English historical linguistics 2008 : selected papers from the fifteenth International Conference on English historical linguistics (ICEHL 15), Munich, 24-30 August 2008

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910956164903321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, : John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2010
• ISBN: 9786612895777; 9781282895775; 128289577X; 9789027287793; 9027287791
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (296 p.)
• Collana: Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, , 0304-0763 ; ; v. 314
• Altri autori (Persone): LenkerUrsula; HuberJudith <1981->; MailhammerRobert <1975->
• Disciplina: 425
• Soggetti: English language - Grammar, Historical; English language - History
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: The fourteen contributions to this volume, which were selected from papers delivered at the 15th International Conference on the History of the English Language (ICEHL) held at the University of Munich (24-30 August 2008).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: v. 1. The history of English verbal and nominal constructions / edited by Ursula Lenker, Judith Huber, Robert Mailhammer --; pt. 1. Verbal constructions -- pt. 2. Modality and (marginal) modals -- pt. 3. Developments in the English noun phase -- pt. 4. Syntactic variation and change through contact.
• Sommario/riassunto: Stylistic fronting is an operation which moves elements generally occupying the position to the right of the finite verb such as adjectives, past participles, and adverbs to the position immediately preceding it in clauses with a subject gap. The operation is typically observed in Modern Icelandic and in earlier stages of the Scandinavian languages. In this article I will extensively examine Old and Middle English texts ; and show that word order patterns arguably attributed to stylistic fronting are widely observed both in Old and Middle English and are not confined to texts which are likely to have been heavily influenced by Old Norse speakers. This is contrary to Trips (2002), who attributes the presence of the stylistic fronting patterns in the Ormulum to the Scandinavian invasions. Taking into consideration the wide distribution of relevant examples, I will conclude that the process of stylistic fronting was a genuine property of Old and Middle English.