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Old English Grammar & Syntax |
Change in Word Order Patterns during Transition from OE to ME |
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Parker Chronicle(734-892)
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Alfred's
Pastoral
Care
(c. 900)
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Peterborough
Chronicle
(1122-54)
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Orrmulum
(1200)
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SV |
64 |
82 |
67 |
84 |
VS |
36 |
18 |
33 |
16 |
SVO |
30 |
26 |
51 |
62 |
SOV |
35 |
44 |
17 |
14 |
OSV |
11 |
21 |
15 |
8 |
OVS |
3 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
VSO |
18 |
6 |
13 |
11 |
VOS |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
VO |
18 |
51 |
91 |
75 |
OV |
82 |
49 |
9 |
25 |
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All the patterns can be found in texts of
both periods, though with very different frequencies
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The table shows a definite trend towards the
modern system
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Putting the object before the verb is a striking
feature of the pre-900 Parker Chronicle
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Two thirds of the patterns are like this (see the
lines SOV, OSV, OVS, OV)
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In the Orrmulum, dated around 1200, we find that
no less than three quarters of the patterns are the other way
round
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A major grammatical frequency change of the kind
is extremely rare in the history of a language: grammar is not
an aspect of language that changes very easily (unlike
vocabulary and pronunciation)
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The shifts in the balance of grammatical
constructions that happened during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries were crucial for distinguishing Middle English from Old
English
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Copyrighted material |
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Table: David Crystal. The Stories of
English. Penguin Book, 2005. |
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