Word Order and Parameter Change in Romanian: A Comparative Romance Perspective (Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics)

The book provides a comprehensive description and in-depth analysis of the major word order changes that took place in the clausal and the nominal domains in the transition from old to modern Romanian. The data are set in a comparative Romance perspective, with attention also paid to the impact of the Balkan Sprachbund and the influence of Old Church Slavonic. Alexandru Nicolae's analysis is based on a qualitative and quantitative examination of a large number of phenomena in a representative corpus of old Romanian texts. Some of these phenomena, such as scrambling, interpolation, discontinuous constituents, and variation in the position and linearization of DP-internal adjectival modifiers, are found across Romance, while others, such as the low position for pronominal cliticization, are relatively rare. Still others are specific to old and modern Romanian, such as the proclitic and enclitic realization of the same pronominal clitic, the low definite article, and the adjectival article construction. From an empirical perspective, the volume fills a gap in the Romance linguistics literature, as several of the phenomena it explores have been largely neglected to date. More broadly it offers a valuable contribution to research into word order typology and change, the nature and content of syntactic parameters, and the theory of grammaticalization and syntactic change. Cover 1 Word Order and Parameter Change in Romanian: A Comparative Romance Perspective 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Series preface 12 Preface 13 Acknowledgements 15 List of tables 18 Abbreviations, symbols, and conventions 19 1: Word order and parameter change in Romanian: An introduction 24 1.1 WORD ORDER VARIATION AND CHANGE IN ROMANIAN 24 1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 27 1.3 PERIODIZATION AND CORPUS 28 1.4 METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 29 1.5 THE ISSUE OF ‘FOREIGN’ SYNTACTIC FEATURES 31 1.6 GLOSSES AND EXAMPLES 32 2: Inversion as a residual old Romance V2 grammar 33 2.1 INTRODUCTION 33 2.1.1 Setting the problem 33 2.1.2 Outline and framework 34 2.1.3 Claims 35 2.2 BACKGROUND 36 2.2.1 Overview of verb raising in modern romanian: Height and strategy 36 2.2.2 Features of old romance V2 grammars 48 2.3 OLD ROMANIAN INVERSION: FROM RESIDUAL V2 TO FOCUS 50 2.3.1 Diagnosing V2 50 2.3.1.1 Constant parametric settings: Negation and auxiliaries 50 2.3.1.1.1 Negation 50 2.3.1.1.2 Auxiliaries 52 2.3.1.2 Pronominal clitics: Evidence for a vP-cliticization site 55 2.3.1.3 Summary: Implications for diagnosing V-to-C movement 60 2.3.1.4 V-movement targets specifiers 61 2.3.1.5 V-to-C is V-to-Fin 61 2.3.1.5.1 Direct distributional evidence: main-clause inverted subjunctives 61 2.3.1.5.2 Inversion and ForceP 64 2.3.1.5.3 Inversion and the left periphery 65 2.3.1.5.4 Inversion is not movement to focus 66 2.3.1.6 V1 clauses 67 2.3.1.7 Summary 69 2.3.2 V2 as the residual option 70 2.3.2.1 Some methodological remarks 70 2.3.2.2 V-to-C vs V-to-I in figures 72 2.3.2.3 The matrix–embedded asymmetry 76 2.3.2.4 Reanalysis of V2 as a focus-marking strategy 79 2.3.2.5 Summary: On the diachrony of V2 in old Romanian 84 2.4 PARAMETER RESETTING IN A BROADER COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 84 3: Discontiguous linearizations in the sentential core: Interpolation, scrambling, and related phenomena 86 3.1 INTRODUCTION 86 3.1.1 The Data: Discontiguous linearizations in the sentential core 86 3.1.2 Terminology and framework 88 3.1.3 Outline and difficulties 89 3.2 INTERPOLATION: ROMANCE AND OLD ROMANIAN 91 3.2.1 Textual distribution, diachrony, and romance counterparts 91 3.2.2 Properties of interpolation in old romanian 93 3.2.2.1 Morphological properties 93 3.2.2.2 Range of interpolated constituents 95 3.2.2.3 Higher functional space 97 3.2.2.4 A formal account of the observed distribution 98 3.2.3 Summary 101 3.3 DISCONTIGUOUS VERBAL CLUSTERS 102 3.3.1 An Emperical overview 102 3.3.1.1 Old Romanian distribution and Romance counterparts 102 3.3.1.2 A methodological issue in the analysis of discontiguousverbal clusters 105 3.3.2 Properties of discontiguous verbal clusters in old romanian 105 3.3.2.1 Morphological properties 105 3.3.2.2 Status of auxiliary verbs 107 3.3.2.3 Range of interposed constituents 109 3.3.2.4 The matrix–embedded asymmetry 113 3.3.2.5 A formal account of discontiguous verbal clusters 115 3.3.3 Summary: Diachronic changes and the nature of the vP-Edge 123 3.4 OTHER TYPES OF DISCONTIGUOUS LINEARIZATIONS 125 3.4.1 Discontiguous linearizations involving higher functional elements 125 3.4.2 A Richer vP-periphery with modal complex predicates 127 3.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS 129 4: Word order in the nominal phrase 131 4.1 INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEMS 131 4.1.1 Setting the problems 131 4.1.2 Framework and outline 134 4.2 CHANGES IN THE PATTERNS OF DEFINITENESS VALUATION AND THEIR EFFECTS 135 4.2.1 Syntax of definite DPs in modern romanian 136 4.2.1.1 Suffixal nature of the Romanian enclitic definite article 136 4.2.1.2 Patterns of definiteness valuation 139 4.2.1.3 Summary 142 4.2.2 Low Definite article in old romanian 143 4.2.2.1 DP-internal distribution 143 4.2.2.2 Triggering factors and syntactic analysis 146 4.2.2.3 Long-distance valuation in old Romanian: Consequences 150 4.2.2.3.1 Word order rigidification 150 4.2.2.3.2 Logic of polydefiniteness 152 4.2.3 Summary: Changes in the valuation and realization of definiteness 154 4.3 THE PRENOMINAL DOMAIN 154 4.3.1 Adjectival positions and N(P)-raising 155 4.3.1.1 The data 155 4.3.1.2 Syntactic analysis: Changes in the level and strategy of N(P)-raising 157 4.3.1.3 Summary 162 4.3.2 Accessing the DP-Edge 163 4.3.3 Summary: Reshaping the prenominal domain 168 4.4 DISCONTINUOUS STRUCTURES AND THE SYNTAX OF DEFINITENESS 168 4.4.1 Typology of discontinuous structures 169 4.4.2 Residual head finality in the nominal and adjectival domains 174 4.4.3 Syntactic analysis: Relation to definiteness 177 4.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS 183 4.5.1 Low definite article and emergence of the romanian suffixal definite article 183 4.5.2 DP-internal word order rigidification 184 5: Demonstrative specialization and the emergence of the determiner cel 186 5.1 INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE 186 5.2 THE SYNTACTIC SPECIALIZATION OF ROMANIAN DEMONSTRATIVES 187 5.2.1 An Overview of the romanian demonstrative system 187 5.2.2 The view from modern romanian: Etymology and syntax 190 5.2.2.1 The distribution of adnominal demonstratives inmodern Romanian 190 5.2.2.2 On the origin of strong forms: A baredemonstrative-reinforcer construction 192 5.2.2.3 The syntactic derivation of adnominaldemonstrative constructions 198 5.2.2.3.1 Consequences of the analysis 201 5.2.2.3.2 A possible counterexample to the established word order generalizations? 204 5.2.2.4 Summary 206 5.2.3 The view from diachrony: Demonstrative specialization and word order tightening 206 5.2.3.1 Categorially non-distinct adnominal demonstratives 206 5.2.3.1.1 Indiscriminate usage of forms in prenominal andpostnominal position 207 5.2.3.1.2 Pronominal usage 209 5.2.3.2 Definiteness valuation by adnominal demonstratives 209 5.2.3.3 Demonstratives in polydefinite structures 211 5.2.3.4 Non-adjacency: Phrasal movement across strong demonstratives 212 5.2.3.5 On the diachrony of the discussed patterns 213 5.2.3.6 The postnominal demonstrative construction: A reanalysedappositional structure 214 5.2.4 Summary 220 5.3 THE EMERGENCE OF THE DETERMINER CEL 220 5.3.1 The View From Modern romanian 221 5.3.1.1 Cel vs demonstratives 221 5.3.1.2 Distributional properties 222 5.3.1.3 Syntactic analysis and its consequences 225 5.3.2 The view from diachrony: Causes and consequences in the specialization of cel 228 5.3.2.1 (A)cel > cel or (a)cela > cel? 228 5.3.2.2 Polydefiniteness 229 5.3.2.3 Distribution 230 5.3.2.4 Competition with the suffixal definite article 232 5.3.2.5 The diachronic development of cel 235 5.3.3 Summary 239 6: Diachronic features of Romanian in a broader comparative setting 240 6.1 PARAMETERS OF ‘HEIGHT’: V-MOVEMENT AND N-MOVEMENT 240 6.2 LANGUAGE CONTACT: TRANSLATIONS AND THE BALKAN SPRACHBUND 241 6.3 SURFACE ANALOGY VS DEEP STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES 242 6.4 LESSONS FOR SYNTACTIC THEORY AND SYNTACTIC CHANGE 243 Epilogue 245 APPENDIX: Corpus of old Romanian texts 246 References 252 Index 275 The book provides a comprehensive description and in-depth analysis of the major word order changes that took place in the clausal and the nominal domains in the transition from old to modern Romanian. The data are set in a comparative Romance perspective, with attention also paid to the impact of the Balkan Sprachbund and the influence of Old Church Slavonic. Alexandru Nicolae's analysis is based on a qualitative and quantitative examination of a large number of phenomena in a representative corpus of old Romanian texts. Some of these phenomena, such as scrambling, interpolation, discontinuous constituents, and variation in the position and linearization of DP-internal adjectival modifiers, are found across Romance, while others, such as the low position for pronominal cliticization, are relatively rare. Still others are specific to old and modern Romanian, such as the proclitic and enclitic realization of the same pronominal clitic, the low definite article, and the adjectival article construction. 0From an empirical perspective, the volume fills a gap in the Romance linguistics literature, as several of the phenomena it explores have been largely neglected to date. More broadly it offers a valuable contribution to research into word order typology and change, the nature and content of syntactic parameters, and the theory of grammaticalization and syntactic change The book provides a comprehensive description and in-depth analysis of the major word order changes that took place in the transition from old to modern Romanian. It examines a large number of phenomena, from those that are common across Romance to some that are specific to Romanian, filling an important gap in the Romance linguistics literature.