Categorial heterogenity: Old English determiners *.ABSTRACT This paper examines the syntactic properties of two structures illustrated in (1) and (2): 1) his bone readan gim his the red gem 'his red gem' (coblick,HomU_18_[B1Hom_1]:9.125.121), 2) [thorn]aes his cwides that his saying 'that saying' (coblick,LS_17.1_[MartinMor[B1Hom_17]] :215.79.2742). Example (1) features a possessive--determiner sequence, which is characterized by the obligatory occurrence of both an adjective and simple determiners of the paradigm se/seo/[thorn]oet (Mitchell 1985: [section] 103-112). The reversed order (determiner--possessive) does not display such restrictions. In particular, the adjective is optional and compound determiners ([thorn]es/[thorn]eos/[thorn]is) are also licit in these sequences, as shown in example (2). The analysis proposed in this paper accounts for these facts by assuming that Old English Old English: see type; English language; Anglo-Saxon literature. Old English or Anglo-Saxon Language spoken and written in England before AD 1100. It belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group of Germanic languages. determiners are not a homogeneous group because they combine both adjectival ad·jec·ti·val adj. Of, relating to, or functioning as an adjective. ad  jec·ti (specifier) and pronominal pro·nom·i·nal adj. 1. Of, relating to, or functioning as a pronoun. 2. Resembling a pronoun, as by specifying a person, place, or thing, while functioning primarily as another part of speech. (head) properties. 1. Introduction Determiners have been a subject of many interesting studies in the syntactic literature. They have been approached from a broad, cross-linguistic perspective, where the focus lies on the comparison of their syntactic properties and development in various languages (Philippi 1997; Abraham 1997 for Germanic languages Germanic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by about 470 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. ; Roberts and Roussou 2003 for Romance languages Romance languages, group of languages belonging to the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic languages). Also called Romanic, they are spoken by about 670 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western and English; Vincent 1997 for Romance languages). Alternatively, there have been case studies on the development of determiners in particular languages (Batllori and Roca 2001 for Spanish). In general, these approaches concentrate chiefly on the syntactic status of determiners, on whether they are heads or specifiers, how they develop historically and what are the consequences of this evolution. From a strictly historical perspective, the work on English determiners focuses mainly on the rise of the definite article definite article n. A member of the class of determiners that restricts or particularizes a noun. In English, the is the definite article. , though the syntactic literature on this subject does not boggle bog·gle v. bog·gled, bog·gling, bog·gles v.intr. 1. To hesitate as if in fear or doubt. 2. the mind. The first important account devoted exclusively to Old English is Spamer's (1979) paper, who considers the rise of the definite article as a result of the loss of contrast between strong and weak adjective endings. Since the inflections cannot play an important grammatical role in the Early Middle English Middle English Vernacular spoken and written in England c. 1100–1500, the descendant of Old English and the ancestor of Modern English. It can be divided into three periods: Early, Central, and Late. period, a new form has to be introduced. Purdy (1973), by contrast, exploits the affinity between pronouns and determiners. He claims that the semantic similarity Semantic similarity, is a concept whereby a set of documents or terms within term lists are assigned a metric based on the likeness of their meaning / semantic content. between these two systems ends when it comes to the third person, that is the se-he/heo/hit relationship. This split, in turn, creates a lacuna lacuna /la·cu·na/ (lah-ku´nah) pl. lacu´nae [L.] 1. a small pit or hollow cavity. 2. a defect or gap, as in the field of vision (scotoma). in the system that must be filled by the definite article. More recent accounts of determiners in the history of English Jones (1988) and Millar (2000) are data-oriented and, especially the latter, give extremely detailed lists of non-agreeing forms and their functions in various contexts, which enables us to see the evolution of the determiner system from a bipartite BIPARTITE. Of two parts. This term is used in conveyancing as, this indenture bipartite, between A, of the one part, and B, of the other part. But when there are only two parties, it is not necessary to use this word. to tripartite system The Tripartite System, known colloquially as the grammar school system, was the structure by which Britain's secondary education was organised in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between the 1944 Butler Education Act and 1976. with a separate definite article form. Additionally, Millar tries to give reasons for the reshufflings in the determiner system in Early Middle English. This paper does not focus on the transitional period when important changes take place. Instead, we will look at determiners in Old English. In particular, we will investigate their syntactic behaviour in two specific structures illustrated below: 1) He sealde his [thorn]one readan gim, [thorn]aet waes hist [thorn]oet halige blod, mid [thorn]on he us gedyde He gave his the red gem, that was his that holy blood, with that he us made daelnimende [thorn]aes heofonlican rices; participators of the holy kingdom 'He gave his red gem, which was his holy blood, and thereby made us participators of the heavenly kingdom' (coblick,HomU_18_[B1Hom_1]:9.125.121). 2) Waes on [thorn]aere daede swi[thorn]e cu[eth] [thorn]aet ure Drihten is swi[thorn]e gemyndig [thorn]ces his cwides [thorn]e he was on this deed very obvious that our lord is very mindful of that his saying which he sylfa aer gecwae[eth]: himself before said 'By this deed it was very evident that our Lord is mindful of that saying of His which He himself formerly uttered' (coblick,LS_17.1_[MartinMor[B1Hom_l7]]:215.79.2742). In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , we shall look at determiners that occur with possessives and we will try to determine their syntactic properties. Specifically, we shall see that the two structures, which differ in some respects, can tell us something about the positional status of determiners just before the period that sees considerable changes in the grammatical system. The findings of the data search (1) will be interpreted in generative gen·er·a·tive adj. 1. Having the ability to originate, produce, or procreate. 2. Of or relating to the production of offspring. generative pertaining to reproduction. terms making use of relatively recent discoveries in the frameworks of Principles and Parameters Principles and parameters is a framework in generative linguistics. Principles and parameters was largely formulated by the linguists Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik, though it was the culmination of the research of many linguists. and Minimalism minimalism, schools of contemporary art and music, with their origins in the 1960s, that have emphasized simplicity and objectivity. Minimalism in the Visual Arts (Chomsky 1981, 1995; Pollock 1989) extended to the DP area (Abney 1987; Ritter rit·ter n. pl. ritter A knight. [German, from Middle High German riter, from Middle Dutch ridder, from r 1993; Bemstein 2001 and references cited therein). This is not a very usual practice when dealing with English determiners from a diachronic di·a·chron·ic adj. Of or concerned with phenomena as they change through time. point of view. However, before we go on to the proper analysis of the data, we shall consider some basic facts concerning the categorial status of determiners in Old English. 2. Determiners in Old English: Some basic facts In this section, we would like to consider the view that determiners in Old English combine both adjectival and pronominal properties. In other words, they are elements that can be conventionally treated both as adjectives and as pronouns. Note that this proposal is not new and similar attempts have been made in relation to other words/categories (cf. Quirk quirk n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. et al. 1985 and, recently, Denison 2001), who show that language exhibits gradient categorial boundaries. One indication that determiners may be considered adjectival elements concerns rich inflection inflection, in grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes. Thus walking, walks, walker have in common the root walk and the affixes -ing, -s, and in the nominal phrase Noun 1. nominal phrase - a phrase that can function as the subject or object of a verb nominal, noun phrase phrase - an expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence . Old English, being an inflected in·flect v. in·flect·ed, in·flect·ing, in·flects v.tr. 1. To alter (the voice) in tone or pitch; modulate. 2. Grammar To alter (a word) by inflection. 3. language, has a fairly elaborate case system so that there is a nearly one-to-one correspondence between a given form and its function encoded in a case-ending in both simple and compound demonstrative LEGACY, DEMONSTRATIVE. A demonstrative legacy is a bequest of a certain sum of money; intended for the legatee at all events, with a fund particularly referred to for its payment; so that if the estate be not the testator's property at his death, the legacy will not fail: but be payable paradigms, at least in the singular (cf. Millar 1994, 1995, 2000): Interestingly, we find the same endings on determiners and other nominal pre-modifiers such as adjectives, quantifiers and possessives, which may testify to their categorial similarity: Note also that these "adjectival" endings occurring on Old English demonstratives concern both the simple and the compound paradigm. In other words, there appear endings on non-determiner constituents that surface in both paradigms such as -(u)m in o[eth]rum (-um of [thorn]issum in the compound paradigm and -m of [thorn]aem in the simple paradigm), -re, as in unrihtre (-re of [thorn]isre in the compound paradigm and -re of [thorn]aere in the simple paradigm) and -ne, as in sumne (-ne of [thorn]isne in the compound paradigm and -ne of bone in the simple paradigm). Another example where the adjectival-determiner affinity is clearly noticeable is the following pair: 4) ac se sunu ana so[eth]1ice underfeng menniscnysse of us be he us mid alysde, call [eth]aes geares ymbegang hera[eth] God oelmihtigne and we mid urum [eth]eowdome ge[eth]waerlaeca[eth] [thorn]am tidum. 'The son alone truly accepted the human nature from us, which he redeemed us with; the whole course of the year praises the Almighty God and we with our service are in agreement with the seasons' (coaelhom, AEHom_l1:83-90.1535-37). 5) ne hi syngian ne magon buton [eth]am anum [eth]e [thorn]anon a·non adv. 1. At another time; later. 2. In a short time; soon. 3. Archaic At once; forthwith. Idiom: ever/now and anon afeollon for heora modignysse ongean [eth]one oelmihtigan God 'nor can they [angels] sin except for those alone who fell down from there for their pride [directed] against the Almighty God' (coaelhom, AEHom_12:26.1801_ID). The movement illustrated by the above examples may be interpreted as N-to-D movement (similar to Longobardi's 1994, 2001 account of movement noticed in the Italian DP). In particular, the noun in the first example has moved overtly to the D position to activate the DP area while the adjective occupies the specifier slot so that it checks its accusative case Noun 1. accusative case - the case of nouns serving as the direct object of a verb accusative, objective case oblique, oblique case - any grammatical case other than the nominative against an appropriate head. On the other hand, the latter example shows that accusative case can be checked in [Spec, DP]. In that case, the adjective is weakly inflected. Therefore, the fact that determiners and adjectives share certain inflections supports the assumption that they exhibit syntactic similarity. The next reason for regarding determiners as adjectival elements is word order. The usual demonstrative--adjective--noun order is sometimes disrupted, as illustrated below: 6) And [thorn]a heafda ealle wurdon gesette on ufeweardan [thorn]am geate 'and all the heads were set on the upper part of the gate' (coapollo,ApT:3.16.36_ID). 7) se leoma gehran [thorn]aem treowum ufonweardum 'the light touched the tops of the trees' (coalex,Alex: 36.17.464_ID). Similarly, beside the usual demonstrative--adjective--noun we may even find: 8) e[thorn]el [thorn]isne 'this country' (Quirk and Wrenn 1955: 89). Such distributional similarity strengthens the hypothesis that determiners are adjectival and, consequently, phrasal elements. It must be added, however, that the order in which the adjective precedes the determiner is rather marked. Nevertheless, the limited occurrence of this structure should not be taken as an argument against the adjectival character of these two constituents. On the contrary, it supports the view that determiners are not adjectives; they only exhibit some properties of adjectives. Despite strong evidence for the adjectival nature of determiners they evince e·vince tr.v. e·vinced, e·vinc·ing, e·vinc·es To show or demonstrate clearly; manifest: evince distaste by grimacing. pronominal potential as well. First, this is indicated by the possibility of Old English demonstratives being used substantivally, possibly with some emphasis (cf. Mitchell 1985), as in: 9) Be [thorn]am us halig gewrit mynga[eth] bus cwelaende 'The Holy Scripture exhorts us about that, saying' (cobenrul,BenR:7.28.15.412_ID). Further, these demonstratives, just like pronouns, refer back to the name of a thing, or a person or even to a clause: 10) Se weg is rum and for[eth]heald n. 1. A heddle. be to dea[eth]e and to hellewite last se is neara and sticol [thorn]e to life and to heofona rice laet 'the way is wide and stooping stoop 1 v. stooped, stoop·ing, stoops v.intr. 1. To bend forward and down from the waist or the middle of the back: had to stoop in order to fit into the cave. that leads to death and torments in hell and that [the way] is narrow and steep that leads to life and heavenly kingdom' (cobenrul, BenR:5.20.67_ID). 11) [ETH]a waes [THORN]aer eft gesomnad micel fyrd n. 1. (Old. Eng. Hist.) The military force of the whole nation, consisting of all men able to bear arms. The national fyrd or militia. - J. R. Green. Indiscra monna [THORN]aera elreordigra [THORN]e [eth]a lond then was there again gathered great army of Indian people of the barbarous who the land budon & we [THORN]a wi[eth] [THORN]aem gefuhton inhabited and we then against them fought 'then again a great army of barbarous Indian people who inhabited the land was gathered there and then we fought against them' (coalex,Alex:23.2.266_ID). 12) [eth]a[eth]a he waes gebroht to geleafan mid [eth]aere grapunge, [eth]a wear[eth] seo twynung [thorn]urh [thorn]aet us aetbroden 'when he was converted to faith with the touch, then the uncertainty was removed from us through that' (Mitchell 1985:[section]316). As a third point of parallelism An overlapping of processing, input/output (I/O) or both. 1. parallelism - parallel processing. 2. (parallel) parallelism - The maximum number of independent subtasks in a given task at a given point in its execution. E.g. with pronouns, they can also refer cataphorically to a clause here: 13) [thorn]aet is rihtwisnys [thorn]aet gehwylcum sy his agen cyre ge[eth]afod. 'It is justice that to everybody be allowed his own choice' (Mitchell 1985:[section]316). Next, there is practically no difference between demonstratives and personal pronouns personal pronoun n. A pronoun designating the person speaking (I, me, we, us), the person spoken to (you), or the person or thing spoken about (he, she, it, they, him, her, them). in some cases. Compare the following examples: 14) and se [thorn]e mid me ne gadera[thorn] he towyrp[eth] so[eth]lice 'and he who does not gather with me he truly destroys' (coaelhom, AEHom_4:39.539_ID). 15) and se [thorn]e rip[eth] [thorn]aet gerip se underfeh[thorn] mede 'and he who reaps the harvest he receives the reward' (coaelhom, AEHom_5:79.735ID). In the first example of the pair the determiner se is coreferenced with the pronoun pronoun, in English, the part of speech used as a substitute for an antecedent noun that is clearly understood, and with which it agrees in person, number, and gender. he. In example (15) the determiner is repeated. Apparently, this is done arbitrarily. Finally, syntactic ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity is a property of sentences which may be reasonably interpreted in more than one way, or reasonably interpreted to mean more than one thing. arises in the context of relative clauses: 16) Abel, Adames sunu, rihtwis and Gode andfenge, [thorn]one ofsloh Cain his bro[eth]or 'Abel Adam's son, just and approved by God, him/who(m) killed Cain, his brother' (Mitchell 1985: [section]322). These arguments indicate that determiners in Old English can be regarded as pronominal elements as well despite their adjectival affinity presented in the first part of this section. To sum up, there exists fairly strong evidence for adjectival as well as pronominal character of determiners in Old English. In what follows we will move on to the analysis of determiners as they interact with possessives. We shall see that their duality Duality (physics) The state of having two natures, which is often applied in physics. The classic example is wave-particle duality. The elementary constituents of nature—electrons, quarks, photons, gravitons, and so on—behave in some respects depicted in this section is further manifested in the different syntactic properties displayed in the determiner--possessive and possessive--determiner sequences. Another issue we want to tackle in the following sections is whether this duality can be reflected in structural terms. For, if pronouns are generally heads (Postal 1969; Abney 1987; Cardinaletti and Starke 1994; Panagiotidis 1998) and adjectives specifiers (Cinque 1994; Scott 2002; Laenzlinger 2000), (2) it follows that determiners, at least in theory, should be able to occupy both slots. 3. The possessive pos·ses·sive adj. 1. Of or relating to ownership or possession. 2. Having or manifesting a desire to control or dominate another, especially in order to limit that person's relationships with others: pronoun--determiner sequences In this section, we shall deal with determiners that follow possessives (the possdet constructions) and we will examine their syntactic properties. Let us first look at two examples: 17) and heom sy[eth][eth]an forgeaf his [thorn]a ecan sibbe on his rice mid him. And them afterwards gave his the everlasting everlasting or immortelle (ĭm'ôrtĕl`), names for numerous plants characterized by papery or chaffy flowers that retain their form and often their color when dried and are used for winter bouquets and decorations. peace on his reign with him 'and afterwards he gave them his everlasting peace with him in his kingdom' (coaelhom, AEHom_10:125.1468). 18) and cwae[eth]: [eth]u goda cyninge and min se leofestafieder, hwaet is [thorn]es iunga man be ongean [eth]e and said: you good king, and my the dearest father, what is this young man, who opposite you on swa wur[eth]1icum setle sit mid sarlicum andwlitan? On so distinguished a seat sits, with sorrowful sor·row·ful adj. Affected with, marked by, causing, or expressing sorrow. See Synonyms at sad. sor  row·ful·ly adv. countenance? Distinguished a seat sits, with
sorrowful countenance? 'And said: good king and my dearest father,
what is this young man, who sits opposite you on so distinguished a
seat, with sorrowful countenance?'
(coapollo, ApT: 15.3.286). We have found 326 examples of this sort in the corpus. As far as we can see, there are no major differences between third person pronouns and first and second pronouns, such as those observed for instance by van Gelderen (2000a, 2000b). Interestingly, 293 of these sequences contain the adjective or its equivalent. Apart from adjectives proper, exemplified in sentences (17) and (18) above, we find present and past participles past participle n. A verb form indicating past or completed action or time that is used as a verbal adjective in phrases such as baked beans and finished work or quantifiers: 19) Micel is Godes mildheortnyss ofer manncynne [thorn]aet he sylf wyle secan swa swa us seg[eth] [thorn]is Great is God's mercy over mankind that He Himself wishes to seek as us tells this gewrit his [eth]a tostenctan seep. & him sylf geneosian. Scripture his the scattered sheep and Himself finds out his the scattered sheep and Himself finds out 'great is God's mercy on mankind since He Himself wishes to seek and find out his scattered sheep as this scripture tells us' (cocathom 1, AECHom_I,_17_[App] :541.191.3320). 20) Nu we sceolan, men ha leofestan, [eth]a wundor gecyrran on so[thorn]faestnesse geleafan ures Drihtnes Now, we must, men the dearest, those marvels tum to the truth of faith in our Lord Haelendes Cristes, [thorn]a he burh his [thorn]a mycclan miht worhte beforan manna manna (măn`ə), in the Bible, edible substance provided by God for the people of Israel in the wilderness. In the Book of Exodus it is compared to coriander seed and described as fine, white, and flaky, with the taste of honey and wafer. eagum. Jesus Christ Jesus Christ: see Jesus. Jesus Christ 40 days after Resurrection, ascended into heaven. [N.T.: Acts 1:1–11] See : Ascension Jesus Christ kind to the poor, forgiving to the sinful. [N.T. , which he through his the great power worked before men's eyes 'now, we must, my dearest men, turn those wonders which he through his great power worked before men's eyes into the truth of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ' (coblick,HomS_8_[B1Hom_2]:l7.41.216). The partial adjectival character of quantifiers is argued in Carlson (1979) and, recently, in Bartnik (2005). As for participles, they can be inflected just like adjectives, as in example (21). Additionally, the prefix The beginning or to add to the beginning. To prefix a header onto a packet means to place the header characters in front of the packet. "To prefix" at the beginning is the opposite of "to append" characters at the end. See prepend. 1. -un in ungecorene strengthens its adjectival character: 21) ah forbon Crist [thorn]a mycclan burh & [thorn]a halgan Gerusalem swa forhogdlice nemde forbon be [thorn]a but therefore Christ the great city and the holy Jerusalem so despicable mentioned because burhware him waeron for heora ungeleafan & mandaedum swi[thiorn]e forhogde & ungecorene citizens him were for their unbelief and sin very despicable and reprobate rep·ro·bate n. 1. A morally unprincipled person. 2. One who is predestined to damnation. adj. 1. Morally unprincipled; shameless. 2. Rejected by God and without hope of salvation. 'but, nevertheless, Christ the great city and the holy Jerusalem so contemptuously con·temp·tu·ous adj. Manifesting or feeling contempt; scornful. con·temp tu·ous·ly adv. mentioned because the
citizens were to him, because of their unbelief and wickedness, very
despicable and reprobate'
(coblick,HomS_21_[B1Hom_6]:77.207.976_ID). The overwhelming preponderance of the poss-det sentences with adjectives confirms the obligatory character of the adjective (Mitchell 1985). Ideally, however, we should be able to explain away the remaining 33 cases, which seem to defy this hypothesis. Interestingly, out of these 33 cases, 20 sentences contain the word nehstan, which means 'neighbour', as illustrated below: 22) & Johannes se godspellere cwae[eth], [thorn]aiss bebod we habbe[eth] fram Gode, [thorn]aet se [thorn]e God lufige, he eac lufige his [thorn]one nextan 'John, the Evangelist evangelist (ĭvăn`jəlĭst) [Gr.,=Gospel], title given to saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The four evangelists are often symbolized respectively by a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, on the basis of Rev. 4.6–10. said: This commandment com·mand·ment n. 1. A command; an edict. 2. Bible One of the Ten Commandments. commandment Noun a divine command, esp. we have from God that he who will love God will also love his neighbour' (coalcuin,Alc_[Warn_35]:47.38). The next 10 cases contain the word halgan, which means 'saint', e.g.: 23) hie sylfe [thorn]aer Gode aelmihtigum & his [eth]am halgan him sylfum bebeoda[thorn] mid halgum gebedum, 'there they entrust themselves to God Almighty and His saints with holy prayer' (coverhom,LS_19_[PurifMaryVerc_17]:53.2176). Despite these counterexamples, we should not too hastily reject the hypothesis about the mandatory character of adjectives in these structures. Note first of all that nehstan and halgan can surface as adjectives in some contexts: 24) & swa swa hit laeaw is, [thorn]aet to ae[thorn]aelum werum & wifum manige maen hi gesomnia[eth], and similarly, it custom is that to noble men and women many people them (selves?) assemble to [thorn]on [thorn]aet hi frefrian heorat [thorn]a nehstan frynd, swa eac swylce on [thorn]a ylcan tid hire so that they (could) console their closest friends, also, likewise, on the same time her for6fore [thorn]ider comon manige weras & wif departure thither thith·er adv. To or toward that place; in that direction; there: running hither and thither. adj. come many men and women. 'and just as it is customary that many people gather around noble men and women in order that they might comfort their closest friends, in the same way many men and women came there at the (very) time of her departure (= 'death')' (cogregdC,GDPref_and 4 [C]: 17.286.17.4233). 25) Forlet he ure Drihten his [thorn]a halgan fet [thorn]aer on [thorn]a eor[thorn]an besincan mannum to ecre let he our Lord his the holy feet there into the earth sink to men as eternal gemynde, [thorn]a he aefter his [thorn]aere halgan [thorn]rowunga his [thorn]a menniscan gecynd remembrance when he after his the holy passion his the human nature on heofenas laedon wolde, [thorn]onon he naefre onweg gewiten naes [thorn]urh his [thorn]a ecan into heaven lift would whence whence adv. 1. From where; from what place: Whence came this traveler? 2. From what origin or source: Whence comes this splendid feast? conj. he never away go was not through His the eternal godcundnesse. Godhead 'Our Lord let his holy feet sink the earth there for perpetual remembrance to men, when he after his holy passion would take his human nature into heaven, from whence, by reason of his eternal divinity he had never departed' (coblick,HomS_46_[BlHom_11]: 127.207.1578). Moreover, the noun can be ellipted in Old English because of rich inflection, which further complicates the issue, since it is not always easy to decide whether we are dealing with the noun or the adjective with the noun ellipted (cf. Denison 2001, who discusses gradience  This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers.Please [improve the article] or discuss this issue on the talk page. between nouns and adjectives from a diachronic point of view). For example, YCOE YCOE Yolo County Office of Education (California) reports that nehstan in the following example is the adjective, though it may well be translated as a noun: 26) Men [eth]a leofestan us ys mycel [thorn]earf [thorn]aet we God lufien of eallre heortan & of eallre sawle & of eallum maegene & sy[eth][eth]an ure [thorn]a nehstan, [thorn]aet syndon ealle cristene menn, utan hie lufian eallswa us sylfe. 'my dear men, it is very necessary for us that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul with all our might, and then our neighbours, who are all Christian people, let us love them as we love ourselves' (coverhom, HomM_13_[ScraggVerc_21]:l.2661). The same concerns participles, which might contain an ellipted noun or might even be coordinated in these ellipted structures. Witness the examples below: 27) he [thorn]a onsende his bone wuldorfaestan gast gast tr.v. gast·ed, gast·ing, gasts Obsolete To frighten; scare. [Middle English gasten, from Old English g to helle grunde [thorn]aer bone ealdor ealra beostra & [thorn]aes ecean deabes geband & gehynde ealne his geferscipe swybe gedrefde & helle geatu & hire ha aerenan scyttelas he ealle tobraec & ealle his [thorn]a gecorenan he [thorn]onon alaedde, 'he then sent His glorious spirit to the abyss of hell and there bound and humbled the prince of all darkness and eternal death and greatly troubled his company, and completely broke in pieces the gates of hell (Script.) See Gate, n. os>, 4. See also: Hell and their bronze bolts and brought out from there all his chosen ones' (coblick,HomS_26_[B1Hom_7]:85.30.1060). 28) [eth]onne besyh[eth] se so[eth]faesta dema on ha swi[eth]ran healfe to his [eth]am gecorenum & to his [eth]am halgum, & he [eth]us cwe[eth] 'then the just judge will look to the fight side at his chosen ones and at his saints and will speak as follows' (coverhom,HomU_6_[ScraggVerc_15]: 173.1989). In some cases, a larger bit can be ellipted with the possessive and determiner left: 29) bu gename on ham aelmihtigan Gode his offrunge and nu brohtest bine to me ac ic nelle [thorn]a [thorn]ine underfon, for[thorn]on [thorn]e [thorn]u on Gode his gereafodest. 'you took away his sacrifice from the Almighty God and now you brought yours to me but I do not want to accept yours because you stole from God his [sacrifice]' (cogregdC, GDPref_and_3_[C] :26.230.24.3214). Consequently, despite the fact that in the 30 cases nehstan and halgan are tagged nouns in the corpus, it is clear that it is better to regard them as adjectives followed by an overt or a covert noun, which renders these cases quite unexceptional un·ex·cep·tion·al adj. 1. Not varying from a norm; usual. 2. Not subject to exceptions; absolute. See Usage Note at unexceptionable. un . This is further supported by the historical as well as synchronic syn·chron·ic adj. 1. Synchronous. 2. Of or relating to the study of phenomena, such as linguistic features, or of events of a particular time, without reference to their historical context. evidence of affixes: nehsta is the superlative form and -ig in halig is the adjectival ending. The halgan and nehstan sentences make up 30 cases. The three remaining exceptions are given below: 30) & befealden to Haelendes cneowum, he cwaeb, Min saul bletsab Drihten & ealle mine [thorn]a inneran his bone halgan naman. 'and having embraced the Saviour's knees, he said, my soul shall bless the Lord and all that is within me shall bless his holy name' (coblick, HomS_26_[BlHom_7]:87.99.1125). 31) [eth]aette Angel[eth]eod waes gela[eth]od fram Bryttum on Breotone; & heo sona aerest heora [thorn]a wi[eth]erweardan feor adrifan; ac nales aefter micelre tide [thorn]aet hi geweredon wi[eth] him, & heora waepen hwyrfdon wi[eth] Bryttas heora gefaran. 'that the Angles were invited into Britain by the Britons: who first soon drove out their adversaries, but not long afterwards made a treaty with them and turned their arms against the Britons their allies' (cobede, BedeHead: 1.8.9.17). 32) He gesceop men on eorban gegaderode [thorn]a saula & bone lichoman mid his [thorn]am anwealde 'He created men on earth, joined together the soul and the body by his ruling power' (coboeth,Bo:30.69.22.1291). Two out of three cases given above can be explained along the lines we suggested for nehstan and halgan. In particular, although inneran 'interior', 'inner' (cf. Bosworth and Toller 1898) and wi[eth]erweardan 'enemy' are nouns in the corpus, they are clearly marked by adjectival or adjectival/adverbial suffixes: -er and -weard, respectively. Moreover, Bosworth and Toller (1898) reports that the two words can function as adjectives. In effect, anwealde 'power' remains the only genuine exception, which does not undermine the hypothesis about the adjectival obligatoriness in the poss-det structures in the face of so many examples that contain adjectives. Consequently, we conclude that this hypothesis can be fully retained. One more issue needs to be raised in this place. These structures reveal that there exists a restriction on the choice of determiners used in these strings. Specifically, only simple determiners (see Millar 1994, 1995, 2000 for the division into simple and compound determiners), that is the se/seo/[thorn]aet paradigm, are licit here. We have found no examples whatsoever where compound determiners ([thorn]es/[thorn]is/[thorn]eos) can be preceded by possessives. This fact might additionally corroborate To support or enhance the believability of a fact or assertion by the presentation of additional information that confirms the truthfulness of the item. The testimony of a witness is corroborated if subsequent evidence, such as a coroner's report or the testimony of other the split within determiners suggested above. This section has tackled structures in which determiners and possessives surface simultaneously and the former follow the latter. We have established that when the possessive precedes the determiner the adjective must obligatorily follow the two despite apparent counterexamples. Moreover, not every determiner can crop up in such sequences. The next section, as might be expected, shall deal with the reverse order of determiners and possessives. We will look at the syntactic properties of the structure and compare it with the one presented above. 4. The determiner--possessive pronoun sequences This part is devoted to the combination of determiners followed by possessives. This is exemplified below: 33) Be [thorn]am his gehate sette he fmstnunge mid gewrite to 19ms abbodes naman and [thorn]aera halgena, by the his promise set he exhortation with writing to the Abbess' name and the saints' [thorn]e hyra reliquie, [thorn]aet is hyra ban, on [thorn]aere stowe resta[eth]. who their relics relics, part of the body of a saint or a thing closely connected with the saint in life. In traditional Christian belief they have had great importance, and miracles have often been associated with them. that is their bones, on the place rest 'according to this promise he should make confirmation in writing to the abbot's name and (the names) of the saints whose relics, that is their bones, rest in that place' (cobenrul,BenR:58.101.1.1051). 34) [eth]a mine [thorn]eowas sindon wisdomas & craeftas & so[eth]e welan 'my servants are wisdom and virtues and true riches' (coboeth,Bo:7.18.5.287). 35) and [eth]as [eth]ine gescetlan synd mine gebro[eth]ra, Auitus and Saergius, 'and these that sit with you are my brothers, Auitus and Saergius' (coaelive, AELS AELS Adult Education and Literacy System AELS Aircraft End-Of-Life Solutions (Delft, The Netherlands) AELS Applied English Language Studies _[Eugenia]:233.330). In our corpus, there are 207 sentences displaying the determiner--possessive order. With the reverse order, we immediately notice that these structures differ from the ones presented in the previous section in that they admit the adjective only optionally. That is, we can find plenty of cases without the adjective, as in examples (33), (34), (35). On the other hand, there are cases where the adjective is present: 36) ac he teah for[eth] [thorn]a his ealdan wrenceas 'but he brought forth his old tricks' (cochronE,ChronE_[Plummer]: 1003.6.1640). Importantly, both kinds of determiners are allowed in this structure. As illustrated by the above examples, we can find both simple ([thorn]am, [thorn]a) and compound ([eth]as) determiners. This part of the article shows that the properties of the det-poss string are different than the properties in the poss-det order. In particular, the adjective is an optional element, and there is a wider choice of determiners. In the following section we shall try to interpret our observations in generative terms. 5. The analysis This section offers a tentative analysis of the constructions presented above focusing on the dual nature of determiners. (3) However, before we move on to the proper analysis a few remarks on agreement inside NP/DP are in order since the elements we deal with (determiners, possessives and adjectives)show agreement for case, number and gender with the head noun. In Old English, there is an alternation alternation /al·ter·na·tion/ (awl?ter-na´shun) the regular succession of two opposing or different events in turn. alternation of generations metagenesis. between two types of inflectional endings Noun 1. inflectional ending - an inflection that is added at the end of a root word inflectional suffix ending, termination - the end of a word (a suffix or inflectional ending or final morpheme); "I don't like words that have -ism as an ending" : strong and weak endings. If strong inflectional endings are realized on the determiner or on the possessive, the adjective assumes weak endings. If, however, determiners and/or possessives do not occur, adjectives are inflected strong. Spamer (1979) interprets these facts in the following way. He suggests that there ale two kinds of adjectives, which reflect the morphological strong/weak distinction. Weak adjectives, which he calls "adjuncts", form a compound with the head noun. Moreover, they are recursive See recursion. recursive - recursion elements. By contrast, strong adjectives are non-recursive as they are treated on a par with determiners: "The demonstrative and the adjective function in the same way in the noun phrase noun phrase n. Abbr. NP A phrase whose head is a noun, as our favorite restaurant. Noun 1. noun phrase - a phrase that can function as the subject or object of a verb nominal, nominal phrase : they take essentially the same endings (in contrast to the adjuncts), they occupy the same initial position, and the use of one precludes the use of the other" (Spamer 1979: 246). Thus we can find two prenominal Pre`nom´i`nal a. 1. Serving as a prefix in a compound name. Adj. 1. prenominal - of adjectives; placed before the nouns they modify; "`red' is an attributive adjective in `a red apple'" attributive adjectives following one another and a weak adjective preceded by a strong one prenominally. However, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Spamer (1979), you will not find a sequence of two strong adjectives used prenominally unless they are conjoined conjoined /con·joined/ (kon-joind´) joined together; united. conjoined joined together. conjoined monsters two deformed fetuses fused together. by and or when at least one of them is placed postnominally. Fischer (2000) agrees that weak adjectives are adjuncts forming a kind of nominal compound. She disagrees, however, with the idea that strong adjectives are determiners. She considers them to be predicative pred·i·cate v. pred·i·cat·ed, pred·i·cat·ing, pred·i·cates v.tr. 1. To base or establish (a statement or action, for example): I predicated my argument on the facts. elements. With these ideas in mind let us inspect the Old English data presented above. Recall that cross linguistically, possessives are situated below the determiner phrase genitive, possessive, possessive case oblique, oblique case - any grammatical case other than the nominative . On the other hand, in Germanic languages, as Olsen (1989) argues, possessives are genitive genitive (jĕn`ĭtĭv) [Lat.,=genetic], in Latin grammar, the case typically used to refer to a possessor. The term is used in the grammar of other languages, but the phenomenon referred to may not closely resemble a Latin genitive; thus a marked pronouns sitting in [Spec, DP]. Taken these proposals into account, we suggest that we obtain the poss-det order in Old English by the movement of the possessive into the [Spec, DP] slot to get case. Further, we have to account for the fact that the adjective is a mandatory element of the poss-det structure. In order to do that, we want to use Spamer's and Fischer's ideas that some adjectives form compounds with the head noun. Thus, by analogy, we propose that determiners, (pro)nominal elements (cf. section 2), form compounds with the following adjectives. Such an account also explains why the determiner goes together with the adjective when the genitive occurs, as in: 37) se forecwedena Godes [thorn]eow 'the aforementioned God's servant' (GD (H) 44. 11) (Mitchell 1985: [section]110). Mitchell (1985: [section]110) considers such examples as the third pattern in which determiners and possessives (in this case, genitives) co-occur. Our analysis nicely captures the fact that in such a configuration the determiner and the adjective can go together, as shown by example (37). Another issue worth considering here is how agreement works in such constructions. An anonymous reviewer pointed out that agreement is triggered by the head-specifier relation, where specifiers are maximal projections. However, most GB accounts and some minimalist min·i·mal·ist n. 1. One who advocates a moderate or conservative approach, action, or policy, as in a political or governmental organization. 2. A practitioner of minimalism. adj. 1. works (van Gelderen 1997) allow another possibility of checking the agreement relation. More specifically, agreement features may be licensed in the head-head configuration. If this analysis is on the right track, the simple demonstrative being a head agrees with the adjective in such a configuration. Notice at this point that the idea that heads agree for [THETA] features does not have to be in conflict with the traditional assumption that only maximal projections (specifiers) can enter the agreement relation because, as Olsen (1989) suggests, strong [THETA] features are head features that must be given expression in D if this position is overtly filled. Consequently, the movement of the possessive pronoun possessive pronoun n. One of several pronouns designating possession and capable of substituting for noun phrases. is not blocked as the complex determiner-adjective sits in D. (4) The above suggestions are illustrated in Figure 1: [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The reverse det-poss order with the compound determiner ([eth]as [eth]ine) is easily derived when we assume that the determiner and the possessive are hosted only in the specifier positions [Spec, DP] and [Spec, PossP], respectively, as illustrated by Fig. 2 below. In this way, we can account for the complete absence of the poss-(compound) det sequences as the movement of the possessive to [Spec, DP] is blocked because this slot is already occupied. This is illustrated in Figure 2: [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Notice also that we put the adjective in the specifier slot as The motherboard receptacle for earlier Athlon CPU chips from AMD. It is physically similar to Slot 1, but has different electrical requirements. Later model Athlons use Socket A. See Athlon, Slot 1 and Socket A. a result of its optional character in the det-poss sentences. Agreement obtains in the usual fashion, in the spec-head relation, since the adjective is a maximal projection in this configuration. (5) In effect, we are left with the last combination to account for, namely the (simple) det-poss (se min) string. We have already suggested that simple determiners may occupy the head position, in which case the possessive automatically raises into [Spec, DP]. If we wanted to apply this line of reasoning Noun 1. line of reasoning - a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the methodical process of logical reasoning; "I can't follow your line of reasoning" logical argument, argumentation, argument, line to the sequence in question, we would have to find reason why the possessive is not promoted, as in the previous case. In such a situation we may easily resort to the often accepted explanation based on feature strength. However, such an analysis cannot be applied here as we are not dealing with two (or more) languages with considerably different inflectional in·flec·tion n. 1. The act of inflecting or the state of being inflected. 2. Alteration in pitch or tone of the voice. 3. Grammar a. systems, which is usually an indication of this featural strength. Therefore, we propose that simple determiners may occupy the [Spec, DP] slot, just like their compound counterparts. (6) This double placement results from their dual nature demonstrated in the previous sections. That is, simple determiners can be heads as they exhibit syntactic affinity with pronouns. On the other hand, they are adjectival elements placed in the specifier position, thus showing the parallelism with adjectives. Consequently, the following structures enable us to derive all the licit combinations of determiners and possessives in Old English: [FIGURE 3 OMITTED] [FIGURE 4 OMITTED] 6. Summary In this article, we have tried to show that Old English determiners are not a homogeneous group, as is traditionally claimed. We hope to have shown that they evince both adjectival and pronominal properties. The syntactic differences are also visible when these determiners are simultaneously combined with possessives. Finally, we have demonstrated that these divisions should be reflected in the syntactic analysis of these elements. The most natural way of interpreting the data is to say that determiners, just like other elements, can be both heads reflecting their pronominal nature and specifiers displaying adjectival character (see also Comileseu 1992), who contends that the demonstrative may correspond to a specifier or a head. REFERENCES Abney, Steven 1987 The English Noun Phrase in its sentential aspect. [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology ]. 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Roberts, Ian--Anna Roussou 2003 Syntactic change To the extent that a language is vocabulary cast into the mould of a particular syntax and that the basic structure of the sentence is held together by functional items, with the lexical items filling in the blanks, syntactic change is no doubt what modifies most deeply the physiognomy of . A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Scott, Gary-John 2002 "Stacked adjectival modification and the structure of nominal phrases", in: Gugliehno Cinque (ed.), 91-120. Spamer, James B. 1979 "The development of the definite article in English: A case study of syntactic change", Glossa glos·sa n. pl. glos·sas or glos·sae The tongue. 13: 241-250. Taylor, Ann--Anthony Warner--Susan Pintzuk--Frank Beths 2003 The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English. York: Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York This article is about the British university. 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Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 2000b "The role of person in the loss of verbal agreement and of pro-drop", in: Olga Fischer--Anette Rosenbaeh--Dieter Stein (eds.), 187-206. Van Kemenade, Ans--Nigel Vincent (eds.) 1997 Parameters of morphosyntactic change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vincent, Nigel 1997 "The emergence of the D-system in Romance", in: Ans van Kemenade--Nigel Vincent (eds.), 149-169. INTERNET SOURCES Lambropoulou, Stella (ed.) 1998 The 12th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. . Proceedings: Vol 1. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (often referred to in English as Aristotelian University), named after the philosopher Aristotle, is the largest university of Greece. Its campus covers 429 metric acres close to the center of the city of Thessaloniki. , available at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7103/paper.html (date of access: May 2007). * My sincere thanks go to Professor Adam Pasicki for his guidance and helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. I am also grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose insightful remarks significantly improved the article. (1) Unless otherwise specified, the data used in this paper are taken from The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English (YCOE). (2) The syntactic position of adjectives is a very contentious issue and some scholars disagree that they are specifiers. Abney (1987) and Bernstein (1993), for instance, claim that adjectives are heads. (3) The analysis of possessives lies beyond the scope of this article. However, it would be natural to say that they, just like quantifiers and determiners evince dual nature. If this analysis is on the right track, possessives at least in theory, should also enter the Middle English period as a heterogeneous category. (4) An anonymous reviewer remarks that prenominal adjectives cannot be heads as they can take PP complements in some contexts. S/he gives a Polish example: [NP dumny z syria ojciec] Indeed, Old English adjectives can take PP complements in prenominal positions. However, it never happens in the poss-det structures. As our subsequent discussion shows, adjectives can also occupy a different slot in the syntactic tree, in which case PP complements are allowed. Therefore, their ability to take complements in some contexts does not preclude the existence of head adjectives provided that adjectives can be hosted in non-head positions as well. (5) The structural location of adnominal ad·noun n. An adjective used as a noun, such as merciful in Blessed are the merciful. [ad- + noun (modeled on adverb). adjectives is a very broad topic and cannot be dealt with in detail here for space limitations. We opt for a specifier analysis of prenominal adjectives (cf. Cinque 1995; Laenzlinger 2000) in the det-poss sequences as such an account easily solves the problem of agreement, which, for instance, adjunction analyses cannot offer. 6 Alternatively, we might imagine a scenario in which it is the possessive that is placed in the head of PossP provided that we can find some evidence for the placement of the possessive in the head slot. In this way, its movement to the head of DP would be blocked by the determiner already sitting there. One way or another, we obtain the desired order. If it turns out that this solution is correct, we have evidence that possessives, just like determiners, quantifiers and adjectives, as shown in this article, exhibit dual syntactic nature. ARTUR BARTNIK The Catholic University of Lublin
Table 1. Simple paradigm: se, seo, [thorn]et 'the, that'
Singular
Masculine Neuter
Nom. se [thorn]aet
Gen. [thorn]xs [thorn]aes
Dat. [thorn]aem, [thorn]am [thorn]aem, [thorn]am
Ace. [thorn]one [thorn]aet
Instr. [thorn]y, [thorn]on [thorn]y, [thorn]on
Singular Plural
Feminine All genders
Nom. seo, sio [thorn]a
Gen. [thorn]aere [thorn]ara, [thorn]aera
Dat. [thorn]aere [thorn]aem, [thorn]am
Ace. [thorn]a [thorn]a
Instr.
Table 2. Compound paradigm [thorn]es, [thorn]is, [thorn]eos
'this, that'
Singular Plural
Masculine Neuter Feminine All genders
Nom. [thorn]es [thorn]is [thorn]eos [thorn]as
Gen. [thorn]isses [thorn]isses [thorn]isse, [thorn]issa,
[thorn]isre [thorn]isra
Dat. [thorn]issum [thorn]issum [thorn]isse [thorn]issum
Ace. [thorn]isne [thorn]is [thorn]as [thorn]as
Instr. [thorn]ys [thorn]ys
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