The Development of Complementizer and Relativizer that in the History of English

The Development of Complementizer and Relativizer that in the History of English

  The purpose of this study is to investigate how the complementizer that and the relativizer that developed in the history of English language. The developmental process of the complementizer that shows that the demonstrative þæt was changed into the complementizer þæt through grammaticalization and category reanalysis long before the OE period. The extension of the grammatical function of that from a complementizer to a relativizer proves that the complementizer þat spread into the domain of relativizers from the early ME period. Given the lexical item þæt that changed from a demonstrative to a complementizer, it is true that the complementizer þæt began to perform the grammatical function of a finite tense marker indicating the finiteness of embedded clauses from the Germanic period. This means that the complementizer þæt started encoding finite tense feature with φ-features at the outset. And additionally it began to carry out the grammatical function of a declarative force marker from the ME period. In Present-day English, while finite tense feature should be or can be realized as null form without CP by means of the transmission of it from C to T, declarative force feature is generally realized as overt form in C. The growth of declarative force feature as a grammatical rule was complete by the time C-oriented clausal-head system was changed into T-oriented clausal-head system with the demise of V-2 in late ME. The syntactic differentiation between the complementizer that and the relativizer that is confirmed by the contrastive grammaticality of that-trace construction in complement clauses and in relative clauses. The time that-trace effect and counter that-trace effect came to exert its robust power of a grammatical rule was in gear with the disappearance of overt verb movement and introduction of do as an auxiliary verb.