Book contents
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Studies in English Language
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Analysing English Syntax Past and Present
- Part I Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change
- Part II Approaches to Constructions and Constructional Change
- Chapter 6 How Patterns Spread: The To-Infinitival Complement as a Case of Diffusional Change, or ‘To-Infinitives, and Beyond!’
- Chapter 7 Me Liketh/Lotheth but I Loue/Hate: Impersonal/Non-Impersonal Boundaries in Old and Middle English
- Chapter 8 That’s Luck, If You Ask Me: The Rise of an Intersubjective Comment Clause
- Chapter 9 Misreading and Language Change: A Foray into Qualitative Historical Linguistics
- Chapter 10 The Conjunction and in Phrasal and Clausal Structures in the Old Bailey Corpus
- Part III Comparative and Typological Approaches
- References
- Index
Chapter 7 - Me Liketh/Lotheth but I Loue/Hate: Impersonal/Non-Impersonal Boundaries in Old and Middle English
from Part II - Approaches to Constructions and Constructional Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2019
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Book contents
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Studies in English Language
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Analysing English Syntax Past and Present
- Part I Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change
- Part II Approaches to Constructions and Constructional Change
- Chapter 6 How Patterns Spread: The To-Infinitival Complement as a Case of Diffusional Change, or ‘To-Infinitives, and Beyond!’
- Chapter 7 Me Liketh/Lotheth but I Loue/Hate: Impersonal/Non-Impersonal Boundaries in Old and Middle English
- Chapter 8 That’s Luck, If You Ask Me: The Rise of an Intersubjective Comment Clause
- Chapter 9 Misreading and Language Change: A Foray into Qualitative Historical Linguistics
- Chapter 10 The Conjunction and in Phrasal and Clausal Structures in the Old Bailey Corpus
- Part III Comparative and Typological Approaches
- References
- Index
Summary
Impersonal constructions form one of the most extensively researched topics in English historical syntax, with dedicated publications ranging over a century (e.g. van der Gaaf 1904; Elmer 1981; Allen 1995; Möhlig-Falke 2012). These constructions are commonly distinguished by three morphosyntactic features: (i) a nominative subject is missing; (ii) what is commonly labelled as ‘Experiencer’ – the human argument involved in the action of the verb – bears objective case; and (iii) the verb is in the third-person singular form.
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- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax , pp. 170 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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