Chapter in:
Particles in German, English, and Beyond
Edited by Remus Gergel, Ingo Reich and Augustin Speyer
[Studies in Language Companion Series 224] 2022
► pp. 147–176

Chapter 6
Syntactic change and pragmatic maintenance

The discourse particle then over the history of English

| Radboud University Nijmegen
This chapter presents a corpus-based study of the history of then as a discourse marker in English. It will be shown that the pragmatic use of then and its status as a discourse particle was more or less stable throughout the history of English, even though its syntax changed profoundly.The precursor of then in Old English occurs on a large scale in a fixed position in questions, imperatives and conditional correlatives, and is presuppositional in the sense that it reflects a speaker’s response to the context, such as surprise or disapproval in questions, reinforcement or downtoning of the directive in imperatives.From early Middle English onward, the pragmatic use of then in questions and imperatives occurs in available alternative positions in the clause: initially (in yes/no questions and imperatives) and final (in questions). The older particle position became restricted to questions. The finally position was extended to declarative SVO clauses.The division of labour between particle use and temporal adverb use will be shown to interact, over the late Middle English and early Modern periods, with major syntactic changes that affected each of the clause types in different ways: the loss of V2, the auxiliation of the modals and the rise of do-support, and the loss of V to T movement. Through these developments, the pragmatic use of then has, if anything, expanded. This suggests that its robust discourse function was a powerful drive for maintenance under syntactic change.
Article outline
  • 1.Background and aims
    • 1.1Theoretical background and major syntactic developments in the history of English
  • 2.Discourse particle then in Old English
    • 2.1The syntax of particles
    • 2.2Preposed adverbial and conditional clauses
    • 2.3Interim conclusion
  • 3.The Middle English and later periods
    • 3.1The data in ME, eME and LME
    • 3.2From Middle English to late Modern English
      • 3.2.1Alternative positions for then from Middle English onward
        • 3.2.1.1Questions
        • 3.2.1.2Imperatives
        • 3.2.1.3Subject-initial clauses
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References

Corpora

Kytö, Merja & Jonathan Culpeper
2006 A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760 2006 Compiled under the supervision of Merja Kytö (Uppsala University) and Jonathan Culpeper (Lancaster University).Google Scholar
Kroch, Anthony & Anne Taylor
2000 The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English. https://​www​.ling​.upenn​.edu​/hist​-corpora/
Kroch, Anthony, Beatrice Santorini & Lauren Delfs
2006 The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English. https://​www​.ling​.upenn​.edu​/hist​-corpora/
Kroch, Anthony, Beatrice Santorini & Ariel Diertani
2016 The Penn Parsed Corpus of Modern British English. https://​www​.ling​.upenn​.edu​/hist​-corpora/
Nevalainen, Terttu, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg, Jukka Keränen, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin, Ann Taylor, Susan Pintzuk, Anthony Warner
2006 Parsed Corpus of Early English Correspondence (PCEEC), Oxford Text Archive.Google Scholar
Taylor, Ann, Anthony Warner, Susan Pintzuk & Frank Beths
2003 The York Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose. University of York: Department of Language and Linguistic Science.Google Scholar

Secondary literature

Abraham, Werner
1991 The grammaticization of the German modal particles. In Approaches to grammaticalization, Vol. II: Types of grammatical markers, Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), 331–380. [Typological Studies in Language 19:2]. Amsterdam/Philadlephia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bayer, Josef
2012 From modal particle to interrogative marker: a study of German denn. In Functional heads. The cartography of syntactic structures (vol.7.), Laura Brugè, Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro & Cecilia Poletto (eds.), 13–28. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bayer, Josef & Hans-Georg Obenauer
2011 Discourse particles, clause structure, and question types. The Linguistic Review 28, 449–91. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bayer, Josef & Volker Struckmeier
2017 The status quo of research on discourse particles in syntax and semantics. In Discourse Particles: Formal Approaches to their Syntax and Semantics, Josef Bayer & Volker Struckmeier (eds.), 1–14. [Linguistische Arbeiten 564]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Biberauer, Theresa & Ian Roberts
2010 Subjects, Tense and verb-movement. In Parametric Variation: Null Subjects in Minimalist Theory, Theresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg, Ian Roberts, & Michelle Sheehan (eds.), 263–302. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brinton, Laurel J.
1996 Pragmatic markers in English: Grammaticalization and discourse functions. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 The evolution of pragmatic markers in English: Pathways of change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna & Ian Roberts
2002 Clause structure and X-second. In Functional structure in DP and IP: The cartography of syntactic structures, Vol. 1. Guglielmo Cinque (ed.), 123–166. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coniglio, Marco
2011 Die Syntax der deutschen Modalpartikeln: Ihre Distribution und Lizenzierung in Haupt- und Nebensätzen. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Den Besten, Hans
1983 On the interaction of root transformations and lexical deletive rules. In On the formal nature of the Westgermania, Werner Abraham (ed.), 47–131. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellegard, Alvar
1953 The auxiliary do: The establishment and regulation of its use in English. [Gothenburg Studies in English. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell.Google Scholar
Enkvist, Nils E.
1986 More about the textual functions of the Old English adverbial þa. Linguistics across historical and geographical bounderies: In honour of Jacek Fisiak on the occassion of his fiftieth birthday, Dieter Kastovsky & Aleksander Szwedek (eds.), 301–309. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Olga
1992 Syntax. In The Cambridge History of the English Language, vol. II, Norman Blake (ed.), 207–408. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga, Ans van Kemenade, , Willem Koopman & Wim van der Wurff
2000 The Syntax of Early English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce
2009 An account of discourse markers. International Review of Pragmatics 1: 293–320. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gelderen, Elly van
2001 The syntax of mood particles in the history of English. Folia Linguistica Historica XXII. 301–330. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grosz, Patrick
2016 Information structure and discourse particles. In The Oxford handbook of information structure, Caroline Féry, & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.), 336–358. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haeberli, Eric
2000 Adjuncts and the syntax of subjects in Old and Middle English. In Diachronic syntax: Models and mechanisms, Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas & Anthony Warner (eds.), 109–131. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2002 Observations on the Loss of Verb Second in the History of English’. In Studies in Comparative Syntax, Jan-Wouter Zwart and Werner Abraham (eds.), 245–72. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haeberli, Eric & Tabea Ihsane
2016 Revisiting the loss of verb movement in the history of English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34, 497–542. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Han, Chung-hye
2000 The evolution of do-support in English imperatives. In Diachronic syntax: Models and Mechanisms, eds. Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas, & Anthony Warner, 275–295. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haselow, Alexander
2011 Discourse marker and modal particle: the functions of utterance-final then in spoken English. Journal of Pragmatics 43. 6303–6323. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English. In English Historical Linguistics 2010. Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 16), Pécs 23–27 August 2010, Irén Hegedűs and Alexandra Fodor (eds.), 153–175. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kemenade, Ans van
2011 Secondary negation and Information Structure organization in the History of English. In The Evolution of Negation: Beyond the Jespersen Cycle, Pierre Larrivee & Richard Ingham (eds.), 77–114. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 Rethinking the loss of V2. In The Oxford Handbook of the History of English, Elizabeth Closs Traugott and Terttu Nevalainen (eds.), 1182–1199. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kemenade, Ans van & Bettelou Los
2006 Discourse adverbs and clausal syntax in Old and Middle English’. In The Handbook of the History of English, Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los (eds.), 224–248. London: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kemenade, Ans van & Tanja Milicev
2012 Syntax and discourse in Old and Middle English word order. In Grammatical Change: Origins, Nature, Outcomes, Dianne Jonas, John Whitman & Andrew Garrett (eds.), 239–254. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kemenade, Ans van & Marit Westergaard
2012 Syntax and Information Structure: Verb Second variation in Middle English. In Information Structure and Syntactic Change, Anneli Meurmann-Solin, Bettelou Los & Maria José Lopez-Couso (eds.), 87–118. [Oxford Studies in the History of English 1]. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kemenade, Ans van & Meta Links
2020 Discourse particles in early English: Clause structure, pragmatics and discourse management. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 5(1), 3. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Komen, Erwin R.
2013 CorpusStudio. Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2008 Basic notions of information structure. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55, 243–276. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kroch, Anthony
1989 Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1: 199–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lenker, Ursula
2010 Argument and Rhetoric: Adverbial Connectors in the History of English . [Topics in English Linguistics 64]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lightfoot, David
1979 Principles of Diachronic Syntax. [Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 23]. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Links, Meta, Ans van Kemenade, & Stefan Grondelaers
2017 Correlatives in earlier English: change and continuity in the expression of interclausal dependencies. Language Variation and Change, 27.3. 365–392. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pintzuk, Susan
1999 Phrase Structures in competition: Variation and change in Old English word order. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian
1985 Agreement parameters and the development of English modal auxiliaries. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 3. 21–58.Google Scholar
1993 Verbs and Diachronic Syntax. [Natural Language and Linguistic Theory]. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah
1987 Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Struckmeier, Volker
2014 Ja doch wohl C? Modal particles as C-related elements. Studia Linguistica 68(1). 16–48. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Ann & Susan Pintzuk
2012 Rethinking the OV/VO alternation in Old English: The effect of complexity, grammatical weight, and information status. In The Oxford Handbook of the History of English, Elizabeth Traugott & Terttu Nevalainen (eds.). Oxford Handbooks Online.Google Scholar
Thurmair, Maria
1989 Modalpartikeln und ihre Kombinationen. Tübingen: Niemeyer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth
2016 On the rise of types of clause-final pragmatic markers in English. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 17:1, 26–54. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Warner, Anthony
1993 English Auxiliaries: Structure and History. [Cambridge Studies in Linguistics]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1997 The structure of parametric change, and V-movement in the history of English. In Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change, Ans van Kemenade & Nigel Vincent (eds.), 380–394. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2006 Variation and the interpretation of change in periphrastic do. In The Handbook of the History of English, Ans van Kemenade & Bettelou Los (eds.), 45–67. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wårvik, Brita
2013 Participant continuity and narrative structure: Defining discourse marker functions in Old English. Folia Linguistica Historica 34. 209–242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 Connective or “disconnective” discourse marker? Old English þa, multifunctionality and narrative structuring. In Connectives in Synchrony and Diachrony in European Languages, Anneli Meurman-Solin & Ursula Lenker (eds.). [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English, Volume] Helsinki, Varieng. http://​www​.helsinki​.fi​.ru​.idm​.oclc​.org​/varieng​/series​/volumes​/08​/index​.html
Wouden, Ton van der & Ad Foolen
2015 Dutch particles in the right periphery. In Final Particles, Sylvie Hancil, Alexander Haselow, Margje Post (eds.), 221–247. Berlin: de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zwart, Jan Wouter
2011 The Syntax of Dutch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar