Old English morpho-syntax allows a degree of word order flexibility that is exploited by discourse strategies. Key elements here are: adverbs functioning as discourse partitioners, and a wider range of pronominal elements, extending the number of strategies for anaphoric reference. The syntactic effect is an extended range of subject and object positions, which are exploited for discourse flexibility. In particular, a class of high adverbs, including primarily þa “then” and þonne “then”, define on their left an area in which discourse-(linked) elements occur, including a range of pronouns, but also definite nominal subjects. The latter occur here because the Old English weak demonstrative pronouns that serve to mark definiteness also allow specific anaphoric reference to a discourse antecedent. We also develop a model of quantitative analysis that brings out the relationship between the narrowly circumscribed syntactic system and the relative diffuseness of the discourse referential facts.
LOS, BETTELOU, GEA DRESCHLER, ANS VAN KEMENADE, ERWIN KOMEN & STEFANO CORETTA
2023. The decline of local anchoring: a quantitative investigation. English Language and Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 345 ff.
Rusten, Kristian A.
2019. Referential Null Subjects in Early English,
Links, Meta, Ans van Kemenade & Stefan Grondelaers
2017. Correlatives in earlier English: Change and continuity in the expression of interclausal dependencies. Language Variation and Change 29:3 ► pp. 365 ff.
HEGGELUND, ØYSTEIN
2015. On the use of data in historical linguistics: word order in early English subordinate clauses. English Language and Linguistics 19:1 ► pp. 83 ff.
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