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The Distribution and Syntax of Old English Adverbs Susan Pintzuk

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The Distribution and Syntax 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. U X 0 ** 154 (3) Cip. hi. Ci toflowa<S3 switfe hrajtfe ut 3 thev flow very quickly out 'They flow out very quickly.' <CP 439.6) (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)) UiuO 155 (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 UiOU 156 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<?e eatfe Ci m«g3 C^i- on smyltre s* ungelared very easily can on smooth sea untaught scipstiora genoh ryhte stieran33 steersman enough straight steer '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 uioV 157 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 '..
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