SELIM04.pdf Javier Martín Arista, Selim 4 (1994): 59-73 ANALOGY IN FUNCTIONAL SYNTAX1 0. INTRODUCTION Denison (1993: 414) has identified six main areas in which change is found in the history of the English passive: function and meaning of the pas sive, form and function of the participle, choice of auxiliary verb, paradigm of the auxiliary, range of syntagms available to passivization and expression of the agent. As regards the choice of the auxiliary, it is a well-known fact that there were three possibilities in OE: wesan passive, weorÍan passive and zero auxiliary or inflectional passive, re stricted to the verb hatan “call, name”: (1) a. Nu is seo boc swiÍe nearolice gesett now is this book very accurately compiled “Now this book is very accurately compiled”2 (ASC 1014) b. Him wearÍ Íæs getiÍod he was that given “He was given that” (OSW) c. on Íæm bocum Íe hatton Apocalipsin on those books that are called Apocalypsis “in those books which are called Apocalypsis” (V) 1 The research resulting in this paper has been financially supported by the Vicerrec- torado de Investigación de la Universidad de Zaragoza through the project Estudio Evolutivo de la Crónica Anglosajona, whose main researcher is Dr. María Pilar Navarro Errasti. A preliminary version of this paper was read at the XVIII AEDEAN Congress, held in the University of Alcalá de Henares in December 1994. 2 We have used, whenever they were available, the translations from Old English of- fered by reputed scholars such as Garmonsway (1967) and Visser (1984). ____________________________________________________________________ 59 However, only the suppletive verb wesan has survived in modern times: weorÍan1 and hatan disappeared before modern times, although hatan, as a literary archaism, has been attested in English up to the Ea rly Modern En glish period, as these examples show: (2) a. What hight she? (V) b. I hyght Iohan of Helenes (V) c. What doth he hight? (V) In other Germanic languages, this verb is still in full use (Dutch heten, German heißen, Swedish heta, Danish hede), as Visser (1984: 2090) has poin - ted out: (3) a. German Ich heiße Geiges I am called Geiges “My name is Geiges” b. Swedish (Koefoed 1991: 13) Hun hedder Lise she is called Lise “She is called Lise” Given these preliminary remarks, the purpose of this paper is to explore how analogy works in a functional grammar in general and, more specifically, in functional syntax, by discussing the analogical change undergone by the former middle voice hatan. We have organized this paper as follows: section 1 For fuller discussion that we can offer here see Denison (1993: 420ff). Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 60 1 introduces the treatment of the copula in functional grammar (hereafter FG) both in the synchronic and in the diachronic axis; section 2 presents the data extracted from the OE and ME corpus; section 3 examines the points starred in section 2 and focusses on the analogical change at the semantic, morpho- syntactic and pragmatic levels; finally, section 4 summarizes the results of our research. 1. THE COPULA IN FG There are two distinctions that have brought about some complication to the transformational grammar (henceforth TG) view of the passive, namely the distinction drawn between lexical and syntactic passives and between be deletion and intro duction. In order to remedy this undesirable situation, FG has gone a long way in treating the copula (henceforth COP) as a supportive device which is empty from a semantic point of view1. Dik’s (1983: 121ff) first claim is that the new treatment of this phenomenon, including be as a copulative, passive and progressive verb, consists of the application of a sin - gle rule 2 of Be Support Introduction when COP shows up at surface level; 1 On this topic, Goossens (1992: 71) is worth seeing since he does not regard be as a completely meaningless verb: Rather, it contributes a highly abstract meaning which I have labelled adscriptive: it explicitly ascribes some non-verbal predicate to an argument. Whether that means that there should be some representation of this meaning in the underlying structures of FG, or whether specific expression phenomena should be interpreted as meaningful, I do not want to decide in the re- stricted context of this paper, but at least I want to mention the problem. 2 Not all languages, however, allow for a unified treatment of COP. Old English and Spanish, for instance, have two copular verbs with clearly differentiated uses. Spanish ser and estar qualify as distributionally complementary verbs, ser imply ing permanent property and estar non-permanent property. The solution which is proposed by Hengeveld (1986: 393) is to put forward two support rules: Ser Support and Estar Support. These rules also allow for an elegant treatment of pas sives, where the same variation ser/estar is possible The ex- istence of the two copulas and the proposal for two support rules is compatible with the explanation provided above because it is predicate operators that ultimately determine -before expression rules such as COP Support apply - which ____________________________________________________________________ 61 TG, on the other hand, favours an explanation according to which COP is always present at deep structure and is deleted whenever it does not appear in surface structure. Indeed, Dik (1983, 1989: 166ff) is forced by the constraints imposed upon the power of the theory to consider the presence of COP as a result of introduction rather than a matter of deletion. In the diachronic axis, Dik (1987: 53ff) has regarded the process whereby the copula comes to be used -Copula Auxiliarization, henceforth CA - as a matter of expansion rather than as a matter of desemanticiza tion1. This statement is based on the view that the rule of COP support, which inserts COP when necessary, is part of the expre ssion rules and therefore it adds nothing to the semantic content of the predication. According to this view, the verb be has received an extra, equally grammatical function: The copula comes to be used in constructions which are integrated into the Tense-Mood-Aspect system of the predicate. Once this integration is completed, the copula can be said to have auxiliary status, while retaining its basic character of a semantically empty supportive verb (…) CA is more a matter of gradual expansion into the domain of the verbal paradigm, than a categorial clear-cut acquisition of entirely new functions by the copula. (Dik 1987: 58) As regards the origin of CA, it is to be found in aspectual forms that may be later reinterpreted in terms of tense or voice. The most important channels of the two rules is to be used. Moreover, as Hengeveld (1986: 395) has remarked, the difference between languages with or without COP, or with a limited use of COP can easily be accounted for. 1 This statement must be seen in the light of Givon’s explanations for the origins of the passive (1990: 600ff): the stat ive-adjectival source (English), the reflexive source (Spanish), the topic construction source (Kimbundu), the nominalization source (Panare) and the obviative source (Chamorro). It should also be taken into account that the view of CA has to be coherent with the unified treatment of COP proposed by Dik (1983: 121ff). Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 62 along which COP develops into an aspectual auxiliary (Dik 1987: 64ff, fo l- lowing Haine and Rech 1982: 116 and Claudi and Heine 1985: 17ff) are the following: the localist channel (e.g. John is in the garden), the property channel (e.g. Cæsar victus est) and the serial channel (e.g. He is going to eat). 2. THE DATA The study of the corpus yields the following summary, which shows the different variants and alternatives of hatan that coexist in the early stages of the English language1: (i) OE (4) hatte … and se munuc hatte Abbo (EDM) “ … and this monk was called Abbo” (5) is/wæs haten … Íæt is Meresig haten (ASC 894) … that is called Mersey” (6) is/wæs gehaten He wæs gehaten Leohtberend (AH) “He was called Lightbearing” 1 The corpus comprises 2,100 passive clauses covering the following periods: (i) OE (up to 1100): from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Macintosh file by Dr. Santiago González -Corugedo, Universidad de Oviedo, quoted as ASC); from St. Edmund, King and Martyr (in Needham 1966: 43ff, quoted as EDM); from Visser (1984: 2091ff, quoted as V). (ii) EME (1100-1300): from Visser (1984: 21091ff, quoted as V); from The Kentish Sermons (in Burnley 1992: 107-111, quoted as KS); from The Peterborough Chronicle (Macintosh file by Dr. González -Corugedo, quoted as ASC); (iii) LME (1300-1500): from Chaucer’s translation of Boetius’ De Consolatione Philosophiæ (in Navarro et al. 1991: 101-126, quoted as CHB); from The Wycclifite Sermons (Macintosh file by Dr. González -Corugedo, quoted as WS); from Visser (1984: 2165ff, quoted as V). ____________________________________________________________________ 63 (ii) EME (7) is/was haten His fæder wæs Englisc Raulf hatte (ASC 1084) “His father was called Raulf in English” (8) is/was gehaten … Íatt wass BeÍiania gehatenn (V) “ … who was called Bethiania” (iii) LME (9) hatte a. Dis child shal hoten godes prophete (V) b. The gnatte is a littil fflye Íat hatte spitil (V) A couple of points of clarification are in order here. To start with, the OE verb cleopian (to call on, to summon, to call by a name) coexisted with hatan and was re tained in use down through the ME period (OED): (10) a. … in ane cite Íat was icleped Cane (KS) b. So that thise ilke rychesses ne oughten nat by ryghte to ben cleped rychesses (CHB) OE nemnan has also survived until modern times; here is an EME exam- ple: (11) … Íatt wass Íurrh Drihhtin nemned Marge (KS) “ … who was called Mary by Our Lord” Another interesting datum: the first entry of the OED for the Scandinavian borrowing call with the meaning of call by the name of dates back to 1250: Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 64 (12) a. Îat stede beÍ cald Íor-for-carbroth b. Yow schalt be callud Petre (WS32) The picture that emerges from all this is summarized and put into pers - pective in (13): (13) OE ME LME hatten X X (rare) is/wæs haten X X (rare) is/was gehaten X X (rare) is/was nemned X X X is/was clepud X X X is/ben callud X X In a few words, the table takes care of the fact that, even though hatan was in use up to the EModE period, it must have started to decay in EME ti- mes. This hypothesis couples with the data extracted from the corpus, where hatan occurrences hardly turn up in LME texts. From OE times onwards ha- tan coexisted with nemnan and cleopian, whereas call and hatan became concurrent in the EME period. As a result, evidence suggests that (i) there was a change in the analogical direction whereby hatan acquired passive form; and that (ii) later on, the verbal predicate hatan -along with cleopian- was swept away by call and name. In the remainder of this paper, we deal with (i), leaving (ii) for future research. 3. DISCUSSION What we have called rather tentatively change in the analogical direction may, in fact, involve a series of changes at different levels: in the first place, hatan became accessible to passivization, which means, in practice, that the middle voice died out. In OE times passivization demanded ____________________________________________________________________ 65 the presence of two predicate slots filled with arguments -not with satellites 1. More pre cisely, only first arguments along the Semantic Function Hierarchy (Dik 1989: 226ff), that is, arguments whose semantic function was Agent, Positio ner, Force, Processed and Zero, or Goal arguments were candidates for Subject assignment. In the case of hatan, a single argument with semantic function Zero, was present in the predicate frame of hatan. The change, there fore, must have originated in the lexical fund, where the quantitative valency of the predicate increased2. Relevant to this hypothesis is the fact that this verb (hatan-1) had, at least, another meaning, which called for a different complementation pattern: hatan was a three-place verbal predicate when it meant to order, to which we shall re fer as hatan-2: (14) Îa het he me on Íysne siÍ faran then ordered he me on this journey go Then he told me to go on this journey (ASD) The existence of the predicate frame of hatan-2 leaves room for a move- ment in the analogical direction of hatan-1. This analogical change may be illustrated, at surface level, by the following linguistic expressions: 1 As stated, in TG terms, in Lightfoot (1979: 239ff) and Denison (1993: 103ff). 2 In the FG framework predicate formation rules account for the extension of the number of arguments of the predicate frame and the shift of the semantic func- tions of the predicate frame. On the far-reaching implications of this treatment Dik comments the following: «Predicate formation rules (…) may have certain structure-changing, that is transformational properties, in that the output predi- cate-frame of a predicate formation rule may constist of a restructuring of the in- put predicate-frame(s), involving re-allocation of a semantic function, loss (or addition) of argument positions, and shifts in semantic aspects. It is clear, then that the general ban on structure-changing operations characteristic of FG will have to be relaxed as far as these properties of the predicate formation component are concerned.» (Dik 1980: 51). For the opposite phenomenon see Moreno Cabr- era (1990: 39). Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 66 (15) *The monk calls Abbo (by means of valency increase) ›They call the monk Abbo (by means of marked subject as signment) ›The monk is called Abbo As is displayed in (15), a reinterpretation middle (intransitive) -active (transitive)-passive (transitive) seems plausible. In the lexical fund, then, the predicate frame of hatan-1 must have undergone the following change1: (16) a. hatanV (x1)ø where x1=S b. hatanV (x1)Ag (x2)Go where x1=S [unmarked] and x2=S [marked] Having these entries in the lexical fund, let us see briefly to what happens in the clause layer component. The predicate frame in (16.a) gives rise to lin- guistic expres sions like (17.a): the verbal predicate hatan combines with an argument which bears the semantic function Zero and to which the syntactic function Subject is assigned. The predicate frame in (16.b), on the other hand, combines with two arguments, which are assigned the semantic functions Agent and Goal, Subject being assigned to the Agent argument in the 1 Dr. Gómez Soliño [University of La Laguna], in personal communication, pointed out that the predicate hatan is not a one-slot but a two-slot predicate and that one should resort to the semantic function Reference (Dik 1989) to account in a satisfactory way for the predicate frame of this verb. We have not taken this line for two reasons: in the first place, because the function Reference has not been properly studied in the FG literature; in the second place, and more importantly, because the existence of one or more verbal arguments does not constitute a point central to this discussion; from the perspective of a functional syntax, what constitutes a main point of debate is the functional explanation for the analytical construction advanced in this section. ____________________________________________________________________ 67 unmarked voice and to the Goal argument in the marked voice, as is the case with the linguistic expression in (17.b): (17) a. His sune -Willelm hæt eallswa Íe fæder- feng to Íam rice. “His son -William was also called his father- inherited the kingdom” (ASC 755) b. Se wæs Cyneheard haten “He was called Cyneheard” (ASC 755) Now, let us turn to the expression rules that turn out the passive form of hatan-1. Once there was a candidate for marked Subject assignment in the predicate frame of this verb, the expression component must have started triggering the COP Support Rule. As in the rest of the cases, it is not beyond all doubt when wesa n underwent CA, thus acquiring AUX(iliary) status. Gi - ven the evidence yieded by the corpus, our view is that wesan had already achieved AUX status when the perfective form gehaten entered linguistic expressions like: (18) On Íam ylcan timan com eac sum bisceop fram Romebyrig, Birinus gehaten, to Westsexena kyninge, Cynegyls gehaten “At that time a bishop called Birinus came from Rome to visit the West- saxon king, called Cynegyls” (ASC 755) Moreover, the omission of the wesan form (*Íe wæs Cynegyls gehaten), reinforces the view of this verb as an AUX element. The omission (* Íe wæs Leofstan gehaten) is more glaring in the following example, where wesan shows up in the main clause1: 1 In using the gapping criterion we derive our inspiration from Ramat and Denison. Denison (1993: 422) provides six kinds of syntactic evidence of grammaticaliza- Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 68 (19) On Íam lande wæs sum man, Leofstan gehaten (EDM) “There was a man in that land, called Leofstan” In semantic terms, the meaning of the copulative verb wesan became in - creasingly more non-denotational (grammatical) as wesan approached the AUX status1. So far, we have explored the semantic and morphosyntactic as - pects of the movement in the analogical direction of hatan. However, the pic - ture that we have got is that of the re sult rather than of the cause of the ana- logical change2. In line with the FG view that morphosyntactic and semantic rules can make reference to pragmatic rules but not viceversa, our point is that the cause of the change must be explained in pragmatic terms 3: the cause of the change in the analogical direction must have been the attempt to tion of the passive auxiliaries: generalization to all lexical verbs, acquisition of agreement, transparency (the retained object is part of the lexical structure of the lexical verb rather than of the auxiliary); postverbal ellipsis, the presence of other auxiliaries before the passive auxiliary and the occurrence of the progressive passive. Ramat (1987: 16) has defined AUX in terms of four criteria: AUX must have the same S as the uninflected dependent verb; AUX and V must have the same predicate frame; no semantic restrictions can be imposed by AUX on V; and the function of AUX is to express tense, mood and aspect relations. 1 Goossens (1992: 54) has set a a predicational scale such that the further we move towards the minimally -predicational end of the scale, the lower the degree of de- notational meaning becomes, and the higher the degree of grammatical (non-de- notational) meaning. The predicational scale can be correlated with the grammat - icalization scale in FG as follows: «full predicate predicate formation operator» / «predicational semi-predicational minimally predicational». 2 In this respect, we follow Lightfoot (1979: 371) as regards analogy, which seems to be a result rather than a cause of change. As for linguistic change, our approach comes in the wake of Bossuyt (1986) and Dik (1986), who have set up the framework of a functional explanation in the diachronic axis. For more detailed information, we refer the reader to these papers. 3 Therefore, we provide an external explanation in the sense of external control, in line with Comrie (1983), Hyman (1983) and Kuno (1987). ____________________________________________________________________ 69 bridge the gap that the lack of the interverbal position imposes on the infor- mative structure of the clause; indeed, hatan clauses like (4) lack a position of special pragmatic value in OE. The constituent bearing Focus (FOC) was likely to be aligned in interverbal position, as the following examples show1: (20) a. CuÍbryht wæs TO ÆRCEBISC gehalgod (ASC 741) Cuthbrith was to archibishop consacrated b. Îar wæron eac oÍre VII broÍru BE NAMAN gecigde (V) there were also other seven brothers by name announced The interverbal constituents in bolds in (20) are assigned FOC, as is the case with the postverbal ones in the present-day English versions: (21) a. “Cuthbrith was consacrated ARCHBISHOP” b. “There were announced also the other seven brothers BY THEIR NAMES” 4. SUMMARY AND CONLUSIONS We close our investigation by restating the most important points: (i) before its disappearance, hatan underwent a change in the analogical direction whereby it acquired passive form and meaning; (ii) the semantic and the morphosyntactic levels provide us with the re- sults rather than with the cause of the change: hatan became accessible to passivization after a change that took place in the lexical fund, where the quantitative valency of the predicate increased. Such va- lency increase allowed for a reinterpretation middle (intransitive)-ac- 1 Dezsó (1978: 3ff) has identified sentence stress in preverbal position in SOV lan- guages and in postverbal position in SVO languages. Javier Martín Arista ____________________________________________________________________ 70 tive (transitive)-passive (transitive). In the expression rule component, the COP Sup port Rule started applying. (iii) Wesan in hatan passives must have got AUX status before gapping was acceptable. (iv) The cause of the change can be explained in pragmatic terms as the desire on behalf of the speaker to provide hatan clauses with a posi- tion of special pragmatic value, namely interverbal position, in which the constituent bearing FOC frequently turned up and which was lacking in middle voice hatan clauses. 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