The Diachronic Change of Locative Inversion in English
The Diachronic Change of Locative Inversion in English
- 한국영미어문학회
- 영미어문학
- 영미어문학 제86호
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2008.03201 - 220 (20 pages)
- 19

The derivation of locative inversion constructions (LICs) is triggered by the thematic focalization of a locative PP in terms of locative inversion (LI) with verb second movement (V-2), residual V-2 or without V-2 from diachronic perspective. Although LICs between OE/EME and PDE are similar to each other in configuration, it appears that the internal structure of OE/EME may or may not be distinctive from that of PDE concerning V-2. Given that OE and EME were analyzed as C-oriented languages, whereas PDE are analyzed as a T-oriented language, the syntactic operation of V-2 for the derivation of LICs was applied in the functional head Focus before the fifteenth century, whereas it is applied in Focus or may be applied in T after the fifteenth century. Such evidence as this in PDE is proved by the thematic focalization of a locative PP that seems to undergo either A"-movement or A-movement in the process of feature Agree and the subsequent internal Merge of a locative PP by EPP. This means that LI in PDE reveals the syntactic properties of a C-oriented language or those of a T-oriented language in the derivational process of LICs. Therefore, if the LI of PDE is the same as that of OE/EME, it is analyzed as residual V-2, but if it isn"t, it is analyzed as non-V-2.
Ⅰ. Introduction<BR>Ⅱ. LI in OE and EME<BR>Ⅲ. The syntactic properties of LI in PDE<BR>Ⅳ. The derivation of LI constructions in PDE<BR>Ⅴ. Concluding remarks<BR>References<BR>Abstract<BR>
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