1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Evolutionary Linguistic Theory
  4. Volume 6, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 6, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN 2589-1588
  • E-ISSN: 2589-1596
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This paper challenges the received wisdom on the diachronic development of expletives in Germanic and contributes to the increasing crosslinguistic evidence that expletives can be related to discourse-pragmatic properties, even at an early stage in their development. I examine the status of expletive in Early Icelandic saga narratives (1250–1450) in time-clefts (‘It was one time that…’) via corpus data from MIcePaHC (Ingason 2020). The MIcePaHC data indicates that time-clefts have special status in Early Icelandic as the only context where is already obligatory. Moreover, is robustly attested not just in the prefinite position but also postfinitely, thus contributing to the growing evidence against the standard view that Germanic expletives are initially motivated by the verb-second requirement. Considering broader discourse-pragmatic factors which have generally been neglected in this context, I link the early establishment of in time-clefts to the specific discourse functions of the construction (backgrounding, known-fact effect), and connect this with the Icelandic sagas’ special status as orally-derived narratives.

© 2024 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
2025-03-06
2026-06-15

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abraham, W.
    (1993) Null subjects in the history of German: From IP to CP. Lingua, 89(2–3), 117–142. 10.1016/0024‑3841(93)90050‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3841(93)90050-7 [Google Scholar]
  2. Amory, F.
    (1980) Narrative syntax in the typical saga scene. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 79(3), 390–407.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Axel, K.
    (2007) Studies on Old High German Syntax: Left Sentence Periphery, Verb Placement and Verb-Second. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.112
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.112 [Google Scholar]
  4. (2009) The verb-second property in Old High German: Different ways of filling the prefield. InR. Hinterhölzl & S. Petrova (Eds.), Information structure and language change: New approaches to word order variation in Germanic (pp.17–44). Berlin: de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110216110.1.17
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110216110.1.17 [Google Scholar]
  5. Bartra-Kaufmann, A.
    (2011) Recycled neuter expletive pronouns and the nature of the left periphery: ell and relatives revisited. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 101, 185–219. 10.5565/rev/catjl.37
     https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.37 [Google Scholar]
  6. Behagel, O.
    (1923) Deutsche Syntax: Eine geschichtliche Darstellung. Volume 1: Die Wortklassen und Wordformen. Heidelberg: Winter.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Betten, A.
    (1987) Zur Satzverknüpfung im althochdeutschen Tatian: Textsyntaktische Betrachtungen zum Konnektor thô und seinen lateinischen Entsprechungen. InR. Bergmann, H. Tiefenbach, L. Voetz, H. Kolb, K. Matzel & K. Stackmann (Eds.), Althochdeutsch. Band I: Grammatik. Glossen und Texte (pp.395–407). Winter: Heidelberg.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Booth, H.
    (2018) Clause Structure and Expletives: Syntactic Change in Icelandic. PhD thesis, University of Manchester.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. (2019) Cataphora, expletives and impersonal constructions in the history of Icelandic. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 42(2), 139–164. 10.1017/S0332586519000143
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586519000143 [Google Scholar]
  10. (2020) Expletives in Icelandic: A corpus study. InB. Drinka (Ed.), Historical Linguistics 2017: Selected papers from the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, San Antonio, Texas, 31 July–4 August 2017 (pp.363–384). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cilt.350.17boo
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.350.17boo [Google Scholar]
  11. Booth, H. & Beck, C.
    (2021) Verb-second and verb-first in the history of Icelandic. Journal of Historical Syntax, 5(28), 1–53. 10.18148/hs/2021.v5i28.112
     https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2021.v5i28.112 [Google Scholar]
  12. Breivik, L. E.
    (1983) Existential there: A Synchronic and Diachronic Study. Bergen: Department of English, University of Bergen.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. (1989) On the causes of syntactic change in English. InL. E. Breivik & E. H. Jahr (Eds.), Language change: Contributions to the study of its causes (pp.29–70). Berlin: de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110853063.29
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110853063.29 [Google Scholar]
  14. Bryan, E. S.
    (2021) Discourse in Old Norse literature. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Burridge, K.
    (1993) Syntactic change in Germanic: Aspects of language change in Germanic with particular reference to Middle Dutch. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cilt.89
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.89 [Google Scholar]
  16. Carrilho, E.
    (2005) Expletive ele in European Portuguese dialects. Lisbon: University of Lisbon dissertation.
  17. (2008) Beyond doubling: Overt expletives in European Portuguese dialects. InS. Barbiers, O. Koeneman, M. Lekakou & M. van der Ham (eds)., Microvariation in syntactic doubling (pp.301–349). Leiden: Brill. 10.1163/9781848550216_012
     https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848550216_012 [Google Scholar]
  18. Clover, C. J.
    (1985) Icelandic family sagas. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. (1986) The long prose form. Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 1011, 10–39.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Clunies Ross, M.
    (2010) The Cambridge introduction to the old Norse-Icelandic saga. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511763274
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763274 [Google Scholar]
  21. Collins, P. C.
    (1991) Pseudocleft and cleft constructions: A thematic and informational interpretation. Linguistics, 29(3), 481–519. 10.1515/ling.1991.29.3.481
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1991.29.3.481 [Google Scholar]
  22. (1992) Cleft existentials in English. Language Sciences, 14(4), 419–433. 10.1016/0388‑0001(92)90024‑9
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0388-0001(92)90024-9 [Google Scholar]
  23. Corr, A.
    (2015) Overt expletives in Ibero-Romance: A diachronic and diatopic perspective. Revue Romaine de Linguistique, 60(2–3), 205–222.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. (2017) The grammaticalization of epistemicity in Ibero-Romance: Alike processes, unlike outcomes. Journal of Historical Linguistics, 7(1), 48–76. 10.1075/jhl.7.1‑2.03cor
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.7.1-2.03cor [Google Scholar]
  25. De Cesare, A.-M. & Garassino, D.
    (2018) Adverbial cleft sentences in Italian, French and English. InM. G. García & M. Uth (Eds.), Focus realization in Romance and beyond (pp.255–286). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/slcs.201.09dec
     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.201.09dec [Google Scholar]
  26. Delin, J.
    (1992) Properties of it-cleft presupposition. Journal of Semantics, 9(4), 289–306. 10.1093/jos/9.4.289
     https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/9.4.289 [Google Scholar]
  27. Einarsson, S.
    (2019 [1957]) A history of Icelandic literature. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Eythórsson, T.
    (1995) Verbal syntax in the Early Germanic languages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University dissertation.
  29. Faarlund, J. T.
    (1990) Syntactic change: Toward a theory of historical syntax. Berlin: de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110854947
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110854947 [Google Scholar]
  30. (2004) The Syntax of Old Norse: With a survey of the inflectional morphology and a complete bibliography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235599.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235599.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  31. Faarlund, J. T., Lie, S. & Vannebo, K. I.
    (1997) Norsk referansegrammatikk. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Falk, C.
    (1993a) Non-referential subjects and agreement in the history of Swedish. Lingua, 89(2–3), 143–180. 10.1016/0024‑3841(93)90051‑W
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3841(93)90051-W [Google Scholar]
  33. (1993b) Non-referential subjects in the history of Swedish. Lund: Department of Scandinavian Languages, University of Lund.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Filppula, M.
    (2009) The rise of it-clefting in English: Areal-typological and contact-linguistic considerations. English Language & Linguistics, 13(2), 267–293. 10.1017/S1360674309003025
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674309003025 [Google Scholar]
  35. Fuß, E. & Hinterhölzl, R.
    (2023) On the historical development of pronouns referring to situations: The rise of pre-finite ‘expletives’ in German. Journal of Historical Syntax, 7(2), 1–54. 10.18148/hs/2023.v7i2.162
     https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i2.162 [Google Scholar]
  36. Glauser, J. & Clifton-Everest, J.
    (2000) Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendinga sögur) and þœttir as the literary representation of a new social space. InM. Clunies Ross (Ed.), Old Icelandic literature and society (pp.203–220). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511552922.009
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511552922.009 [Google Scholar]
  37. Goria, E.
    (2013) Towards a taxonomy of Latin cleft sentences. Journal of Latin Linguistics, 12(2), 147–172. 10.1515/joll‑2013‑0009
     https://doi.org/10.1515/joll-2013-0009 [Google Scholar]
  38. Greco, C., Haegeman, L. & Phan, T.
    (2017) Expletives and speaker-related meaning. InM. Sheehan & L. Bailey (Eds.), Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure (pp.69–93). Berlin: Language Science Press. 10.5281/zenodo.1116757
     https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1116757 [Google Scholar]
  39. Grønvik, O.
    (1991) “Utbrytning” i eldre norrøn diktning og i andre gammelgermanske språk. Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 1061, 1–56.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Haiman, J.
    (1971) Targets and syntactic change. The Hague: Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Håkansson, D.
    (2017) Transitive expletive constructions in Swedish. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 40(3), 255–285. 10.1017/S0332586517000208
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586517000208 [Google Scholar]
  42. Hennig, J. D.
    (1957) Studien zum Subjekt impersonal gebrauchter Verben im Althochdeutschen und Altniederdeutschen unter Berücksichtigung gotischer und altwestnordischer Zeugnisse. Göttingen: Georg-August Universität dissertation.
  43. Hermann, P.
    (2017) Literacy. InÁ. Jakobsson & S. Jakobsson (Eds.), The Routledge research companion to the medieval Icelandic sagas (pp.34–47). London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315613628‑4
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315613628-4 [Google Scholar]
  44. Heusler, A.
    (1914) Die Anfänge der isländischen Saga. Berlin: Verlag der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Hinterhölzl, R. & Petrova, S.
    (2010) From V1 to V2 in West Germanic. Lingua, 120(2), 315–328. 10.1016/j.lingua.2008.10.007
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2008.10.007 [Google Scholar]
  46. Hinzelin, M.-O.
    (2009) Neuter pronouns in Ibero-Romance: Discourse reference, expletives and beyond. InG. A. Kaiser & E.-M. Remberger (Eds.), Proceedings of the workshop “Null subjects, expletives, and locatives in Romance” (pp.1–25). Konstanz: Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G. K.
    (2002) The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316423530
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316423530 [Google Scholar]
  48. Ingason, A. K.
    (2020) Machine-Parsed IcePaHC, version 0.1. https://github.com/antonkarl/micepahc
  49. Ingham, R.
    (2001) The structure and function of expletive there in pre-modern English. Reading Working Papers in Linguistics, 51, 231–249.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Jónsson, G.
    (ed.) (1948) Sturlunga saga III. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. (ed.) (1954) Sturlunga saga I. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Kaiser, E.
    (2019) Word order patterns in generic ‘zero person’ constructions in Finnish: Insights from speech-act participants. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 4(1), 53–1. 10.3765/plsa.v4i1.4558
     https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v4i1.4558 [Google Scholar]
  53. Kinn, K.
    (2010) Formelle subjekter i norsk: En diakron undersøkelse. University of Oslo MA thesis.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. (2016) Referential vs. non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 39(3), 277–310. 10.1017/S0332586516000068
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586516000068 [Google Scholar]
  55. Lambrecht, K.
    (2001) A framework for the analysis of cleft constructions. Linguistics, 39(3), 463–516. 10.1515/ling.2001.021
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.021 [Google Scholar]
  56. Ledgeway, A. N.
    (2002) Linguistic theory and the mysteries of the Italian dialects. InA. L. Lepschy & A. Tosi (Eds.), Multilingualism in Italy: Past and present (pp.108–140). Cambridge: Legenda.
     [Google Scholar]
  57. (2013) Testing linguistic theory and variation to their limits: The case of Romance. Corpus, 121, 271–327. 10.4000/corpus.2408
     https://doi.org/10.4000/corpus.2408 [Google Scholar]
  58. Lenerz, J.
    (1985) Zur Theorie syntaktischen Wandels: das Expletive es in der Geschichte des Deutschen. InW. Abraham (Ed.), Erklärende Syntax des Deutschen (pp.99–136), Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
     [Google Scholar]
  59. Lönnroth, L.
    (1970) Rhetorical persuasion in the sagas. Scandinavian Studies, 42(2), 157–189.
     [Google Scholar]
  60. (2008) The Icelandic sagas. InS. Brink & N. Price (Eds.), The Viking world (pp.304–310). London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Los, B.
    (2009) The consequences of the loss of verb-second in English: Information structure and syntax in interaction. English Language & Linguistics, 13(1), 97–125. 10.1017/S1360674308002876
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002876 [Google Scholar]
  62. Lundeby, E.
    (1976) Om “utbrytningen”s opphav og innhold. InL. Svensson, A. M. Wieselgren & Å. Hansson (Eds.), Festskrift tillägnad Gösta Holm (pp.280–301). Lund: Lund Studentlitteratur.
     [Google Scholar]
  63. Manhire, W.
    (1974) The narrative functions of source-references in the Sagas of Icelanders. Saga-Book, 191, 170–190.
     [Google Scholar]
  64. McGrew, J. H. t.
    (1954) Sturlunga saga I. New York: Twayne Publishers.
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Mitchell, S. A.
    (2001) Performance and Norse poetry: The hydromel of praise and the effluvia of scorn. Oral Tradition, 16(1), 168–202.
     [Google Scholar]
  66. Nygaard, M.
    (1905) Norrøn syntax. Oslo: Aschehoug.
     [Google Scholar]
  67. Ólason, V.
    (2004) Family sagas. InR. McTurk (Ed.), A companion to Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culture (pp.101–118). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. 10.1002/9780470996867.ch7
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996867.ch7 [Google Scholar]
  68. Park, S.-Y.
    (2003) Information structure of It-clefts. Seoul National University Working Papers in English Language and Linguistics, 21, 41–60.
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Poole, R.
    (2020) Íslendingasǫgur — a case study: Vatnsdœla saga. InM. Bampi, C. Larrington & S. Rikhardsdottir (Eds.), A critical companion to Old Norse literary genre (pp.271–282). Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer. 10.2307/j.ctvxhrjd9.24
     https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxhrjd9.24 [Google Scholar]
  70. Prince, E. F.
    (1978) A comparison of WH-clefts and it-clefts in discourse. Language, 54(4), 883–906. 10.2307/413238
     https://doi.org/10.2307/413238 [Google Scholar]
  71. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, R., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J.
    (1985) A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  72. Randall, B.
    (2005) CorpusSearch2 User’s Guide. Philadelphia: Dept. of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. corpussearch.sourceforge.net
     [Google Scholar]
  73. Ranković, S.
    (2012) Authentication and authenticity in the Sagas of Icelanders and Serbian epic poetry. InP. A. Agapitos & L. B. Mortensen (Eds.), Medieval narratives between history and fiction: From the centre to the periphery of Europe, c. 1100–1400 (pp.199–233). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  74. Richards, M. & Biberauer, T.
    (2005) Explaining Expl. InM. den Dikken & C. Tortora (Eds.), The function of function words and functional categories (pp.115–153). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.78.06ric
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.78.06ric [Google Scholar]
  75. Rögnvaldsson, E.
    (2002) ÞAÐ í fornu máli — og síðar. Íslenskt mál, 241, 7–30.
     [Google Scholar]
  76. Schach, P.
    (1970) Some forms of writer intrusion in the Íslendingasögur. Scandinavian Studies, 42(2), 128–156.
     [Google Scholar]
  77. Sigurðsson, G.
    (2005) Orality and literacy in the Sagas of Icelanders. InR. McTurk (Ed.), A companion to Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culture (pp.285–301). Oxford: Blackwell. 10.1002/9780470996867.ch17
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996867.ch17 [Google Scholar]
  78. Taylor, A., Warner, A., Pintzuk, S. & Beths, F.
    (2003) York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose. www-users.york.ac.uk/~lang22/YCOE/YcoeHome.htm
  79. Toribio, A. J.
    (2000) Setting parametric limits on dialectal variation in Spanish. Lingua, 110(5), 315–341. 10.1016/S0024‑3841(99)00044‑3
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(99)00044-3 [Google Scholar]
  80. Trips, C. & Stein, A.
    (2018) Cleft sentences in the history of French and English: A case of pragmatic borrowing?InM. G. García & M. Uth (Eds.), Focus realization in Romance and beyond (pp.287–310). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/slcs.201.10car
     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.201.10car [Google Scholar]
  81. Van Gelderen, E.
    (2021) Third factors in language variation and change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108923408
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108923408 [Google Scholar]
  82. Varho, M.
    (1995) Liggær lik a wighwalli ærræt ok undæt. Existentialkonstruktionen i fornsvenskan: En undersökning av de äldsta existentiella satsstrukturerna i det svenska skriftspråket. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Licentiat thesis.
     [Google Scholar]
  83. Wallenberg, J. C., Ingason, A. K., Sigurðsson, E. F. & Rögnvaldsson, E.
    (2011) Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus (IcePaHC), version 0.9. https://clarin.is/en/resources/icepahc/#:~:text=The%20Icelandic%20Parsed%20Historical%20Corpus,historical%20English%20developed%20at%20UPenn
/content/journals/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
Loading
Time-clefts, expletives and orality in Early Icelandic saga narratives
Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 6, 27 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
/content/journals/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
/content/journals/10.1075/elt.00053.boo
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): backgrounding; expletives; known-fact effect; orally-derived narratives; time-clefts

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error