Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 63: Issue 4
Middle English V2: Compatible with a North Germanic source?
Author:
Joseph Emonds Palacky University, Olomouc

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Pages:
457–470
Online Publication Date:
Dec 2016
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/064.2016.63.4.4
Keywords:
Anglicized Norse; initial adverbs; Middle English; Verb-Second; Verb-Third
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The new hypothesis that Middle English descends syntactically from Norse has been strongly contested by several specialists in ME syntax. One counterargument contends that ME Verb-Second patterns with Old English in sharing Verb-Third with OE but not Norse. The present paper argues that a Mainland Scandinavian adverb så ‘so’, which appears after scene-setting adverbials (mostly PPs), is in SPEC(IP) and there blocks the common and expected UG order “PP — [IP subject — finite verb — …]” found in ME. When early Anglicized Norse lost this use of the så adverbial, the UG order resurfaced in ME; this was not because of direct descent from OE.

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Cover Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Print ISSN:
1216-8076
Online ISSN:
1588-2624

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Editor(s)-in-Chief: Katalin É. Kiss,
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Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Language English
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Year of
Foundation		 1951
Publication
Programme		 changed title
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Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia  
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ISSN 1216-8076 (Print)
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