AGR in Old English to-infinitives

Kageyama, Tarο

doi:10.1016/0024-3841(92)90052-k

Cited by 35 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, two examples with verbs of thinking and saying (one of which is also cited in Callaway (1913, p. 119)) are both literal translations from Latin. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that AcI constructions with to-infinitives were ungrammatical in OE (Fischer, 1989;Kageyama, 1992;Lightfoot, 1991;Los, 1999). 3 Then, AcI constructions with to-infinitives began to be observed with causative do and make in EME (Fischer, 1992b;Los, 1999;Visser, 1973), as illustrated in (9a, b) respectively.…”

Section: To-infinitivesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…First, to assigned dative Case to the following verb like normal prepositions, and it was usually realized as the dative form of the infinitival morpheme -enne (sometimes as -en; see Callaway, 1913). Second, it was possible to coordinate to-infinitives and normal PPs, as pointed out by Jarad (1997), Kageyama (1992), Mitchell (1985), and Visser (1966):…”

Section: Oementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Among them, one of the most intriguing changes, that has led to a number of generative studies, concerns the distribution of lexical subjects in infinitives (Fischer, 1989(Fischer, , 1992bvan Gelderen, 1993;Jarad, 1997;Kageyama, 1992;Lightfoot, 1991;Los, 1999;Miller, 2002;Warner, 1982 among others). However, most of these studies only deal with the rise of lexical subjects in to-infinitives, assuming that there have been no significant changes in the distribution of lexical subjects in bare infinitives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The rise of lexical subjects in English infinitives

Tanaka

2007

J Comp German Linguistics

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This paper attempts to account for the changing distribution of lexical subjects in English infinitives within the framework of the Minimalist Program, paying special attention to the role of the infinitival morpheme and the change in the category and formal features of the infinitive marker to. First, it is argued that from Old English to the 16th century, when the infinitival morpheme was present, the external argument of bare infinitives could be realized either as a lexical DP or the infinitival morpheme; then, the loss of the infinitival morpheme led to the situation that bare infinitives obligatorily have lexical subjects, as we see in bare infinitive complements to causative verbs in Present-day English. Next, focusing on the change in the category and formal features of the infinitive marker to, the following development of to-infinitives is proposed: (i) in Old English, to as a preposition had an inherent Case feature licensing the infinitival morpheme, which in turn functioned as the external argument of to-infinitives; (ii) in Early Middle English, to came to have a structural Case feature with the optional EPP feature, giving rise to to-infinitives with lexical subjects that are licensed by to; (iii) in Late Middle English, to began to lose its structural Case feature and have the feature specification with the EPP feature only as a functional category, giving rise to to-infinitives with lexical subjects that are licensed by the matrix v, as in the case of ECM infinitives in Present-day English; (iv) this specification became the only possibility after the loss of the infinitival morpheme in the 16th century, at least for the types of to-infinitives investigated here.

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Section: To-infinitivesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Oementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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The rise of lexical subjects in English infinitives

Tanaka

2007

J Comp German Linguistics

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“…Differing from the general assumption for the earlier English verb second phenomena that a verb in the verb second order occupies the C position (cf. Van Kemenade (1987, 1992, Koopman (1990) among others), R assumes that it is in Agr1 position. R claims that OE, like Icelandic, allowed Agr-recursion and had the structure illustrated in (25).…”

Section: History Of Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

The History of Verb Movement

Ohkado

1995

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“…They made the doctor examine Bill. Although some descriptive and generative studies observe that small clauses and bare infinitive complements have been available in all the historical periods of English (Denison (1993), Fischer et al (2000), Kageyama (1992), and Visser (1963Visser ( -1973 among others), few serious attempts have been made to provide a detailed investigation of their syntactic properties in early English. Moreover, it is tacitly assumed in the generative literature on English historical syntax that these two types of nonfinite clauses have undergone no significant syntactic changes, so that their structures have remained constant throughout the history of English.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agreement, Predication, and the Rise of Functional Categories in Nonfinite Clauses

Tanaka

2010

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This paper argues for the rise of functional categories in small clauses and bare infinitive complements by investigating their syntactic properties in the history of English. It is claimed that both of these nonfinite clause types have undergone morphological erosion that led to the rise of functional categories, where the theory of predication plays a crucial role in relating the two changes. Moreover, the structural changes of these two types of nonfinite clauses are shown to be neatly captured in terms of grammatical competition, with the structure with a new functional category competing with and gradually replacing the structure without it, in the transitional period of their historical development.*

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AGR in Old English to-infinitives

Cited by 35 publications

References 10 publications

The rise of lexical subjects in English infinitives

The rise of lexical subjects in English infinitives

The History of Verb Movement

Agreement, Predication, and the Rise of Functional Categories in Nonfinite Clauses

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