On the Development of the Complementation System in English and its Relation to Switch-Reference

José Bonneau (1) , Pierre Pica (2)

1 Department of Linguistics [Montréal]
2 SFL - Structures Formelles du Langage

In this paper, we show that many of the dramatic changes that took place in the course of the history of the English complementation system are the result of a simple morphological Change in the determiner system. We propose that Old English (OE) evolved from a system in which 'complements' clauses, relative clauses and DP were interpreted as adverbials to a system in which they are interpreted as arguments of the verb. As the determiner acquired certain certain type of morphological feature , a complementation system developed. We show that this claim is is reinforced by the fact that apparently unrelated changes all follow from the nature of the determiner system.

Mots clés: Old English; Middle English; Diachrony; Complementation; parataxis; hypotaxis; embedding; Complexity

Mots clés: ancien anglais; moyen anglais; diachronie; parataxe; hypotaxe; enchâssement; complexité

Domaines: Linguistique

José Bonneau, Pierre Pica. On the Development of the Complementation System in English and its Relation to Switch-Reference. GLSA, Amherst. Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society, Papers from teh Workshops on Language Acaquistion & Language Change, Beckman, Jill, pp.135-150, 1997, Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society. ⟨halshs-00352581⟩