Accepting that word order systems can arise as fully innovative structures, we are still under an obligation to show that word order change can be the output of reanalyses of
24. Saying that it is an innovation does not imply that everything is brand new in the para-digm. The order IO > DO is probably an indexical reflection of the order ‘Subject precedes Object’, implying that from another stance, the order A3 > A2 has come about through gen-eralisation of A1 > A2. The point is that word order is new in the paradigm of the Receiver.
Chapter 2. Topology (word order) 53
earlier word order systems as instances not of innovative grammation, but of regram-mation (Andersen 2001b, 2003). To perform this task, however, we need to clarify some principles of word order analysis, and we do so on the basis of Old English mate-rial (taken mainly from Pintzuk 2003), since Old English will provide data to handle a scenario for the invention and redevelopment of verb second syntax.
4.1 Principles of topological analysis
Pintzuk (2003:519) says that the Old English finite verb “can appear in almost any position in both main and subordinate clauses”, and the examples following in 3.2 document that it could hold at least four positions: final, second, third, and fourth.
From our stance, however, Pintzuk’s analysis is not a structural one, but a list of positions in tokens. Danish topological analysis offers a strategy for identifying stru-tural positions, namely that of generalising from maximally long examples to shorter and therefore less transparent ones (Diderichsen 1943). We use Pintzuk’s examples as an illustration of this principle, and for ease of further exposition of the verb second issue we try to systematise and relate topologically some word order patterns found in Old English. We do not discuss the content of these Old English patterns, but only demonstrate how word order analysis can be carried out at the expression level. Where Old English is concerned, a major function of word order is probably to signal articu-lations of topic and focus structure, but we do not go into this issue. For a view of Dan-ish focus articulation, historically and synchronically, see Heltoft (2003).
4.2 Verb second and Wackernagel
In some hypotheses of Germanic word order development, verb second is seen as originating from verbs in Wackernagel’s position, i.e. the second position of the IE sentence as the position for atonic material, including verbs, see further mention in 6.2. A discussion of the rise of verb second is beyond the scope of the present text, but we shall demonstrate how the patterns found in Old English relate to each other when seen through the prism of topology. Old English is not a verb second language, as is Middle English, but it allows finite verbs to occupy the second position. For ease of exposition – the verb second issue is our focus of interest – we shall first contrast examples showing the finite verb in the second position with examples that do not.
(16) a. eow sceolon deor abitan (V2) you shall beasts bite at ‘beasts shall devour you’
b. þæt se eorðlica man sceolde geþeon (V2) that the earthly human being should enjoy ‘that earthly man should prosper’
54 Connecting Grammaticalisation
(17) a. þæt he ahof upp þa earcan (V2) that he lifted up the chest ‘that he lifted up the chest’
b. þæt he his stefne up ahof (-V2) that he his voice up lifted ‘that he lifted up his voice’
(18) a. Wilfred eac swilce of breotan ealonde wes onsend (-V2) Wilfred also in this way from Britons’ island was sent
‘In this way Wilfred was also sent away from the island of the Britons’
b. swa swa sceap from wulfum and wildeorum just as sheep from wolves and wild beasts beoð fornumene (-V2)
are taken
‘just as sheep are taken by wolves and wild beasts’
(19) a. him þær se gionga cyning þæs oferfæreldes him there the young king this.gen crossing-gen forwiernan mehte (-V2)
prevent could
‘there the young king could prevent him from the crossing’
b. þa Apollonius afaren wæs (-V2) when Apollonius departed was ‘when Apolllonius had departed’
Where a token oriented approach would here register verb second for (16ab) and (17a), it would register many instances that could not be verb second, namely: SOV for (17b), SXVv for (18ab), SvV for (19b), and finally for (19a) OASOvV, a complex case of SOV.
Such apparently unsystematic examples can be related in a topological frame, general-ising on the background of maximally filled examples. We start with (16) and (17):25
(20) C X V Middle Field V Postfield
16a eow sceolon deor abitan
16b þæt se eorðlica
man sceolde geþeon
17a þæt he ahof upp25 þa earcan
17b þæt he his stefne up ahof
25. We prefer this analysis as a generalisation from example (17b). An alternative analysis would be to consider ahof upp as one topological unit in the first V, þa earcan could then be in the middle field. We need not take this debate in the present context.
Chapter 2. Topology (word order) 55
We identify the position for verb second and place the remainder of the constituents represented in positions relative to that position. There are at least two positions for finite verbs, namely verb second and the later V, which can also hold non-finite verbs, and, in fact, complex verbal constituents consisting of finite V and non-finite V(s). We can show this by adding (18b) and (19b), which show that finite and non-finite verbs can be contiguous.
(21) C X V Middle Field V Postfield
16a eow sceolon deor abitan
16b þæt se eorðlica
man sceolde geþeon
17a þæt he ahof upp þa earcan
17b þæt he his stefne up ahof
18b swaswa sceap from wulfum
and wildeorum beoð fornumene
19b þa Apollonius afaren wæs
This topological exercise, it will be noted, has not revealed any specific position for subjects. The absence of such a position would probably be a major point in a topo-logical analysis of Old English. In principle, a language need not identify its subjects topologically.
We are now in a position to try and add a set of maximally complex examples, of a type that are in fact decisive with regard to determining topological structure. The strategy is to subsume the examples above having the finite verb in second position under a more general topology that will also comprise examples where the finite verb is not in that position. We started out by taking the second position to be the pivot (Heltoft 1992, ‘the point of orientation that brings maximal order to the topologi-cal charts’). For Old English, this analysis hinges on the possibility of generalising it to cases where the second position is not filled by a verb but by light adverbs or unstressed pronouns. Insofar as these categories are mutually exclusive in this posi-tion, this strategy will allow us to treat the second position for verbs as identical with a different position not containing any verbal material. We name this unified posi-tion W to refer to Wackernagel’s analysis of the second posiposi-tion as the IE posiposi-tion for pronouns, particles, conjunctions, atonic verbs and other types of atonic material. But notice that this result is in fact gained by means of systematic topological analysis. It is a synchronic reality of Old English to allow pronouns and atonic adverbs in the second position.
56 Connecting Grammaticalisation
(22) C X W Middle Field V Postfield
18a Wilfred eac swilce of
breotan ealonde wes onsend
19a him þær se gionga
cyning þæs oferfæreldes
forwiernan mehte
16a eow sceolon deor abitan
16b þæt se eorðlica
man sceolde geþeon
17a þæt he ahof upp þa
earcan
17b þæt he his stefne up ahof
18b swaswa sceap from wulfum
and wildeorum beoð fornumene
19b þa Apollonius afaren wæs
Not all verb second examples have an atonic verb and especially (17a) seems to have a full verb. But the point here is, of course, that the finite verb in second position has been generalised as a possible verb position (cf. Lass 1994: 216–227), and this process can take place on top of the remnants of older word order principles and rules without necessarily removing them.
Old English is sufficiently archaic to give an impression of some intermediate stages between Wackernagel Indo-European and later old Germanic languages. The overview to follow is largely identical to Lass (1994). The template for Old English is given in Tables 2 and 3, with an overview of the Old English types of word order represented:
Table 2. Word order template for Old English
X W Middle
Field V Post Field V
PRON.
ADV.
…
Table 3. Overview of Old English types of word order represented
X (Initial) W Middle field V Postfield
S ADV ADV ADV Vf Vi 18a
O PRON.ADV SO Vi Vf 19a
(Continued)
Chapter 2. Topology (word order) 57
Table 3. (Continued)
X (Initial) W Middle field V Postfield
O Vf S VI 16a
S Vf VI 16b
S Vf O Dir.part Vi 17a
S Vf Dir.part. O 17b
S ADV Vf Vi 18b
S Vi Vf 19b
4.3 Old English synchrony and a possible scenario for Scandinavian verb second
We shall not pursue the issue of verb second for English, but the Old English types offer a clear basis for the reanalysis bringing about Old Scandinavian structure. We may hypothesise, then, that Scandinavian verb second arose from Wackernagel struc-tures that came under pressure from reanalyses of W (= atonic verb second etc.) as a general position for finite verbs, the synchronic point being that the only way to formulate such a hypothesis is through analyses of possible preceding synchronic word order systems, like the one sketched for Old English. The template XW…OV will produce tokens including XVfin…OV. This token will be open for reanalysis of the sequence XVfin as the general position for finite verbs. In the long run, this will lead to the obsolescence of OVfin (hence of SOV) and of W as a general position for unac-cented constituents (constituents with stress reduction or pitch reduction, see briefly W.P. Lehmann 1993: 58–61). Moreover, tokens like XVfin…O, originally reduced ver-sions of potential XVfinOV, are susceptible to reanalyses, leading to a general possibility for a verbal nucleus – finite or non-finite – to be followed by its valency-bound argu-ments. In other words, V2…O could have been reanalysed as an instance of a general word order option V…O, thus yielding the general topological structure for the verbal complements of Old Scandinavian:
X V2 …O V …O k X V2 …O V …O
Old Scandinavian is an obligatory and symmetrical verb second language, that is, a language with verb second in both main clauses and in subordinate clauses. Examples to show both that extension of V2…O to V…O has taken place and the symmetrical character of the verb second structure are presented in (23)–(26). Examples (23)–(24) show XV2 in a main clause and a subordinate clause, respectively.
58 Connecting Grammaticalisation
(23) æn kirkæ ran ma thæt æy hetæ. utæn but church open theft can it not be called, unless han wil æy repæ.
he will not use ropes
‘ But this cannot be called open theft from a church, unless he does not wish to measure land with ropes’ (Zealand Ecclesiastical Law 6. GL 11:27–29) (24) Æn vm hin orcar æy thre marc ær brutit hafuir. tha …
but if he is able to not three marks that offended has, then … ‘But if the offender cannot provide three marks, then …’
(Scanic Ecclesiastical Law 4. GL 11:6–8) Examples (25)–(26) show zero vs. V2 in a main clause and a conditional, subordinate clause, respectively.
(25) ser thu æi thæt thinæ afguthæ … hauæ ængi craft see you not that your idols … have no power ‘Don’t you see that your idols … have no power’
(Legend of St. Christina. GL 284:32–34) (26) Falla bj ofna annars mans bj. oc bryta them
fall bees upon another mans bees and break them til døtha. tha …
to death, then …
‘If the bees fall upon another man’s bees and put them to death. then…’
(Scanic Law 200. GL 35:28) Earlier and later verb second in Danish are be compared in detail in Chapter 6, together with a study of the reanalyses and actualisation processes that lead from one to the other.