Remarks on the left periphery in the medieval Brittonic languages

Remarks on the left periphery in the medieval Brittonic languages Joseph F.Eska Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University ABSTRACT: This paper proposes that the clausal configuration of affirmative root clauses in the medieval Brittonic languages is best characterised as atoken of arelaxed verb-second (V2) language, in which the verb can appear as late as sixth position in the clause, but can be preceded by no more than asingle argument. The absolute restriction to only asingle argument occurring before the verb is related to the evolution of medieval Brittonic V2 from acleft structure. There are, in fact, tokens of two arguments appearing before the verb in all of the medieval Brittonic languages, but these are exclusively the result of poetic overdetermination. KEYWORDS: left periphery; syntactic cartography; verb-second phenomenon; relaxed verb-second; Middle Welsh; Middle Breton; Middle Cornish 1. PRELUDE §1. Willis (1998: 50–101) demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt that the unmarked configuration of affirmative root clauses in Middle Welsh was verb-second (V2). He provides parallel data from Middle Breton in Borsley— Tallerman— Willis (2007: 290–291) and notes that Middle Cornish, likewise, follows this pattern. One of the principal diagnostic features of such an analysis is the post-verbal position of the verb when the direct object or an adverb(ial) precedes the verb.1 Some sample tokens are:2 1 N.B. that, across all three languages, the affirmative particle appears as awhen the fronted XP is the subject or object; when the fronted XP is an adverb(ial), it appears as y(d) in Middle Welsh, as e(z) in Middle Breton, and as y(th) in Middle Cornish. For etymological discussion of these particles, see Schrijver (1997: 159–165). 2 Grammatical abbreviations: acc = accusative; aff = affirmative particle; cop = copula; dat= dative; def = definite; dem = demonstrative; dist = distal; fem = feminine; fut = future; gen = genitive; impf = imperfect; imps = impersonal; impv = imperative; masc = masculine; neg = negator; nom = nominative; perf = perfective; pl = plural; poss = possessive; pres = present; pret = preterite; prog = progressive; prox = proximate; ptcl = particle; pv = preverb; rel = relative; sg = singular; sprltv = superlative; v-adj = verbal adjective; vn = verbal noun; & = connective. OPEN ACCESS 36 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2020 (1) Middle Welsh a. Subject-initial (PKM 54.2): [Caswallon] a glywei hynny Caswallon aff hear.3.sg.impf dist ‘Caswallon would hear that …’ b. Object-initial (BR 1.18): A [chyngor] a gymerth Madawc & counsel aff take.3.sg.pret Madog ‘And Madog took counsel …’ c. Adverb(ial)-initial (PKM 78.17): [Yna] y magwyt y mab yn y llys then aff raise.pret.imps def boy in def court ‘Then the boy was raised in the court …’ (2) Middle Breton a. Subject-initial (BSN 242.45): [Me] a ia breman dre an bro 1.sg aff go.3.sg.pres now through def land ‘Igo now through the world.’ b. Object-initial (BSG 90.783): [an trous] a clevaf spes def noise aff hear.1.sg.pres clearly ‘Ihear the noise clearly.’ c. Adverb(ial)-initial (BSC 84 §13): hac [en continant] ez aparissas an eal dezy & immediately aff appear.3.sg.pret def angel to.3.sg.fem ‘… and the angel immediately appeared to her.’ (3) Middle Cornish a. Subject-initial (BM 34.594): [ny] a ’th wor the pen an gluas 1.pl aff 2.sg put.3.sg.pres to Penn an Wlas ‘We will bring you to Land’s End.’ b. Object-initial (RD 72.909): [guyr] a gousaf vy truth aff speak.1.sg.pres 1.sg ‘Ispeak truth.’ OPEN ACCESS JoSEPH F.ESkA 37 c. Adverb(ial)-initial (BK 314.3149): [maraw] y ’s guylfyth hy thyr dead aff 3.sg.fem see.3.sg.fut 3.sg.fem.poss land ‘… her country will see her dead.’ §2. Willis treats the V2 syntax of these languages as involving the verb moving into the C head with the concomitant movement of an XP— not specified as asubject— to SpecCP (such an analysis goes back to den Besten 1983 for German and Dutch), e.g., with fronting of the object: (4) §3. Unlike well known V2 languages such as German and Dutch, which allow the verb to occur in third position only within very limited conditions, the medieval Brittonic languages allow multiple adverb(ial)sto appear both before and after the fronted XP, with the verb thus appearing in as late as sixth position in the clause, for example, in Middle Welsh (a–b cited after Willis 1998: 60–61, c–d cited after Poppe 1991: 19):3 3 Paul Russell notes to me that tokens of V3* clauses mostly occur in translation texts. This by no means suggests that they were somehow ungrammatical in spoken Middle Welsh. Cf. the opening sentence in the English folktale Caporushes (text available at https://www. worldoftales.com/European_folktales/English_folktale_119.html#gsc.tab=0; accessed 16 August 2020), in which the verb appears in fifth position, though English is aSVO language: [Once upon atime], [along, long while ago], [when all the world was young and all sorts of strange things happened], [there] lived avery rich gentleman whose wife had died leaving him three lovely daughters. Such structures are not unusual in narrative texts. OPEN ACCESS 38 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2020 (5) a. Verb-third (HPE 35.15–16): [Hwnnw] [hagen] a darogannwys y corr a ’r dist however aff foretell.3.sg.pret def dwarf & def gorres it dwarfess to.2.sg ‘That, however, the dwarf and dwarfess foretold for you …’ b. Verb-fourth (YCM 18.23–24): [An heneiteu ni] [drwy y fyd a gynhalywn] [wedy 1.pl.poss soul.pl 1.pl through def faith rel uphold.1.pl.pres after an hageu] a ant y baratwys 1.pl.poss death aff go.3.sg.pres to paradise ‘Our souls, through the faith that we uphold, after our death, will go to paradise …’ c. Verb-fifth (BB 25.810–812): Ac [gwedy gwelet o Cheldrych perygyl y kytymdey〈thy〉on] & after see.vn by Cheldrig danger to.3.sg.masc.poss companion.pl [en e lle] [hep annot] [ymchwelvt] a orvc in def place without delay return.vn aff do.3.sg.pret ‘And, after Cheldrig perceived the danger to his companions, he immediately returned without delay …’ d. Verb-sixth (BB 25.795–797): Ac [o ’r dywed] [gan wuyhaf grym a llafvr] [gwedy kaffael & of def end with great.sprltv power & toil after get.vn o ’r Brytanyeyt penn e mynyd], [ en e lle] [wynt] by def Briton.pl head def mountain in def place 3.pl a dangossassant aff show.3.pl.pret ‘And, in the end, with the greatest power and toil, once the Britons had gained the top of the mountain, they immediately showed …’ Such constructions are also widespread in Middle Breton and Middle Cornish, e.gg.: (6) Middle Breton verb-fourth (BSC 86 §19): ha [neuse] [an rouanes] [dre an carantez he deffoye & now def queen through def love have.3.sg.fem.pret cõmeret ouz an guerhes sanctes Cathell] a yez take.v-adj towards def virgin saint Catherine aff go.3.sg.pret en nos in.def night ‘… and now, the queen, through the love that she had taken towards the virgin saint Catherine, went into the night …’ OPEN ACCESS JoSEPH F.ESkA 39 (7) Middle Cornish verb-third (BM 52.941): ha [my] [lemmen] a ’th vygeth & 1.sg now aff 2.sg baptise.3.sg.pres ‘… and now Iwill baptise you.’ §4. Willis (1998: 58–72) allows multiple adjunctions to CP and C′󠇠 to attach adverb(ial) s. (5b) would thus be represented as in (8), while (5d) would be represented as in (9): (8) (9) Under this approach, adjunction appears to be unconstrained. 2. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE LEFT PERIPHERY §5. Since Rizzi (1997), it has become clear that the left periphery of the root clause is highly articulated (see further Poletto 2002; Benincà— Poletto 2004; Rizzi 2004b, 2013; Frascarelli— Hinterhölzl 2007; Hinterhölzl— Petrova 2010; Haegeman 2012, inter alios). Ifollow the current communis opinio in understanding the hierarchical architecture of the left periphery to be: OPEN ACCESS 40 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2020 (10) [FrameP [ForceP [AbTopP [ContrTopP [FocP [FamTopP [FinP …]]]]]]] Within this framework, FrameP is the locus of scene-setting locatival and temporal adverb(ial)sand hanging topics; ForceP is the locus of markers of illocutionary force and clause-typing; AbTopP (Aboutness Topic) is the locus of topical XPs that are “newly introduced, newly changed or newly returned to” (Givón 1983: 8; see also Frascarelli— Hinterhölzl 2007: esp. 88); ContrTopP (Contrastive Topic) is the locus of XPs “that [induce] alternatives which have no impact on the focus value and creates oppositional pairs with respect to other topics” (Frascarelli— Hinterhölzl 2007: 88; see also Kuno 1976; Büring 1999); FocP is the locus of focussed XPs; FamTopP (Familiar Topic) is the locus of “agiven or accessible (cf. Chafe 1987) constituent, which is typically destressed and realised in apronominal form (Pesetsky 1987)” (Frascarelli— Hinterhölzl 2007: 88); and FinP (Finite) expresses the finiteness or non-finiteness of the clause. 3. THE VERB-SECOND PHENOMENON §6. It is current syntactic communis opinio that the V2 phenomenon results from Fin bearing an uninterpretable φ-feature which is valued by movement of the verb to Fin. Fin also bears an Edge Feature, which requires that SpecFinP be lexicalised, but the XP satisfying this requirement is not restricted to subjects (Mohr 2009).4 Poletto (2002) proposes that the locus of the V2 phenomenon, in fact, can be either FinP + ForceP or FinP alone. In V2 FinP + ForceP languages, the verb and initial XP move into and through FinP to ForceP, as in (11), thus severely restricting the number of constituents that can appear before the verb. Only SpecFrameP is available to host an XP to result in averb-third clause. (11) [FrameP [ForceP XP [Force V] [AbTopP [ContrTopP [FocP [FamTopP [FinP XP [Fin V] … ]]]]]]] In V2 FinP alone languages, however, the verb and XP do not move to ForceP, as in (12), and FrameP, ForceP, AbTopP, ContrTopP, FocP, and FamTopP may all host aconstituent that precedes the verb. (12) [FrameP [ForceP [AbTopP [ContrTopP [FocP [FamTopP [FinP XP [Fin V] … ]]]]]]] In this ‘relaxed’ instantiation of V2, the XP may move out of SpecFinP, for example, to SpecAbTopP, as in the Middle Cornish clause in (7), which accounts for clauses in which adverb(ial)soccur between the XP which satisfies the V2 Edge Feature requirement and the verb (illustrated in [13]). 4 For the view that the V2 phenomenon is driven by phonological requirements, see Richards (2016: 127–138, 285–289). OPEN ACCESS JoSEPH F.ESkA 41 (13) §7. Wolfe (2016a, 2016b, 2018, 2019a, 2020) makes good use of this approach to explicate configurational microvariation in medieval Romance (see also Wolfe 2019b for similar consideration of Germanic V2 languages). He demonstrates that later Old French is aForce V2 language and restricts the number of constituents that can precede the verb. In Queste 129.21, aframe-setting clause appears in SpecFrameP: (14) Et [FrameP quant il est apareilliez, & when 3.sg.masc cop.3.sg.pres appear.pst-ptcpl [ForceP il [Force prent] ses armes et monte … ]] 3.sg.masc take3.sg.pres 3.pl.poss weapon.pl & ride.3.sg.pres ‘When he appeared, he took his weapons and rode …’ In Wolfe’s sample, there are but two tokens of verb-fourth out of 632 clauses (0.32 %). OPEN ACCESS 42 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2020 On the other hand, in his sample of 622 clauses in Old Occitan, not only does verbthird occur more often than in later Old French,5 but verb-fourth occurs in 8.04 % of clauses, as well as verb-fifth in 1.29 % and verb-sixth in 0.64 %, none of which appear in later Old French. Thus, verb-fifth clauses such as in Douc. 96 §41 are possible in Old Occitan, but not in later Old French: (15) E [per aisso], [illi] [adoncs], [am gran confuzion] & for prox 3.sg.fem therefore at great confusion comandet a totas command.3.sg.pret to all ‘Because of this, therefore, amongst great confusion, she commanded everyone to …’ §8. We may also note that, though modern German is aForce V2 language and allows only asingle constituent before the verb in all but avery restricted number of instances, early Old High German appears to have been aFin V2 language, as illustrated with averb-fourth clause from Isidor 55.504–505,6 suggesting that adiachronic change has occurred. (16) [dhuo] [azs iungist] [bidhiu] quham gotes sunu then at finally therefore come.3.sg.pret god.gen.sg son.nom.sg ‘Then, finally, thus, the son of God came …’ Similarly in Old English, furthermore, as in the verb-fourth clause from OEBede 1.94.23–24 in (17):7 (17) [to Criste] [he] [Ongle] gehwyrfde mid to Christ.dat.sg 3.nom.sg.masc English.acc.sg convert.3.sg.pret by arfæstnesse lareowdomes piety.dat.sg teaching.gen.sg ‘He converted the English to Christ with the piety of (his) teaching …’ This type of ‘relaxed’ V2, thus, adequately accounts for the medieval Brittonic clauses. 4. ARGUMENTS IN THE LEFT PERIPHERY §9. One might think that, with anumber of preverbal positions available to host XPs in ‘relaxed’ V2 languages, that both asubject and an object could occur before the verb. 5 Old Occitan 29.74 %, Old French 24.53 %. 6 Though Isidor is translated from Latin, it is clear that this clause is not copying the syntax of the Latin text, which reads Uenit tandem filius dei. 7 N.B. the original Latin text, an examination of which makes it clear that the Old English translation is not copying the Latin syntax: De quo nos conuenit, quia nostram, id est Anglorum, gentem de potestate Satanae ad fidem Christi sua industria conuertit … OPEN ACCESS JoSEPH F.ESkA 43 Linguistic theory, however, generally states that only asubject or an object can appear in preverbal position, owing to ‘Relativised Minimality’ (developed by Rizzi 1990; see further Haegeman 2012: 109–111; perhaps most simply and clearly articulated by Roberts 2004: 316–317; see also Wolfe 2019a: 122–124). In brief, it states that apreverbal subject or object in aV2 language must pass through SpecFinP. Even if it moves higher into the left periphery of the clause, the copy that it leaves behind blocks any other XP from moving through SpecFinP, thus forming abottleneck. Cf. the Middle Welsh clause in (5a), repeated here in tree form to illustrate movement: (18) In this clause, the object hwnnw moves into SpecFinP in order to satisfy the V2 Edge Feature, but leaves behind an unpronounced copy when it moves into SpecAbTopP to value an uninterpretable feature, thus blocking the possibility of the subject from moving into the left periphery. §10. 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