3. Description and results
3.1 Structural properties
3.1.3 Fronting in further subordinate contexts
In this corpus, there are fronting contexts in three other types of subordinate clauses:
complement clauses (32)), adverbial clauses (33), and conditional clauses (34).
(32) Pour laquelle chose lui doubtant de longue tenue de prisson et que For this thing he fearing of long holding in prison and COMP
par rigueur de justice ne fust pour sui en ceste partie by rigour of justice NEGexpl was.SUBJ pursued in this part
‘Because of this, he was fearing long imprisonment and that by rigour of justice he would be pursued in this part’ (1360, 286)
(33) jusques a ce que nagueres il lui fut enchargié par ung confesseur until recently EXPL him was inflicted by a confessor until recently, it was inflicted to him by a confessor’ (1425, 91)
(34) se pour ce les entendoient a poursuir en aucune maniere if for that them intended.3PL to pursue in any way
‘If because of that, they intended to pursue them in any way’ (1357, 9)
In general, the subordinate item is the complementizer que solely or combined with an adverb;
in adverbial clauses as in (33), it can be seen that ce que is a variant of que. There are only 5 instances of conditional clauses, introduced by the conditional se, all belonging to the first part of this corpus. Overall, there are 75 occurrences of fronting for the first period and 55 occurrences for the second period. Multiple fronting is likewise rare: for the first period, four instances of two fronted elements and two occurrences of three fronted elements could be found; for the second period, there are four occurrences of two fronted elements and two occurrences of three fronted elements.
As far as other subordinated contexts are concerned, only coded sentences with fronting are available. So, a general evolution of the rates of subject types cannot be described. Accordingly, only the percentages of the different periods are presented in order to see whether there is any variation. For the first period, the subjects are almost equally distributed among non-overt subjects and pronouns (37,8% vs. 36%). While the number of the former remains almost stable (38,2%), the number of the latter decreases slightly (32,7%). The number of nominal subjects increases for the definite (24% vs. 25,5%) as well as for the indefinite (1,3% vs. 3,6%) subjects.
There is only one occurrence of an expletive subject, in the context of an unaccusative construction of the first period, given in (35).
(35) Il estoit avenu que le dimanche aprés la feste Saint Cler l’an de grace mil CCC cinquante et sept …
It has happenend that the Sunday after the feast of Saint Claire in the year 1357
… il estoit passé gens d’armes EXPL was passed gendarmes
‘It happened that on Sunday after the feast of St. Claire in the year 1357, there have passed gendarmes’ (1360,287)
Table 17 provides details.
1357-1360 1423-1433
non-overt subject 28 (37,3%) 21 (38,%)
DP 18 (24%) 14 (25,5%)
expletive 1 (1,3%) 0
indefinite 1 (1,3%) 2 (3,6%)
pronoun 27 (36%) 18 (32,7%)
total 75 55
Table 17. Subject types in other subordinate contexts
There is one ambiguous occurrence with regard to the overt realization of the subject (36).
(36) La quele informacion ou informacions se aucunes faites en y a this information or informations if any made ?? have sur ce encontre les diz suppliant et page
about this against the said supplicant and page (1360, 320)
One could wonder if the single en is used here as neutral indefinite pronoun. The sentence would make sense but recall that in Middle French and in this data, l’en is generally used as neutral indefinite subject pronoun. Furthermore, the sequence of the pronouns en y is quite frequent as shows the corresponding entry for y in the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français 1330-1500.105 It was, therefore, labelled (36) as an occurrence containing a non-overt subject.
105 Compare the following: “Il en y a / En y a : Et s'estoient gens de vilages, Norris de lais et de frommages, De chos, de feves, de naviaus ; N'avoient pas tous leur aviaus ; De vin estoient si delivre Que po en y a qui
With regard to their position, the majority of the subjects are preverbal. For the first period there is one interverbal106 and one postverbal subject. For the second period, there are 6 postverbal subjects.
The position of the verb with respect to the fronted item(s) and the subject are now the focus of this research. In opposition to the results for comparative and relative clauses, the majority of the contexts are contexts of the XSV type and its variants (49,3% vs. 45,4,%). It is followed by the contexts without overt subject, which represent 38,1% of the occurrences for both periods.
Contexts of the SXV type are equally rare, even taking debatable contexts such as XSXV and variants into account, they correspond to 9,2% of the occurrences of the first and 5,4% of the occurrences of the second period. As has already been seen in relative and comparative clause types, it is plausible that the deviance between these results and the results of Labelle and Hirschbühler (in press) is due to a different stage of evolution of the respective data, or to the use of different genre. The remaining cases are instances implying overt subjects in a non-preverbal position. For a complete overview, consider the following table 18.
1357-1360 1423-1433
s'enyvre, Eins buvoient de la fonteinne Et dou puis jusqu'a pense pleinne. (MACH., D. Lyon, 1342, 213).
Anchois, par mescognissanche, soy marient, pluseurs en y at, en quars ou en tir degreit de proismeteit (HEMRICOURT, Miroir Hesb. B.B., 1353-1398, 398). ...il en y a de telles [des cerises] qui sont tres aigres et sures, qui aucunement traient a saveur amere avec celle aigreur, que aucuns appellent amarenes, les autres agriotes (Grant herb. C., c.1450, 97). Tiercement en conseil courroux se doit eviter, car souvent peut advenir que il en y aura de passionnés, et comme courroucez delibereront (JUV. URS., Verba, 1452, 318). Quant ceulx de Crete entendirent l'adjurement du roy, ilz s'assamblerent a conseil et en y eut un qui pour tous les autres eut charge de donner celle response. (LEFÈVRE (R.), Hist. Troyes A., c.1464, 175).
[Ordre inverse encore relativement rare] Il y en a / Y en a […].
“http://atilf.atilf.fr/scripts/dmfX.exe?LEM=y%3CEXP%3E2%3C/EXP%3E;MODE=XML;MENU=menu_dm f;FERMER;ISIS=isis_dmf2012.txt;MENU=menu_dmf;OUVRIR_MENU=2;s=s11000e38;LANGUE=FR;FE RMER, last accessed 24th July 2015, 17:08.
106 I.e. between the inflected verb and its participle.
XVS 2 (2,7%) 4 (7,3%)
XXVS 0 1 (1,8%)
XXVXS 0 1 (1,8%)
total 75 55
Table 18. Position of the fronted element(s) X and the subject S in relation to the finite verb V
At the end of this chapter the description of the type and function of the fronted elements in other subordinate clauses are presented. With respect to the type, PPs occur most frequently in both periods (61,4%% vs. 54,8%), although there is a difference in comparison to relative clauses but not to comparative clauses, since the proportion decreases by about 6,5% between both periods. As for relative clauses, they are followed by adverbs whose proportion increases for the second period (19,3% vs. 29,0%). There are only a few cases of fronted CPs and, as for PPs, their proportion decreases (4,8% vs. 3,2%). Recall that for relative and comparative clauses, a decline of the fronting of (pro-)nominal and verbal elements was noticed. The same is true for other subordinate contexts: the overall rate decreases by about 3%. There is one case of adjective fronting for each period respectively. For the detailed proportions the following table can be referred to:
1357-1360 1423-1433
PP 51 (61,4%) 34 (54,8%)
adverb 16 (19,3%) 18 (29,0%)
adjective 1 (1,2%) 1 (1,6%)
CP 4 (4,8%) 2 (3,2%)
demonstrative 0 2 (3,2%)
DP 5 (6,0%) 3 (4,8%)
indefinite 3 (3,6%) 2 (3,2%)
participle 2 (2,4%) 0
infinitive 2 (2,4%) 0
total 83 62
Table 19. Types of fronted elements107
In concordance with the results on the types in table 19, the results of the syntactic function of fronted elements in other subordinated contexts differ from relative and comparative contexts.
107 Multiple references possible, see above.
Adjuncts represent the majority of the data for both periods but their proportion increases (74,7% vs. 67,7%). This loss benefits negation (4,8% vs. 14,5%) and predicative expressions (+4,1%). The proportion of objects decreases by 3,2%.
1357-1360 1423-1433
adjunct 62 (74,7%) 42 (67,7%)
negation 4 (4,8%) 9 (14,5%)
object 12 (14,5%) 7 (11,3%)
predicative expression 2 (2,4%) 4 (6,5%)
verb 3 (3,6%)108 0
total 83 62
Table 20. Syntactic function of fronted elements109
This evolution is different to the one seen in relative and comparative clauses. While the proportion of adjuncts decreases here, it increases for the other two contexts. Accordingly, the proportion of verbs as fronted elements increases here, but decreases for relative and comparative clauses. The results of the syntactic annotation on fronted elements are summarized in the next section.