recent developments on the structural representation of verb-particle/prefix combinations (Svenonius 2003, 2004a,b 2007, 2010; Damonte & Padovan 2011), the abovementioned phenomena can be given a unitary account.
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