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Grammatical person and the variable syntax of Old English personal pronouns1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

RHONA ALCORN
RHONA ALCORN*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, Dugald Stewart Building, Charles Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AD, [email protected]
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Abstract

The variable positioning of bare personal pronouns in Old English prose remains something of a mystery. In the role of prepositional object, for example, these elements are often found in positions where other prepositional object types are rarely attested. This article reports the results of an empirical study of a correlation between the variable placement of these pronouns and their specification for grammatical person. By demonstrating that this correlation defies a number of independent explanations, it is argued that person is an important aspect of the syntax of these constituents. The identification of two further correlations, one involving narrative mode and the other involving the relative positioning of preposition and verb, further demonstrates the value of quantitative methods in historical linguistics.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 433 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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