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Article published In: Diachronic Treebanks
Edited by Hanne Martine Eckhoff, Silvia Luraghi and Marco Passarotti
[Diachronica 35:3] 2018
► pp. 393–428

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Text form and grammatical changes in Medieval French

A treebank-based diachronic study

 | FWO | Ghent University
 | LLF/CNRS/Paris Diderot, USPC
 | LATTICE, CNRS/ENS/Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle, USPC & PSL
Published online: 5 November 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.00008.sim
Abstract
This paper presents a treebank-based study of the effect the text form (prose vs. verse) has on the course of two grammatical changes in Medieval French: the loss of null subjects and the loss of OV word order. By means of statistical analysis, we demonstrate that naive estimates of the spread of overt subjects and VO orders give the impression that there is a significant difference between the rates of development in prose vs. verse. By contrast, estimates based on an abstract grammar competition model which distinguishes between grammar-ambiguous surface forms (overt personal subjects, null subjects in coordination contexts) and grammar-unambiguous surface forms (overt expletive subjects, null subjects in non-coordination contexts) show prose-verse parallelism, prose having an earlier change onset, in line with traditional intuitions. At a more general level, these results suggest that the product of the interaction of a particular grammar with universal pragmatic laws is constant, which can be observed if the factors responsible for variation in grammatical choices are controlled for.
Résumé
Cet article étudie à partir de corpus l’effet de la forme des textes (prose versus vers) pour deux changements grammaticaux qui se sont produits en français médiéval: la perte des sujets nuls et celui de l’ordre des mots OV. Nous montrons, au moyen d’une analyse statistique, que les estimations statistiques grossières, de propagation des sujets exprimés et de l’ordre VO, font apparaître une différence significative entre la prose et le vers. En revanche, les estimations basées sur un modèle de compétition entre grammaires abstraites, qui distingue entre formes de surface grammaticalement ambiguës (sujets personnels exprimés, sujets nuls dans des contextes de coordination) et formes de surface grammaticalement non ambiguës (sujets impersonnels exprimés, sujets nuls dans des contextes de non coordination) mettent en évidence un parallélisme entre vers et prose. Le changement commence plus tôt en prose, ce qui confirme les intuitions traditionnelles. Au regard de l’hypothèse d’évolution à Taux Constant de Kroch, Anthony. 1989. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1(3). 199–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, ces résultats suggèrent que la prose et le vers se comportent comme deux contextes dans lesquels les changements grammaticaux se seraient propagés à des taux semblables (non significativement différents). Nous concluons que la différence entre les taux de propagation des sujets personnels exprimés selon la forme des textes tient aux différences fréquentielles des types de propositions (principales/indépendantes versus subordonnées), dans lesquels les facteurs pragmatiques n’agissent pas identiquement sur l’expression des pronoms personnels. A un niveau plus général, ces résultats suggèrent que le produit de l’interaction d’une grammaire particulière avec des lois pragmatiques universelles est constant, ce que l’on peut observer si la variation des choix grammaticaux est contrôlée.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Artikel wird auf Korpusbasis der Einfluss der Textform (Prosa vs. Vers) auf zwei grammatische Veränderungen im Französischen des Mittelalters untersucht: den Verlust von Nullsubjekten und von OV-Stellung. Mit einer statistischen Analyse zeigen wir, dass die groben statistischen Schätzungen der Ausbreitung overter Subjekte und der VO-Stellung auf einen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen Prosa und Vers hinweisen. Dagegen zeigen sich Parallelitäten zwischen Vers und Prosa bei Schätzungen auf der Grundlage eines Modells des Wettbewerbs zwischen abstrakten Grammatiken, das zwischen grammatisch ambigen Oberflächenformen (overten Subjektpronomen, Nullsubjekten in Koordinationen) und grammatisch nicht ambigen Oberflächenformen (overte unpersönliche Subjekte, Nullsubjekte in nicht koordinierten Kontexten) unterscheidet. Der Wandel setzt in Prosa früher ein, was die traditionellen Annahmen bestätigt. Im Hinblick auf die constant rate hypothesis (Kroch, Anthony. 1989. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1(3). 199–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) legen die Ergebnisse nahe, dass Prosa und Vers sich wie zwei Kontexte verhalten, in denen der grammatische Wandel sich mit ähnlicher (nicht signifikant unterschiedlicher) Geschwindigkeit vollzogen hat. Wir schließen daraus, dass die unterschiedliche Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit der overten Subjekte in den beiden Textformen auf Frequenzunterschiede zwischen den Satztypen zurückzuführen ist (Haupt-/unabhängige Sätze vs. Nebensätze), in denen sich pragmatische Faktoren unterschiedlich auf den Ausdruck der Personalpronomen auswirken. Auf einer allgemeineren Ebene zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass das Ergebnis der Interaktion zwischen einer bestimmten Grammatik und universellen pragmatischen Faktoren konstant ist. Dies lässt sich durch kontrollierte Variation der grammatischen Wahlmöglichkeiten beobachten.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The loss of null subjects
    • 2.1Abstract grammar-based analysis
    • 2.2Direct vs. narrative discourse
  • 3.OV fin decline in prose vs. verse
    • 3.1From OV to VO: Simple estimates
    • 3.2Abstract grammar-based analysis
      • 3.2.1Grammar A (‘old’)
        • OVS
        • SOV and OV
        • VSO
        • SVO and VO
      • 3.2.2Grammar B (‘new’)
    • 3.3Transition from Grammar A to B
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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