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In:Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact: Essays in honour of Ans van Kemenade
Edited by Bettelou Los and Pieter de Haan
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 243] 2017
► pp. 311–333

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Chapter 14
Exploring the role of information structure in the word order variation of Old English verb-particle combinations

 | Leiden University, Centre for Linguistics
Published online: 14 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.243.14ele
Abstract
This article examines the interplay between information structure and word order in Old English separable complex verbs, the precursors of Present-Day English Verb-Particle Combinations (VPCs). Studies of Present-Day English VPCs (e.g. Dehé 2002; Gries 1999, 2002, 2003) and Middle English and early Modern English VPCs (Elenbaas 2013) have shown that the choice of word order is influenced by information structural factors. The findings in this article for Old English VPCs with up and out indicate that the word order variation in Old English VPCs is more morpho-syntactic than information-structural in nature.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and previous research
  • 2.Verb-particle combinations in Old English: Syntax, semantics and information structure
  • 3.Results
  • 4. Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (44)
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