The Semantics of Syntactic Change: Aspects of the Evolution of 'do' in English (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] Book 47)

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing. Preface 5 List of abbreviations 7 Chapter One: Introduction 15 1. Theoretical motivation 15 2. Why re-study the development of do? 19 3. Theories and data 20 4. Heterogeneity of explanatory dimensions 22 5. Structure of presentation 23 Chapter Two: Do up to the fifteenth century 25 1. Phases of do development 25 2. The origin of “meaningless periphrastic do” 30 3. Do in the Paston letters (1422–1509) 35 4. The democratization of do: a speculation 37 Chapter Three: Do and discourse structure 45 1. Do as a marker of discourse-semantic prominence 45 2. Saliency and foregrounding 49 3. Foreground and contrastiveness 51 4. Local foreground structure markers 52 Chapter Four: Syntax and style in the sixteenth century 57 1. Do in the sixteenth century: the quantitative problem 57 2. Standard and prose style 58 3. Main stylistic currents 60 4. Relevant stylistic structures 64 5. Imitating Latin syntax 70 6. Antithesis 73 Chapter Five: The semantics of do in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 77 1. Analysis of a pamphlet (1521) 77 2. Authority 78 3. Rhetoric and foreground 81 4. Rhetorical questions 96 5. Negation 99 6. Intensity 101 7. Performatives, speech act verbs, and verbs of perception 107 8. Logical relationships 113 9. Standardization and synonyms 115 Chapter Six: Unity and diversity: style, dialect and the semantics of do before 1600 117 1. Use and semantics 117 2. Syntactic versus semantic explanation 120 3. Do as a marker of courtly speech 122 4. Do in low texts 135 5. The demise of courtly do 140 6. A case study: Early American letters 145 7. Semantic, stylistic and dialectal diversity, and German tun 150 8. Methodological considerations 155 Chapter Seven: Do in the Shakespeare corpus 157 1. An initial hypothesis 157 1.1. The problem 157 1.2. The phonotactics and frequency of thou + st 158 1.3. Methodological advantages of the Shakespeare corpus 160 2. Subcategorizations and terminological conventions 162 3. Phonotactics and periphrasis frequency 164 3.1. Differences between person and tense categories 164 3.2. Differences between phonetically defined types of verb stems in the present 165 3.3. Differences between syntactic contexts in the present 168 3.4. Generalization in the present from thou + you 176 4. Diachronic interpretation of the synchronic pattern 182 4.1. Analysis of the preterite and diachronic interpretation of the subcategorical pattern 182 4.2. Stability of the variational pattern 186 5. Further strategies of avoiding (d)st 189 6. Negatives 192 Chapter Eight: Do in questions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the statistical evidence 193 1. Methodological considerations 193 2. Corpora analyzed 194 3. From raw data to indices: an example 196 4. Periphrasis frequency in questions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the evidence 197 Chapter Nine: The mechanics of generalization 209 1. Individual utterance versus system 209 2. Naturalness and isolect 212 3. Micro-structure of generalization I 217 4. Rhetorical and other questions 222 5. Micro-structure of generalization II 224 6. Frequency and residuals 227 7. Poetic uses 234 Chapter Ten: Third singular morphology and syntax 237 1. Inflectional ending and verbal syntax 237 2. The transition from th to s 240 3. The phonotactic factor 243 4. Parallels between third singular and do development 244 Chapter Eleven: Subjunctive 247 1. Overview and purpose 247 2. Historical development of subjunctive marking 248 3. The structure of subjunctive marking in Early Modern English 252 4. The inflectional motivation of subjunctive marking 261 5. Do in subjunctives 264 Chapter Twelve: Wh-questions 269 1. Motivations for analyzing wh-questions 269 2. Empirical data 270 3. Results 272 4. Interpretation 273 5. Dimensions of directionality 276 Chapter Thirteen: Natural and social aspects 281 1. The semantic unity of do uses 281 1.1. The rise of epistemic do 281 1.2. Do in negation 283 1.3. Exclamatives 285 1.4. Emphatic do 286 1.5. Typology and grammaticalization 289 1.6. Semantics of do and inversion 292 1.7. Further word-order factors 294 2. Natural tendencies 296 2.1. Motivations for naturalness 296 2.2. Natural tendencies in the development of do 310 3. Semantic directionality: subjectivization 327 4. Social and varietal aspects 331 4.1. Do and written standard 331 4.2. The diversity of do meanings 332 4.3. Order and grammar 336 4.4. Medium and meanings of do 339 4.5.The unfashionableness of thou 342 Conclusion 347 Appendices 349 Bibliography 429 Index 457

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.