The origins of the informative-presupposition it-cleft

Ball, Catherine N.

doi:10.1016/0378-2166(94)90032-9

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Both types of clefts are lME innovations; Jespersen (1937: 86) notes the link between the development of rigid SVO 10 and the rise of clefting, and he is echoed by Traugott (1972). The first clear examples of these types of cleft are in the fifteenth century (see particularly Ball 1994). Although the it-cleft builds on existing constructions like the relative clause, it differs pragmatically but also syntactically from these models.…”

Section: H E C O N S E Q U E N C E S O F T H E L O S S O F V E R B -Smentioning

confidence: 99%

The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English: information structure and syntax in interaction

Los¹

2009

English Language and Linguistics

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The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English:information structure and syntax in interaction 1 B E T T E L O U L O SRadboud University Nijmegen (Received 13 February 2008; revised 10 December 2008) English syntax used to have a version of the verb-second rule, by which the finite verb moves to second position in main clauses. This rule was lost in Middle English, and this article argues that its loss had serious consequences for the information structure of the clause. In the new, rigid subject-verb-object syntax, the function of preposed constituents changed, and the function of encoding 'old' or 'given' information in a pragmatically neutral way was increasingly reserved for subjects. Pressure from information structure to repair this situation subsequently led to the rise of new passive constructions in order to satisfy the need for more subjects; the change in the informational status of preposed constituents triggered the rise of clefts. If information structure can be compromised by syntactic change in this way, this suggests that it represents a separate linguistic level outside the syntax. IntroductionEver since the work done by the Neogrammarians in the nineteenth century, we know that sound changes may disrupt morphological paradigms, with morphological regularity often being restored by the process known as 'analogy'. An example is the Latin intervocalic -s-> -r-that disrupted the paradigm of the s-stem nouns: the -s remained in nominative honos 'honour' because it was not intervocalic in that position, but changed to -r-in the rest of the paradigm: honoris, honorem, etc. Analogy then intervened by 'regularizing' the nominative honos to honor (Hock 1986: 180). Similar disruption was caused by Verner's Law, where a sound change that was conditioned by syllable stress applied exclusively to some but not to other forms in the verbal paradigm (Verner 1875). Such changes exemplify the relative autonomy of the various linguistic levels: phonological change is 'blind' to the disruption it causes to other levels. Another example is Roberts & Roussou's (2003) hypothesis that syntactic change (more especially grammaticalization) is driven by morphological loss. The situation could be summed up by Lightfoot's dictum: 'grammars practise therapy, not prophylaxis' (Lightfoot 1979: 123).The present article will argue that changes in syntax may similarly disrupt information structure (IS). Its case study will be the loss of verb-second in English, which prompted 'therapy' in early Modern English in the form of new clefts and new passive structures -even to structures that are typologically very marked. The change 1 I would like to thank Anthony Warner and two anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. in the syntax apparently ran its course in spite of the havoc caused at the IS level, which demonstrates that IS and syntax are just as autonomous as the phonology and morphology of the Neogrammarian examples above. Syntax and information structureInformation structure is about...

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Section: H E C O N S E Q U E N C E S O F T H E L O S S O F V E R B -Smentioning

confidence: 99%

The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English: information structure and syntax in interaction

Los¹

2009

English Language and Linguistics

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“…The prototypical member of it-cleft category, namely, the NP highlighted cleft, generally fulfills most features of it-cleft category. Meanwhile the original clefts known as the NP highlighted one are in accordance with these features as well (Ball, 1991(Ball, , 1994aPattern, 2012). This means the historical change of it-clefts do not affect the semantic and pragmatic function of the NP highlighted clefts but merely extend the use of highlighted elements.…”

Section: Wwwccsenetorg/ijelmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…In it-clefts, the prototypical numbers are the noun phrase as highlighted elements, which take more than half of the whole amount of it-clefts according to Collins (1991) 's statistics. Another research carried out by some historical scholars like Ball (1991Ball ( , 1994aPatten, 2012) has reported that the original form of clefts is the noun phrase shown as highlighted element. Therefore, there is a correspondence that the prototypical it-clefts are identical to the original it-clefts.…”

Section: Wwwccsenetorg/ijelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Syntax and Cognitive Motivation of English It-Clefts

Yang¹,

Xu²,

Fu³

2014

IJEL

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English it-cleft is a constant topic in linguistic study. Previous work on it-clefts resided in their structural and functional aspects and neglected their cognitive basis. This paper is an attempt to consider the form and function of it-clefts within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Most previous studies of it-clefts have paid no attention to the status of "it" and "copular be" which is generally believed to be dummy. Following the tenets of Cognitive Linguistics, every form has its own meaning or function. This paper argues that the function of "it" as a pronoun is relative to the cleft clause, which is modified by the clause. "Copular be" performs the function of identifying in it-clefts. The paper then uses the concepts of Recency Effect, figure-ground and grounding theory to account for the information distribution, cognitive motivation of it-clefts.

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“…Recently, however, they have started to attract more attention, especially perhaps within the generative tradition, see e.g. Ball (1991Ball ( , 1994 and Perez-Guerra (1999). Patten's study starts by outlining the generative account of Ball, who suggests that it-clefts emerged in Middle English from the NP BEON Rel-Clause pattern.…”

Section: Pattenmentioning

confidence: 98%

Theory and data in cognitive linguistics

Gisborne

Hollmann

2012

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The origins of the informative-presupposition it-cleft

Cited by 23 publications

References 16 publications

The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English: information structure and syntax in interaction

The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English: information structure and syntax in interaction

The Syntax and Cognitive Motivation of English It-Clefts

Theory and data in cognitive linguistics

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