The Distribution and of Old English Adverbs

Susan Pintzuk

New York University pintzukSbabel.ling.upenn.edu

Recent studies of Old English syntax have analyzed some or all adverbs as clitics.1 For example, van Kemenade 1987 proposed that Old English R-adverbs (primarily the adverb bar 'there') are clitics, which are base-generated in and can move to positions adjoined to case assigners. And Pintzuk 1991, 1992 proposed that all unstressed adverbs, regardless of length or type, are optionally clitics, which are base-generated within the VP and adjoin to the left or right periphery of the topic. This paper presents the results of continued research on the syntax of Old English adverbs. The distribution of three different types of adverbs is described, and a structural analysis is proposed that does not involve cliticization — an analysis that is similar in many respects to those proposed for adverbs in other Germanic languages. I will be concerned primarily with adverbs that appear in a position to the left of the finite verb, pushing the verb into third or fourth position in the clause and resulting in superficial violations of the verb-second constraint. Section 1 of this paper presents background assumptions about the underlying and derived structure of Old English clauses. Sections 2, 3, and ^ discuss the distribution and syntax of VP adverbs, temporal adverbs, and sentential adverbs. Section 5 presents conclusions and proposals for future research.

1. Background: The Underlying and Derived Structure of Old Eng1i sh c1auses3

Although it is generally agreed that Old English is a verb-second language (see, for example, Haeberli 1992, van Kemenade 1987, Kiparsky 1990, Koopman 1985, Lightfoot 1991, among many others), the precise underlying and derived structure of Old English clauses is a matter of some debate. I adopt the terminology of Santorini 1992a on the history of Yiddish, and assume the double base hypothesis for Old English — that is, synchronic variation in the underlying position of Infi, clause-medial vs. clause-final.3 In all clauses, the finite verb obligatorily moves to Infi to receive tense. I assume that VP's in Old English are head-final and, following one version of the VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis (Fukui and Speas 1986, Kitagawa 1986, Sportiche 1988, inter alia), that the subject of the clause is base-generated in Spec(v'P). All clauses contain a topic position, Spec(IP), which can be filled by either the subject or

UioO a non-subject constituent. The alternation in phrase structure, Infl-medial vs. Infl-final, is shown in (1):

(1) a. Infl-medial phrase structure

L ip" • • • L i j L vr ... v J J t I b. Infl-final phrase structure dp. ... Cvi- ... v 3 c x :: I fr

I assume that in the general case, verb seconding in Old English involves movement of the finite verb to clause-medial Infi, and not movement of the finite verb to Comp, as in German and Dutch. Further verb movement from Infi to Comp is possible in Old English, but only in a small set of exceptional clause types, which I will discuss below. Evidence for two distinct landing sites for fronted finite verbs can be seen from the position of subjects. Full-NP subjects, when they are not the topic, appear immediately after the finite verb in most Old English verb-second clauses, since they remain in their base-generated position in Spec(VP). An example is shown in (2).

(2) Verb-second clause with a non-subject topic

eow sceolon deor abitan you(ACC) shall beasts(NOM) devour '... beasts shall devour you.' (fELS 2^.35)

In contrast, pronominal subjects normally appear before the finite verb — in topic position, or before the topic, or between the topic and the verb. These positions are illustrated in examples <3) through (5) below,*• all of which are verb-second clauses: Although the verb is not necessarily the second constituent of the clause, all three clauses involve leftward verb movement to a specific structural position, clause-medial Infl.° In (3), the pronominal subject h_i_ is the topic in Spec (IP). In (^), the topic is baet, and the pronominal subject hie appears to the left of it. In (5), the topic is öS bis, and the pronominal subject ic_ appears between the topic and the finite verb.

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(3) Cip. hi. Ci toflowa

(4) &• C ir» hie bast Ci gelaeston 3 swa 3 and thev that fulfilled thus '... and they fulfilled it in that way.' (ChronA 76.15 (878))

(5) CIf- aS bis ic. [t campode3 be 3 until this I_ fought (for) you3 'Until now I fought for you.' ((ELS 31.103)

Using the framework of Klavans 1985, Pintzuk 1991, 1992 analyzes the pronouns in (4) and (5) as clitics, which adjoin to the left or right periphery of the topic in Spec(IP). The derived structures are shown in (6), where 'cl' is the clitic.

(6) Clitic attachment to the left or right periphery of Spec«IP):

IP IP / \ / \ Spec I' Spec I' /\/\ /\/\ Spec cl I VP cl Spec I VP

The examples in (3) through (5) show the normal position of the pronominal subject in main clauses: Regardless of which constituent is the topic, the pronoun appears before the finite verb. It is only in certain exceptional clause types — verb-initial declarative and imperative clauses, direct questions, clauses with a clause-initial adverb, and some clauses with negated verbs — that the pronominal subject appears after the finite verb. Examples are given in (7) through (10):

(7) Verb-initial declarative main clause:

hafdon h_i_ hiora onfangen had thev them sponsored 'They had sponsored them ...' (ChronA 86.28-29 (894))

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(8) Verb-initial imperative clause:

beo £u_ on ofeste be vou in haste 'Be quick.' (Beo 386)

(9) Direct question:

hwi sceole we. obres mannes niman why should we. another man's take 'Why should we take those of another man?' (ffiLS 24.188)

(10) Clauses with adverbs in initial position:

a. ba ge-mette he. sceaJan then met he. robbers ' . . '. then he met robbers . . . ' (flELS 31.151)

b. bonne magon ge. bar eardungstowe habban then may- you there dwelling-place have '... then you may have a dwelling-place there.' (Bede 28.15)

c. swa magon we be maran blisse habban pa so may we. the greater bliss have the

Easterdagas Eastertide

'... so we may have the greater bliss during the Eastertide ...' (BIHom 35.33-34)

d. and swa £eah ne do we. nan ping to Gode and yet not do we. no thing for God '... and yet we do nothing for God ...' (fECHom i.8.8-9)

The finite verb in these examples is to the left of the subject and therefore must be to the left of IP, in Comp, since the pronominal subject in verb-second clauses remains in IP — either as the topic in Spec(IP) or as a clitic adjoined to Spec(IP). Thus the position of the pronominal subject with respect to the finite verb provides a diagnostic for the position of the verb: If the pronominal subject appears before the verb, the verb is in Infi; if the pronominal subject appears after the verb, the verb is in Comp. In Pintzuk 1991, it is proposed that movement of the verb from Infi to Comp is triggered by an

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operator in Spec(CP), which may be either phono logically empty, as in examples (7) and (8), or else lexically realized by the clause-initial constituent — the wh- element or the adverb — as in (9) and (10). According to this analysis, the structure of (10a) is shown in (11).A This structure will be modified later in this paper.

(11) Ccr pa j Cc ge-mettev3 [iP he sceacTan t ,, tt3 3 then met he robbers '... then he met robbers ...' ((ELS 31.151)

Having presented this background in some detail, I can now describe the distribution of three different types of Old English adverbs in terms of the basic structure of Old English clauses. In the discussion that follows, I will not consider adverbs that have been topicalized to Spec(IP), as shown in (12) below, or those that have been postposed to a position after the main verb, as shown in (13). Topicalization and postposition affect all types of maximal projections in Old English, not just adverbial phrases, and these processes are therefore irrelevant to the description of the special syntax of adverbs.

(12) CIP. swi

'An untaught steersman can very easily steer straight enough on a smooth sea.' (CP 58.2-3)

(13) dp. we Ci moton3 [Vp nu secgan33 swutel 1 icor be we must now speak more-plainly about tfysum this

'We must now speak about this more plainly ...' ((ELS 25.37)

2. VP adverbs

First, let us consider the distribution of VP adverbs. The clearest cases of this type are manner adverbs. Manner adverbs are almost invariably positioned within the VP in Old English clauses. They can appear anywhere within the VP, either adjacent

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to the main verb or separated from it by one or more constituents, as shown in (14) and (15).

(14) & Ct r pa lareowas Lx sceolan3 C Vp- synnf ul lum and the teachers must sinful

mannum eadmodlice tacan33 men humbly teach

'And the teachers must teach sinful men humbly ...' (BIHom 43.14-15)

(15) and Cir- hi Zx sceolon3 C Vf= aecneordl ice heora and they should sedulously their

underbeoddum bodian3 3 subjects preach

'... and they should preach sedulously to their subjects ...' ((ECHom i.36.11-12)

I assume that manner adverbs are base-generated in and remain within the VP. Their relative position with respect to other VP constituents may of course be affected by scrambling.

3. Temporal adverbs

Next, let us consider temporal adverbs. The most common position for temporal adverbs is clause-initial; clauses with temporal phrases (not only AdvP's, but also PP's and NP's) in initial position occur with some frequency in most Old English texts. Examples are given below:

(16) & fullice .lxx. wintra svSSan on an was and fullv 70 years afterwards continually was se tfeodscype eall gefeowod under heora feonda the nation all enslaved under their enemies'

gewealde power

'And for fully 70 years afterwards, all the nation was continually enslaved under their enemies' power ....' (WHom 6.120-121)

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(17) b_a_ «r Anastasies bam seofofan dage se ylca then before Anastasius' the seventh day the same broker was eac fortffered brother was also died

'Then, before Anastasius' seventh day, the same brother also died ' (GD(C) 53.29-31)

(18) bas cvninaes tidum se Arrianisca gedwola was (in) that king's time the Arian heresy was

upcumen arisen

'The Arian heresy arose in that king's time.' (Bede 42.18-19)

I analyze these clause-initial temporals as left-dislocated, perhaps adjoined to CP; it should be noted that the left dislocation of temporal and adverbial phrases is widespread in Medieval German and Dutch, and is obligatory in certain conditional clauses in Modern German (Beatrice Santorini, pers. comm.). This analysis for Old English is supported by three distributional facts. First, temporal phrases occur in this position only in matrix clauses. Temporal phrases are of course used in subordinate clauses, but I have found no examples of a temporal phrase as the initial constituent in a string of two or more heavy constituents before the finite verb. Second, temporal phrases but no other constituents can occur before left-dislocated constituents, as shown in (19) below:

(19) xr Sam Se Romeburh oetimbred ware busend wintra &. before Rome bui It was thousand years and an hund 8» svxtig, bat wastmbare land on bam one hundred and sixty, that fruitful land on which Sodome & Gomorre Sa byrig on waron, hit wear«? fram Sodom and Gomorra the cities on were, it was by heofonlicum fyre forbarned heavenly fire burned 'That fruitful land, where the cities of Sodom and Gomorra were located, it was burned by heavenly fire one thousand one hundred and sixty years before Rome was built ... <0r 22.g9_31)

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And third, only temporal phrases and left-dislocated constituents can occur in initial position in clauses with the finite verb in Comp, as shown in (20) and (21):

(20) Sa onsaodnysse, ba Se fram eow deoflum waron the sacrifices, which by vou devils were

aaoldene, [c ne magon3 hi Sam undertfeoddum offered. not can they the devotees

geful1tumian help

'The sacrifices, which you offered to devils, they can't help the devotees ...' (Bede 36.25-26)

(21) ba under bam pa Cc bestal3 he hine on niht onweg then meanwhile then stole he him in night away 'Then, meanwhile, he stole away in the night ...' (ChronA 92.9-10 (901))

Given this distribution, it is clear that clause-initial temporal phrases, in particular clause-initial temporal adverbs, occupy a position to the left of Comp, perhaps outside CP.

4. Sentential adverbs Next, let us consider sentential adverbs. In contrast to manner adverbs, sentential adverbs, when they appear within the VP, are always positioned at the left periphery of the VP. Examples are shown in (22) and (23).

(22) and [:P se godes peowa d sceall3 [Vr svmle for us and the God's servant must always for us

gebiddan3 J pray

'And the servant of God must always pray for us ...' ((ELS 25.821-822)

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(23) CIF> ic Ci eom3 CVP soSl ice of cynelicum cynne cumen33 I am truly of kingly race come 'Truly, I have come from a kingly race.' (ApT 4.3)

This position at the left periphery of the VP is the normal one for sentential adverbs in Germanic languages; and in fact the relative order of the sentential adverb and the finite verb is frequently used as a diagnostic to determine whether the verb has moved leftward over the adverb and therefore out of the VP in subordinate clauses? see, among many others, Vikner 1991.

Again unlike manner adverbs, sentential adverbs can appear clause-initially, pushing the finite verb to third or fourth rather than second position. Examples are shown in (24) through (27). Notice that (27) is a subordinate clause, demonstrating that the clause-initial position for sentential adverbs is available not only in main but also in subordinate clauses:

(24) hwabere Sa Scibbie noldon hiene gesecan however the Scythians not-would him attack 'However, the Scythians wouldn't attack him ...' (Or 45.19-20)

(25) ac bonne hweSere bet ne meg uncuf beon but then however that not may unknown be 'But then, however, that may not be unknown ...' (Chad 202-203)

(26) witodlice on swa micelre sibbe was Crist acenned truly in such great peace was Christ born 'Truly, Christ was born in such great peace ...' ((ECHom i.32.15-16)

(27) pat swabeah ealle ba burgware ne mehton that nevertheless all the inhabitants not could

hiene anne genieddan him alone force

'... that, nevertheless, all the inhabitants couldn't force him alone ...' (Or 73.13-14)

I assume that these adverbs are adjoined to the left periphery of IP. Adjunction of sentential adverbs to IP is a productive process in other Germanic languages: It is clearly possible in , as can be seen from the translations

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of examples (24) through (27). Furthermore, Schwartz and Vikner 1989 show that adjunction of sentential adverbs to IP is possible in languages like German and Swedish.

Finally, some adverbs can appear between the topic and the finite verb in Infi. Examples are shown in (28) through (31):

(28) Decius Jja. het pa halgan cyningas his Decius then ordered the holy kings (to) his

godum geoffrian gods sacrifice

'Then Decius ordered the holy kings to sacrifice to his gods. ' (fELS 24.15-16)

(29) Ieremias fonne wilnode singallice hine getfidan to Jeremiah then wanted continually him join to

£are lufan his scippendes the love (of) his creator

'Then Jeremiah wanted to continually join himself to the love of his creator.' (CP 48.16-17)

(30) pat se cyning swa ware efnblissende that the king thus was feeling-pleasure '... that the king was thus enjoying himself ...' (Bede 62.17-18)

(31) se halga wer swa-beah nas ahafen purh pa the holy man nevertheless not-was 1 ifted-up by the

gesihbe vision

'Nevertheless, the holy man wasn't lifted up by the vision. * ((ELS 31 .88)

Koopman 1992 proposes that adverbs in this position serve to link the sentence with the preceding context, and he suggests that they are outside the syntax of Old English. In other , he suggests that they are parenthetical and not part of the structure of the clause. Koopman gives some Old English examples where the most natural Modern English reading involves an intonation break after the adverb, as shown in (32) (»Koopman 1992:5, his example (34)):

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(32) seo dohtor S_a, swa swa we ar sadon plegode the daughter then as we before said played

mid hire madenum with her maidens

'The daughter then, as we said before, played with her maidens ...' ((ECHom i.480.30-31)

There are several problems with Koopman's analysis. First, in many of the clauses like (32) that Koopman uses as examples, the intonation break is required not by the adverb but by the following constituent. The intonation break is necessary even if the adverb is not present; this can be seen by reading example (32) without the underlined adverb. Thus the fact that an intonation break occurs after the adverb cannot be used as evidence for suggesting that the adverb itself is parenthetical. Second, although it is of course possible that adverbs between the topic and the finite verb are parenthetical, this type of analysis for a regularly occurring order pattern should be used only as a last resort. And third, Koopman's analysis fails to account for the fact that the set of adverbs that can appear between the topic and the finite verb seems to be the same set that can appear clause-initially in cases where the verb has moved from Infi to Comp. Compare examples (28) through (31) with the examples in (10). Moreover, the function of these adverbs in both positions appears to be the same, i.e. to link the clause with the preceding discourse.

Given this correspondence, I would like to propose an analysis different from Koopman's. I suggest that in clauses like (28) through (32), the lexical head Adv adjoins to Infi, as shown in <33). This type of adjunction for adverbs is not unprecedented for Germanic languages: Santorini 1992b analyzes stylistic fronting in Icelandic, in particular the fronting of adverbs, as adjunction of a lexical head to Infi.

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(33) IP / \ Spec I' ! / \ XPj I VP / \ / \ Adv^ I / \ ! / \ Vt / \ / \ / \ • • • t j • • • ^ tr • • • t i

In cases of verb movement to Comp, the adverb adjoined to Infi moves as a unit with the V+Infl complex, as shown in (34):

(34) CCp. ... Cc Ci Adv V3x 3 CIP. ... t* ...33

Thus, in cases of verb movement to Comp in clauses with an adverb as the first constituent, the adverb is not in Spec(CP), as suggested earlier, but in Comp along with the finite verb. This explains the fact that the same adverbs that appear between the topic and the finite verb in Infi also appear as the initial constituent in clauses with the verb in Comp.

One consequence of this analysis is that wh- questions with an adverb between the wh- constituent and the finite verb should be grammatical in Old English, with the word order and structure shown in (35):

(35) a. XPC+wh3 - Adverb - V - ...

b. CP / \ XP C' C+wh3 / \ C IP I l I / \ ADV I

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In fact, I have found one wh- question with the adverb between the wh- constituent and the finite verb, out of 43 wh- questions in the Helsinki corpus'1' that contain the adverb bonne 'then'. This one example is shown in (36). In the other 42 wh- questions, the adverb appears after the finite verb, as shown in (37) and (38). A larger database, with more examples of questions containing sentential adverbs, will help to determine how frequently the word order in (36) is used.

(36) forhwy fonne sceal anegum men «Tyncean to why then shall (it) (to) any man seem too

reife oSSe to uniefe fat ... severe or too hard that ...

'Why then shall it seem too severe or hard to any man that ...?' (CP 260.19-20)

(37) hwylc bi

(3B) hwar beob bonne his welan & his wista? where are then his riches and his feasts? 'Where then are his riches and his feasts?' (BIHom 111.33)

5. Conclusions In summary, the analysis presented in this paper provides an account of the distribution of VP adverbs, temporal adverbs, and sentential adverbs, using structures and processes similar to those proposed for other Germanic languages. The analysis supports the assumption implicit in much recent work on Old English syntax: Despite the somewhat chaotic appearance of the surface word order, Old English can be analyzed as a well-behaved West Germanic language. In particular, the position of sentential adverbs does not "count" for verb-seconding, since these adverbs, when they appear before the finite verb, may be adjoined to IP or to Infi. Although the data I have discussed may seem unsurprising to those linguists are familiar with Germanic syntax and word order, to my knowledge it is the first time that the distribution of these three types of Old English adverbs has been described within a formal structural analysis of Old English.

Uibu It must be emphasized, however, that additional data are needed to provide evidence for or against the analysis proposed above. For example, it is shown in Pintzuk 1991 that the adverbs that appear in clause-initial position in clauses with verb movement to Comp vary by speaker. If it can be shown that the same variation exists with respect to the adverbs that appear between the topic and the finite verb, with individual authors using the same adverbs in both positions, that would support the hypothesis that both types of clauses involve adjunction of the adverb to Infi. Similarly, if it can be shown that a somewhat different set of sentential adverbs appear adjoined to the left periphery of IP, that would support the hypothesis that adverbs before the topic are derived by a different process than adverbs between the topic and the finite verb. And finally, as noted in connection with examples (36) through (38), it is necessary to determine how frequently adverbs appear between the wh- element and the finite verb in direct questions, since the existence of questions with that surface woro oraer is predicted by the analysis.

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Notes

1 An earlier version of this paper was presented in January 1993 at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Los Angeles, California.

E Arguments supporting the assumptions in this section are presented in detail in Pintzuk 1991, 1993.

3 In contrast to Pollock 1989, I assume a simple Infi node.

"* In (3) through (5), and in many examples in the remainder of this paper, I show the s-structure without the traces of the finite verb or of the topic.

= The fact that these clauses necessarily involve leftward verb movement can be seen from the post-verbal position of the particle, adverb, and pronoun. See Pintzuk 1991, 1993 for discussion.

*• Note that clauses with the finite verb in Comp may be either Infl-medial or Infl-final in underlying structure.

•" I would like to thank Tony Kroch for permitting me to use his copy of the Helsinki corpus.

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