Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change

by Miller, D. Gary

• ISBN13: 9780198299608
• ISBN10: 0198299605
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book seeks to answer the questions: why do grammars change, and why is the rate of such change so variable? A principal focus is on changes in English between the Anglo-Saxon and early modern periods. The author frames his analysis in a comparative framework with extended discussions of language change in a wide range of other Indo-European languages. He deploys Chomsky's minimalist framework in a fruitful marriage of comparative and theoretical linguistics within an argument that will be accessible to practitioners in both fields.

Author Biography

D. Gary Miller is Professor of Classics and Linguistics at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969, with a dissertation on Studies in Some Forms of the Genitive Singular in Indo-European. He has authored some forty articles on Indo-European, Classical, and General Linguistics. His books include Complex Verb Formation (1993) and Ancient Scripts and Phonological Knowledge (1994).

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
Dating and Other Conventions	xvii
List of Abbreviations	xix
Introduction	1	(1)
The Nature of Nonfinite Structures	1	(1)
Assumptions about Language Change	2	(2)
Plan of the Book	4	(7)
Case Checking and Accord	11	(18)
Introduction	11	(1)
General case theory	11	(6)
Types of case	11	(1)
Structural case	12	(1)
Inherent case	12	(1)
Semantic case	13	(1)
Default case	14	(1)
Case accommodation	15	(1)
P-case: structural and inherent case accommodation (Latin)	16	(1)
Case and Accord	17	(5)
Syntactic case (licensing) and morphological (m-)case	17	(2)
The case-agreement interrelation: Accord	19	(1)
Multiple case checking	20	(2)
Case checking, raising, and AI in Latin	22	(5)
The Latin accusative and infinitive	22	(3)
Raising and impersonal verbs	25	(2)
Conclusion	27	(2)
Case theory and Accord: summary	27	(2)
Tense and Nonfinite Clauses	29	(20)
Introduction	29	(1)
The problem of tense	30	(4)
Tense as a theoretical construct	30	(1)
Tense and event time	31	(3)
Infinitives with tense	34	(5)
M-tensed infinitives in Ancient Greek	34	(2)
Infinitives with m-tense: Latin and Turkish	36	(1)
Reflective verbs, infinitival tense, and eventive predicates	37	(2)
Infinitival structures with and without tense	39	(3)
Restructuring	39	(2)
Restructuring and non-restructuring verbs	41	(1)
Gerundial and infinitival complements	42	(5)
Temporal interpretation	42	(2)
Infinitive and gerundial selection	44	(3)
Conclusion	47	(2)
Tense and nonfinite structures	47	(2)
Null Subjects and Control	49	(26)
Introduction	49	(1)
Control	50	(12)
Obligatory and non-obligatory control	50	(1)
The classical view	50	(1)
A reclassification of OC and NOC	51	(1)
Some recent accounts of obligatory control	52	(1)
Movement accounts	52	(1)
Accounts with no infinitival subject position	53	(1)
Locality accounts and control shift	54	(1)
An account based on tense and agreement	55	(1)
Accounts of non-obligatory control	56	(1)
Arbitrary control and implicit datives	56	(2)
Implicit agents and rationale clauses	58	(2)
Criteria for genuine non-obligatory control	60	(1)
NOC, logophoricity, and inalienable possession	61	(1)
The case of PRO	62	(4)
The Null Case hypothesis	62	(1)
The position of PRO	63	(2)
PRO and [-actualized] case	65	(1)
The distribution of PRO	66	(9)
PRO and lexical subjects	66	(2)
Infinitival mood and null subjects	68	(3)
Speculations on PRO and Switch Reference	71	(1)
Consequences and conclusions	72	(3)
Plain and Conjugated Infinitives	75	(36)
Introduction	75	(1)
Portuguese	76	(10)
Core infinitival structures	76	(1)
Subject and object control	77	(1)
Prepositional infinitival clauses	78	(1)
Bridge and factive complements	79	(3)
Extraction from infinitival structures	82	(2)
Accord and raising	84	(2)
Hungarian	86	(4)
Distribution of PI and CI	86	(2)
Dative case and Accord	88	(1)
Portuguese and Hungarian compared	89	(1)
Welsh	90	(3)
PRO and the status of agreement	90	(1)
Account of the Welsh distribution	91	(2)
Modern Greek	93	(15)
General description	93	(2)
Control	95	(1)
Other accounts	96	(2)
Structure of the Balkan infinitival	98	(2)
Perception and epistemic complements	100	(2)
Causative complements	102	(1)
Tense contrasts and matrix case attraction	103	(1)
Linearization in matrix clauses	104	(2)
Linearization in embedded clauses	106	(2)
Conclusions	108	(3)
Plain and conjugated infinitives	108	(1)
Reflections on the morphology of control	109	(2)
West Greenlandic	111	(25)
Introduction	111	(1)
The contemporative mood	111	(10)
Agreement marking	111	(2)
Traditional infinitival account	113	(1)
Adjunct clauses	114	(1)
Purposives and quasi-purposives	115	(1)
Object control verbs in a subject control structure	116	(1)
Control in complement structures	117	(1)
Implicit arguments and psychological subjects	118	(2)
Summary: functions and structures of the contemporative	120	(1)
The participial mood	121	(15)
A complementary non-matrix formative	121	(1)
Formation	121	(1)
Relation to the contemporative: coreference and switch reference	122	(1)
Participial functions	123	(1)
Relativization: case and number agreement	123	(1)
Absolute function	124	(1)
Conjugated infinitive	125	(1)
Verb complementation	125	(1)
Factivity, apposition, and subordination	126	(1)
Complements of passivized matrix verb	127	(1)
Declined infinitive	128	(1)
Object complementation with non-structural case	128	(1)
Perception and bridge verb complements	129	(1)
Perception and reflective functions	129	(1)
ECM/raising	130	(2)
Conclusions	132	(1)
The participial mood: overview	132	(1)
Summary by form and function	133	(1)
Contemporative, participial, and switch reference	134	(2)
Small Clauses and ECM	136	(21)
Introduction	136	(1)
Core properties of small clauses	137	(4)
Constituency and predication	137	(1)
Tense and the small clause	138	(1)
Extraction/raising out of small clauses	139	(2)
SC extensions: particle, preposition, complementizer	141	(2)
Affinities between SC particles and prepositions	141	(1)
SC particles and complementizers	142	(1)
SCs and ECM clauses with BE	143	(3)
SCs as structures with null verb BE	143	(2)
Optional merger with BE	145	(1)
Towards an analysis of ECM in English	146	(5)
Evidence for raising: binding theory	146	(2)
Linearization evidence for overt raising	148	(1)
Auxiliaries, states, events, and adverbs of quantification	149	(1)
Tense and eventive predicates	150	(1)
Infinitival complements to reflective verbs in French	151	(6)
Preliminary Description	151	(2)
French RVICs in comparative perspective	153	(1)
An account of the French RVICs	154	(2)
Conclusion	156	(1)
The ECM Innovation in English	157	(30)
Introduction	157	(1)
Recent accounts of the history of ECM	158	(6)
Control and ECM	158	(1)
ECM as a Latinate structure	159	(1)
ECM in glosses and translations	160	(1)
Association of the to-infinitive with ECM	161	(2)
Distinctions among reflective and ECM verbs	163	(1)
SC complements in historical perspective	164	(8)
SC complements to reflective verbs in Indo-European	164	(2)
The small clause in Old English	166	(1)
Extraction/raising out of SCs in Old English	167	(2)
Locationals in SCs	169	(1)
Merger of SCs with BE in Old English	170	(1)
Variation in translating Latin AI constructions	171	(1)
ECM in Late Old English and Middle English	172	(8)
Reflective verb complements in later OE	172	(2)
Verbs that avoided ECM	174	(1)
Continuity of SC complements to reflective verbs in ME	175	(1)
BE-expansion of SCs and evolving contrasts in ME	176	(1)
Verba cogitandi et sciendi	177	(1)
ECM and passive raising	178	(1)
ECM and WH movement	179	(1)
Accord changes in English RVICs	180	(4)
[+Accord] infinitival complements in older English	180	(2)
The change in parameter setting	182	(2)
Conclusions	184	(3)
The rise of ECM	184	(1)
Summary of developments in the history of ECM	185	(2)
Infinitives in Older English	187	(55)
Introduction	187	(1)
Development of the to infinitive	188	(3)
From purposive adjunct to gerundive/infinitive argument	188	(1)
Adjective and verb complementation	189	(2)
Infinitives in Middle English	191	(4)
The three Middle English infinitives and aspect	191	(2)
Purposives	193	(1)
Adjectival complements	194	(1)
Noun complementation	195	(1)
Dative and infinitive	195	(6)
Old English	195	(2)
Middle English	197	(1)
Dative as infinitival subject	198	(1)
Optional case assigners	198	(2)
Infinitives with lexical subject	200	(1)
The for NP to INF reanalysis	201	(6)
Early examples	201	(1)
Synchronic alternations in Middle English	202	(1)
For to INF and For NP to INF	203	(2)
Reprise and conclusion	205	(2)
The interaction of adjectives and infinitives	207	(12)
Major adjectival classes	207	(2)
Groups I and II and evaluative gerundials	209	(3)
Group I adjectives: the null operator analysis	212	(1)
Group II adjectives: null operator or movement?	213	(2)
Group I structures in Old and Middle English	215	(1)
Tough structures in Old English	216	(1)
Middle English changes in tough structures	217	(2)
Infinitival relatives and purposives	219	(9)
Modern English	219	(2)
Purposives and infinitival relatives in Old English	221	(4)
Purposives and infinitival relatives in Middle English	225	(1)
Purposives, infinitival relatives, and tough structures: conclusion	226	(2)
Structural evidence for the position of to	228	(6)
The split infinitive: Modern English	228	(1)
The split infinitive in Middle English	229	(2)
Adjunction, gapping, and deletion	231	(2)
The passive infinitive	233	(1)
Discussion of the Middle English changes	234	(8)
The TLI and the to infinitive	234	(1)
Changes in the status of infinitival to	235	(1)
When did the category change of infinitival to occur?	236	(3)
Conclusion	239	(3)
The -Ing Participle and Perception Complements	242	(40)
Introduction	242	(1)
Direct and indirect perception	242	(8)
The to-infinitive and the TLI contrasted	242	(3)
Perception predicates: event vs. proposition	245	(2)
The TLI as perception verb complement: against a bare VP shell	247	(1)
Elaborated VP shell structure of the TLI as PVC	248	(2)
-ing as a perception verb complement	250	(8)
Problems with the -ing formation	250	(3)
Perception and control structures	253	(3)
The TLI and -ing PVC compared	256	(2)
Other constructions of the present participle	258	(5)
Participial adjuncts and reduced relatives	258	(1)
Gerundive relatives in English and elsewhere	259	(1)
The structure of participials and -ing PVCs	260	(3)
PVCs in Old and Middle English	263	(3)
Aspect: infinitive and participle (Old English)	263	(1)
TLI and present participle (Middle English)	264	(2)
Development of the English progressive	266	(13)
Characterization of the progressive	266	(2)
Participles with BE in Ælfric and the Gospels	268	(2)
Aspectual and discourse functions	270	(1)
The (pre)progressive in Old and Early Middle English	271	(2)
PrP and progressive in Middle English (Chaucer)	273	(2)
Grammaticalization, ergativity, and passivity	275	(2)
Syntactic overlap, motivation, and change	277	(2)
Conclusions	279	(3)
PrP and TLI	279	(3)
English Gerundials	282	(33)
Introduction	282	(1)
Gerundials in Modern English	283	(16)
Gerundive, gerund, and -ing nouns	283	(1)
Structure of the ACC-ING gerundive	284	(2)
The gerund	286	(1)
The PRO-ING and POSS-ING gerundives	287	(2)
The clausal structure of POSS-ING	289	(1)
Assignment/checking of genitive case	290	(2)
POSS-ING and factivity	292	(4)
Other DP traits of POSS-ING	296	(1)
More evidence for DP-MP: the Hebrew gerund	297	(2)
Evaluatives and verbs of requirement	299	(7)
Gerundial complements of evaluative predicates	299	(3)
Gerundial complements of verbs of requirement	302	(1)
Retroactive gerundives and nominals	303	(1)
Active and passive gerundives: conclusion	304	(2)
Infinitive and gerundial: case theory predictions	306	(9)
Comp positions and case assignment	306	(3)
Intervening material and case assignment	309	(1)
Absolute constructions	310	(2)
Residual problems and conclusions	312	(3)
History of English Gerundials	315	(36)
Introduction	315	(1)
Development of the gerund in Old English	316	(5)
The gerund in late West Saxon	316	(1)
The changing distribution of -ing and -ung	317	(2)
Diffusion of -ing from the old Danelaw	319	(2)
The gerund as object of a preposition	321	(6)
Native Old English origin and expansion	321	(1)
Syntactic continuity in Lazamon	322	(1)
The BE ON -ING syntagma in Early Middle English	323	(2)
Influence from other languages	325	(2)
Nouns in -ing and gerundials in Middle English (Chaucer)	327	(9)
Nonverbal nouns	327	(1)
Gerund (nominal)	328	(2)
Gerund modifiers and compounding	330	(1)
Thematic role, voice, and the gerund	331	(1)
Gerundive	332	(3)
Competition between infinitive and gerundive	335	(1)
Origin and development of the gerundive	336	(9)
Potential sources and the problem of evidence	336	(2)
Earliest attested gerundives: Late Old English	338	(2)
Gerundives in -ing in Early Middle English	340	(1)
The gerundive in Classical Middle English	341	(1)
Gerundives in the colloquial language of the fifteenth century	342	(2)
The fifteenth century reconsidered	344	(1)
Subsequent history of the gerundive	345	(6)
Early Modern English	345	(2)
The modern period	347	(1)
Conclusions	348	(3)
Infinitive, Gerundive, Participle	351	(32)
Introduction	351	(1)
Gerund and infinitive	352	(2)
Ælfric's grammar	352	(2)
Infinitive and fixture participle	354	(5)
The tocymende/tocomyng type	354	(2)
Infinitive and gerundive in to -ende/-inge	356	(3)
The deontic infinitive/gerundial with BE	359	(5)
The D/NP-movement type	359	(2)
The deontic infinitive with WH movement	361	(2)
Historical overview of the deontic infinitive	363	(1)
Competing gerundial formations	364	(5)
The gerundial in -ende/-and	364	(3)
Prepositional infinitives	367	(1)
Participle, infinitive, and gerundial: summary	368	(1)
Overlapping of morpholexical categories	369	(4)
Early clausal adaptation of -ing	369	(1)
Participle and gerundial	370	(2)
Participle and infinitive	372	(1)
Conclusions	373	(10)
Morphological generalizations across categories	373	(2)
Supercategories in typological perspective	375	(1)
Chronology of changes in English nonfinite structures	376	(4)
Final generalizations	380	(3)
PRIMARY SOURCES: TEXTS IN OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH	383	(19)
English Texts and Editions	383	(1)
Special Letters and Symbols	383	(1)
Special Abbreviations	383	(1)
English Text Abbreviations	383	(2)
Old English	385	(8)
Ælfric, Ælfric's Colloquy
Bede, Beowulf, Chronicle
Cura Pastoralis, Durham Ritual
Gospels, Gregory's Dialogues, Laws
Orosius, Rule St Benet, Soliloquies of St Augustine
Vespasian Psalter, Wulfstan
Late Old English/Early Middle English [1100-1175]	393	(1)
Sermo in Festis Sanctae Mariae Virginis, Peterborough
Chronicle, (Late) West Saxon Gospel, Lambeth Homilies
Early Middle English [1175-1200]	393	(1)
Ormulum
Trinity Homilies, Lazamon, Ancrene Wisse
[1200-1225]	394	(1)
Vices and Virtues, The Katherine Group
Pe Wohunge of Ure Lauerd
[1225-1275)	395	(1)
King Horn, The Owl and the Nightingale, Bestiary, Kentish Sermons
[1275-1310]	396	(1)
Kyng Alisaunder, Northern Homilies, Havelok, Robert Mannyng of Brunne
[1310-1350]	397	(1)
Ayenbite of Inwyt, Cursor Mundi
Richard Rolle
Classical Middle English [1350-1385]	398	(1)
Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter, Alexander and Dindimus, Romaunt of the Rose, Piers Plowman
Usk, Testament of Love
[1385-1400]	399	(3)
Chaucer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Cleanness/Purity, Patience, Pearl
Wyclif, Morte Arthure, The Cloud of Unknowing
Late Middle English [1400-1450]
Laces Makyng, London Grocers' Company Records, Promptorium Parvulorum
Catholicon Anglicum, Sir Thomas Malory
Editions of Older English Texts	402	(6)
References	408	(45)
Language Index	453	(4)
Subject Index	457