Emonds & Faarlund (2014, English: The Language of the Vikings) have recently attempted to make th... more Emonds & Faarlund (2014, English: The Language of the Vikings) have recently attempted to make the case that English from its Middle period onwards is a North Germanic language, descended from the Norse varieties spoken in medieval England, rather than a West Germanic language as traditionally assumed. In this review article we critique Emonds & Faarlund’s proposal, focusing particularly on the syntactic evidence that forms the basis of their argumentation. A closer look at a number of constructions for which Emonds & Faarlund suggest a Norse origin reveals that the situation is not as they present it: in many cases, the syntactic properties of Old and Middle English are not given careful enough consideration, and/or the chronology of the developments is not compatible with a Norse origin. Moreover, Emonds & Faarlund do not engage with the large body of sound changes that constitute the strongest evidence for a West Germanic origin. We conclude that Emonds & Faarlund fail to make a convincing case either for a North Germanic origin or against a West Germanic origin.
Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages, 2014
Both Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) are usually referred to as verb-second (V2) languages. ... more Both Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) are usually referred to as verb-second (V2) languages. While it is the case that the verb may appear in second clause position after a non-subject-initial element in both languages, they are dissimilar in a number of features. In this chapter, we consider the preverbal elements of OE and OF main clauses in which the subject also precedes the verb. First we give an overview of the word order distribution in the preverbal field(s). Then we go on to consider the syntactic implications of the empirical findings, showing that OF is a homogeneous language with true V2 syntax, whereas OE has a looser syntax with two verb positions. In the last section, we show how the syntax of OE provides a frame within which contextual factors are allowed to play their part in a subtle manner, a possibility OF does not have. We conclude that OE and OF are so different that simply referring to them both as V2 languages is an oversimplification of a complex situation.
Emonds & Faarlund (2014, English: The Language of the Vikings) have recently attempted to make th... more Emonds & Faarlund (2014, English: The Language of the Vikings) have recently attempted to make the case that English from its Middle period onwards is a North Germanic language, descended from the Norse varieties spoken in medieval England, rather than a West Germanic language as traditionally assumed. In this review article we critique Emonds & Faarlund’s proposal, focusing particularly on the syntactic evidence that forms the basis of their argumentation. A closer look at a number of constructions for which Emonds & Faarlund suggest a Norse origin reveals that the situation is not as they present it: in many cases, the syntactic properties of Old and Middle English are not given careful enough consideration, and/or the chronology of the developments is not compatible with a Norse origin. Moreover, Emonds & Faarlund do not engage with the large body of sound changes that constitute the strongest evidence for a West Germanic origin. We conclude that Emonds & Faarlund fail to make a convincing case either for a North Germanic origin or against a West Germanic origin.
Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages, 2014
Both Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) are usually referred to as verb-second (V2) languages. ... more Both Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) are usually referred to as verb-second (V2) languages. While it is the case that the verb may appear in second clause position after a non-subject-initial element in both languages, they are dissimilar in a number of features. In this chapter, we consider the preverbal elements of OE and OF main clauses in which the subject also precedes the verb. First we give an overview of the word order distribution in the preverbal field(s). Then we go on to consider the syntactic implications of the empirical findings, showing that OF is a homogeneous language with true V2 syntax, whereas OE has a looser syntax with two verb positions. In the last section, we show how the syntax of OE provides a frame within which contextual factors are allowed to play their part in a subtle manner, a possibility OF does not have. We conclude that OE and OF are so different that simply referring to them both as V2 languages is an oversimplification of a complex situation.
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Papers by Kristin Bech