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Deriving object-verb order in late Middle English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1997

WIM VAN DER WURFF
WIM VAN DER WURFF
Affiliation:
Author's address: Department of English/HIL, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: WURFF@rullet.LeidenUniv.nl Department of English, University of Leiden
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Abstract

Late Middle English is a VO language in which surface OV order can nevertheless be found. This has been taken to show that the language has both OV and VO as possible underlying orders. However, there are various types of data that this hypothesis cannot account for. It is therefore argued in this article that late Middle English only had VO order underlyingly, and that all surface OV orders are derived by means of leftward movement of the object across the verb, in a manner fully compatible with the Minimalist Program. In surface OV, the object moves overtly to the functional projection AgrOP for feature-checking; LF movement is also possible (yielding surface VO), since the two derivations are equally economical. Pronominal objects can move to a higher clitic position. This analysis is shown to account for a wide range of data.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , September 1997 , pp. 485 - 509
Copyright
1997 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Part of the material in this paper was presented at the 28th Societas Linguistica Europaea conference in Leiden, August 1995. I would like to thank Werner Abraham and other members of the audience for helpful remarks and suggestions. While writing this paper, I benefited from discussion with Hans Broekhuis about object movement in the minimalist framework. I am particularly grateful to Marcel den Dikken and two anonymous JL referees for useful comments on an earlier version of this paper, which led me to rethink many of the issues dealt with. None of the people mentioned here should be held responsible for what I have done with their suggestions.