Verb syntax and the creation of a new verbal environment: Mechanisms of change from Latin to early and modern Romance

Difficulties in the identification of subjects and direct objects, resulting from the fall of the Latin nominal case system do not lead inexorably to a shift in the position of the finite verb and the rise of a fixed SVO constituent ordering. On the basis of a quantitative examination of the earliest Romance texts, including examples of epic poetry, religious poetry, and religious prose, I show these languages possessed numerous and redundant means of making such distinctions (including alternate casing schemes, agreements, and discourse strategies) and such ambiguity virtually never occurs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

French

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Ortman, Hugh Carlton

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gaeng, Paul A.

• Language, Linguistics
• Literature, Medieval
• Literature, Romance

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1995 Ortman, Hugh Carlton

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9522156
(UMI)AAI9522156

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21261