Table Of ContentSyntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic
OXFORD STUDIES IN DIACHRONIC AND HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
general editors
AdamLedgewayandIanRoberts,UniversityofCambridge
advisoryeditors
CynthiaAllen,AustralianNationalUniversity;RicardoBermúdez-Otero,University
ofManchester;TheresaBiberauer,UniversityofCambridge;CharlotteGalves,
UniversityofCampinas;GeoffHorrocks,UniversityofCambridge;PaulKiparsky,
StanfordUniversity;AnthonyKroch,UniversityofPennsylvania;DavidLightfoot,
GeorgetownUniversity;GiuseppeLongobardi,UniversityofYork;DavidWillis,
UniversityofCambridge
recently published in the series
7
WordOrderinOldItalian
CeciliaPoletto
8
DiachronyandDialects
GrammaticalChangeintheDialectsofItaly
EditedbyPaolaBenincà,AdamLedgeway,andNigelVincent
9
DiscourseandPragmaticMarkersfromLatintotheRomanceLanguages
EditedbyChiaraGhezziandPieraMolinelli
10
VowelLengthfromLatintoRomance
MicheleLoporcaro
11
TheEvolutionofFunctionalLeftPeripheriesinHungarianSyntax
EditedbyKatalinÉ.Kiss
12
SyntacticReconstructionandProto-Germanic
GeorgeWalkden
Foracompletelistofbookspublishedandinpreparationfortheseries,seepp.278–79
Syntactic Reconstruction
and Proto-Germanic
GEORGE WALKDEN
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,ox26dp,
UnitedKingdom
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof
OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries
#GeorgeWalkden2014
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
FirstEditionpublishedin2014
Impression:1
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin
aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe
priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted
bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics
rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe
aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe
addressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform
andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress
198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014930363
ISBN 978–0–19–871229–9
Printedandboundby
CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,cr04yy
LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand
forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials
containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork.
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Listofabbreviations x
Listoffigures xii
Listoftables xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Preamble 1
1.2 Themythmaker’shandbook:aconstructivistapproach
tohistoricalsyntax 3
1.3 Syntacticframework 6
1.4 TheGermaniclanguages 9
1.4.1 Gothic 11
1.4.2 OldNorse 13
1.4.3 OldEnglish 14
1.4.4 OldHighGerman 14
1.4.5 OldSaxon 15
1.4.6 Othersourcesofevidence 16
2 Amethodologyforsyntacticreconstruction 17
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Modellingsynchronicsyntacticvariation 18
2.2.1 Thestructureofsyntacticvariation 18
2.2.2 Thequestionoffreevariation 23
2.2.3 Syntacticfeatures 28
2.3 Modellingdiachronicsyntacticvariation 31
2.3.1 I-language,acquisition,andchange 31
2.3.2 Mechanismsandcauses 37
2.3.3 Directionality 41
2.3.4 Transmission,diffusion,andlanguagecontact 44
2.4 Lexical-phonologicalandsyntacticreconstruction:parallelsandpitfalls 47
2.4.1 Backgroundtothedebate 47
2.4.2 Establishingcorrespondences 53
2.4.3 Establishingproto-forms 60
2.5 Summary 63
vi Contents
3 VerbpositioninearlyGermanicmainclauses 65
3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 V2andV3 67
3.2.1 V2:thedata 67
3.2.2 V3 69
3.2.3 AnalysesofV2andV3 74
3.2.4 V2andV3inProto-NorthwestGermanic 89
3.3 V1 92
3.3.1 V1:thedata 92
3.3.2 AnalysesofV1 93
3.4 Verb-lateandverb-finalmainclauses 94
3.4.1 Verb-latemainclauses:thedata 94
3.4.2 Verb-latemainclausesasanunsolvedpuzzle 97
3.4.3 Ananalysis 99
3.4.4 Verb-lateinProto-NorthwestGermanic 106
3.5 MainclausesinGothic 107
3.6 Chaptersummary 111
4 Thewh-systemofearlyGermanic 113
4.1 Introduction 113
4.2 Wordorderinwh-interrogatives 114
4.2.1 V2inwh-interrogatives 114
4.2.2 Particles,pronouns,topics,andthefinestructure
oftheleftperipheryofwh-interrogatives 116
4.2.3 Verb-lateorderinOEandOSwh-interrogatives 118
4.3 Underspecified*hwat? 121
4.3.1 Thetraditionalview 121
4.3.2 Problemswiththetraditionalview 124
4.3.3 Anunderspecificationanalysis 130
4.3.4 Thediachronyofunderspecification 142
4.4 Whether 144
4.4.1 EastGermanic:ƕaþar 146
4.4.2 WestGermanic:hwæþer,hweđar,hwedar 147
4.4.3 NorthGermanic:hvaðarr,hvárr/hvár/hvárt 152
4.4.4 ThesyntaxofProto-Germanic*hwaþeraz/*hweþeraz 154
4.5 Chaptersummary 155
5 NullargumentsinearlyGermanic 157
5.1 Introduction 157
5.2 NullargumentsacrosstheattestedearlyGermaniclanguages 158
5.2.1 Gothic 158
Contents vii
5.2.2 OldNorse 164
5.2.3 OldEnglish 171
5.2.4 OldHighGerman 184
5.2.5 OldSaxon 190
5.2.6 Summary:distributionofnullargumentsinearlyGermanic 195
5.3 AnalysisofnullargumentsinearlyGermanic 195
5.3.1 Nullargumentsconditionedbyrichagreement? 195
5.3.2 Topicdrop? 201
5.3.3 Radicalnullargumentlanguages? 203
5.3.4 Apartialnullargumentanalysis 209
5.3.5 Cross-linguisticreachoftheproposal 215
5.4 NullargumentsacrossthehistoryofGermanic 219
5.4.1 Diachronictrajectories 219
5.4.2 Themainclauseconstraint:innovationorretention? 222
5.4.3 Proto-Germanicasanullargumentlanguage 224
6 Conclusion 227
6.1 Summaryofresults 227
6.2 BeyondGermanic 229
6.3 Reconstructinggrammars 231
6.4 Afterword 232
References 234
Indexoflanguagesandsources 271
Indexofsubjects 275
Acknowledgements
MorepeoplethanIcannamehavehelpedmeinmorewaysthanIcannameduring
the time that this book was put together, so my first acknowledgement is to those
peoplewhoI’veunjustifiablyfailedtoacknowledgebelow.Sorry.
This research originated as a doctoral dissertation with the same name at the
University of Cambridge, which was supported financially by Arts & Humanities
ResearchCouncilDoctoralAwardAH/H026924/1.
For comments and discussion at workshops and conferences, I am grateful to
Laura Bailey, Kristin Bech, Kersti Börjars, Sarah Courtney, Tonya Kim Dewey,
Roland Hinterhölzl, Richard Ingham, Brian Joseph, Ans van Kemenade, Ruba
Khamam, Tony Kroch, Svetlana Petrova, Susan Pintzuk, Gertjan Postma, Laurie
Reid,ChristineMeklenborgSalvesen,EvaSchlachter,AnnTaylor,EwaTrutkowski,
Phillip Wallage, JoelWallenberg, RichardWaltereit,and WimvanderWurff.Iam
particularly grateful to Svetlana Petrova and to Susan Pintzuk and Ann Taylor for
lookingaftermeduringresearchvisitstoBerlinandYorkrespectively,duringwhich
I learned a lot. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of the journal articles
stemmingfrommyresearchforthisbook.
Variousofthepeoplewhotaughtmelanguagesandlinguisticsasanundergradu-
ate deserve thanks: Debbie Anderson, Anne Breitbarth, Michelle Crowe, Richard
Dance,StephenFennell,MariJones,KirstyMcDougall,SheilaWatts.Otherlinguists
inCambridgehelpedoutinvariousdifferentways,inparticularTheresaBiberauer,
JamesClackson,KasiaJaszczolt,AdamLedgeway,ChrisLucas,IanRoberts,Michelle
Sheehan,andBertVaux.
ThankstoCambridgecoursematesandfriends:AlastairAppleton,TimBazalgette,
Alison Biggs, Cat Davies, Fiona Hanlon, Ena Hodzik, Minyao Huang, Petros Kar-
atsareas, Elliott Lash, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Moreno Mitrović, Iain Mobbs, Neil
Myler,ElenaPala,ArtūrasRatkus,LatifaSadoc,Liane-LouiseSmith,DavidThomas,
AnnaTristram,JenWainwright,LivWalsh.Thankstotwofriendsfromfurtherback,
Alastair Mailer and David Woods, who reminded me that there was life outside
linguistics, if not outside academia, and thanks to all my other non-linguistics
friends. Craig Gibson, my personal trainer, helped keep me in shape mentally as
wellasphysically,goingfarbeyondthecallofduty.
Many thanks to linguists in Manchester, particularly Yuni Kim and Danielle
Turton, for helping me settle in there—and thanks for giving me a job. I’ll try not
toletyoudown.ThanksalsotoLaurelMacKenzieforhelpwithggplot2.
My parents Bob and Diana Walkden have been wonderfully supportive, and my
brotherMichaelisthebestsourceofdistractionIknow.
Acknowledgements ix
TheresaBiberauerdeservesaspecialmentionforherseeminglyinfiniteenergyand
unfailing enthusiasm, and for continually pointing me in useful directions. Ian
Roberts has been an amiable, accessible guru, who has been extremely supportive
duringmyyearsasagraduatestudentandbeyond,quiteapartfrombeingafantastic
source of information on virtually every conceivable linguistic topic. My adviser,
Sheila Watts, taught me more about linguistics than anyone else during my seven-
and-a-halfyearsatCambridge,frommyfirstbabystepstowhereIamnow,andIam
tremendouslygratefultoherforthat.
Finally, David Willis was a model dissertation supervisor. He always knew when
I needed prodding and when I needed to be cut some slack; his comments on my
work were always constructive, thoughtful, and thorough; he provided invaluable
advice not just on the process of writing, but on every aspect of how to be an
academic linguist.It’smainlythankstohimthatInowhaveashotatspendingthe
restofmylifedoingwhatIlove:thinking,andlearning,aboutlanguage.Ican’tthank
himenoughforthat.
Thisbookisdedicatedtothememoryofmygrandmother,JoyHoulton.
