ana e. martínez-insua ([email protected]) javier pérez-guerra ([email protected])

‘It has been argued that passivisation is a meta-informative strategy’:

on active–passive variation in the recent history of English

Ana E. Martínez-Insua ([email protected])Javier Pérez-Guerra ([email protected])

Language Variation and Textual Categorisation Research UnitUniversity of Vigo

MIC 2010Interdisciplinary Conference

Université Paris-Sorbonne CELTA18th November, 2010

2

Introduction

Initial assumptions

• The notions of choice and optionality:– The same propositional meaning may be conveyed

by a number of linguistic choices.– No one-to-one correspondence between the

informative and the meta-informative layers of language.

• Thematic systems • System of voice: English constructions with agent and

patient:(1) Yourcenar wrote that novel in 1951 [unmarked](2) That novel was written in 1951 (by Yourcenar)

[marked]

(1) Thematically unmarked: Global CA = notional subject/agent

(2) Thematically marked: Global CA = notional object/patient

3

Introduction

Research topic: extraposition of passive clauses and insertion of dummy it in matrix subject position (EX/it-passive)

(3) People assumed that Yourcenar was the author of the novel(4) It was assumed that Yourcenar was the author of the novel

Confluence of:• Passive voice• Subject-extraposition and subsequent compulsory it-

insertion:- Semantically empty global CA: Anonymous

Subject (AS) it- Semantically full local CA: extraposed subject

• Clausal local CA

4

Outline of the presentation • The notions of Passivisation and Diathesis• The process of Extraposition• The Thematic System and thematic

markedness• Working hypotheses:

- diachronic increase of productivity- discourse coherence and pragmatic

effects as triggering/favouring factors• The corpus and its analysis:

– general distribution of examples– study of their formal aspects– study of their informative aspects– study of their meta-informative aspects

• Conclusions• Further research• References

5

Passive voice and diathesis

Passivisation and diathesis

Diathesis: “grammatical device used to present the same situation from different points of view (i.e. choosing this or that participant of the situation as global CA)” (Włodarczyk & Włodarczyk 2006a:12)

(1) Yourcenar wrote that novel in 1951(2) That novel was written in 1951 (by Yourcenar)

· Active notional subject (Global CA) > Agent (Local CA) in passives

· Determining factors:- the speaker’s communicative purposes- discourse coherence

· However,(7a) Mary has Yourcenar’s novel(7b) *Yourcenar’s novel is had (by Mary)

6

Extraposition Subject extraposition + it-insertion

(EX/it):

– Deviation from the unmarked pattern of English declarative sentences: ‘lexical subject + verb’ (Pérez-Guerra 1999)

– Clausal active global CA– Insertion of a dummy, expletive or pleonastic

subject-filler: ‘representative subject’ (Jespersen 1909-49: III,25), ‘anticipatory it’ (Curme 1931:10; Quirk et al 1985)

(3) That I finished the book has surprised my colleagues(4) It has surprised my colleagues that I finished the book

(3) Thematically unmarked: (clausal) notional subject = Global CA(4) Thematically marked: (pronominal) anonymous subject (AS) = Global CA

7

Extraposition

Subject extraposition + it-insertion (EX/it):

– “[i]t is not a referring expression: it does not refer to an entity in the world, a person or an object” (Haegeman 1994:62)

– It cannot be the answer to a question *– It does not support emphatic reflexivisation (Postal &

Pullum 1988) **

(4’) What has surprised your colleagues? *It (has)

(4’’) **It has itself surprised my colleagues that I finished the book

– Statistical (un)markedness of EX/it: – unlike in other thematic systems, markedness in the

EX/it constructions does not imply statistical infrequency. The versions with extraposition (4) are preferred by speakers.

– EX/it is “more easily recognised” than non-EX/it (Hawkins 1994)

8

Thematic markedness

• ‘Movement’ of the real notional subject from the global CA position into the postverbal local CA position

• The category functioning as global CA is semantically empty:– In EX/it constructions addressees identify the

global CA (i.e. the AS) in a very general way, merely as a participant or constituent of the situation which surely belongs to a class of entities (either +hum or –hum) but without selecting any particular element of any of these classes

– The informative value of the participant/constituent referred to as AS can, in turn, be recognised by the addressees only when they interpret the utterance as a whole

9

Working hypotheses

• The EX/it-passive construction progressively gained popularity and productivity throughout the history of English.

• Possible favouring factors for such an increase:– the user’s search for discourse coherence – the user’s search for certain pragmatic effects

10

Textual material and distribution of examples

Table 1: The corpus. Periods and word totals

CORPUS PERIOD WORDS

ppcme2 1150-1250 195,494

ppcme2 1250-1350 146,603

ppcme2 1350-1420 485,988

ppcme2 1420-1500 260,116

1,088,201

ppceme 1500-1569 567,795

ppceme 1570-1639 628,463

ppceme 1640-1710 541,595

1,737,853

ppcmbe 1700-1769 298,764

ppcmbe 1770-1839 368,804

ppcmbe 1840-1914 281,327

948,895

11


Table 2: Frequency and distribution of the examples: raw figures and normalised frequency (n.f./10,000w)

PERIOD EXAMPLES n/f(n.f./ 10,000 w)

ME (1150-1500)

95 0.87

EModE(1500-1710)

139 0.80

LModE(1710-1914)

331 3.49

12


Graphic 1: Frequency and distribution of the examples

13

Distribution of examples

Initial interpretations

• Relatively similar frequencies during the ME and EModE periods (slight decrease in EModE)(8) Than was it proclamed that a new parlement schuld begynne the next Munday aftir, and on Seint Edward day folowing schuld the king be corowned (CMCAPCHR,214.3832 ME)(9) And can it be thought, that he would let Cobham have so great a Sum? (RALEIGH-E2-H,I,209.C2.196 EModE)

vs.

• Extraordinary increase in the productivity of the EX/it-passive construction during LModE period(10) In medicine, for example, it will not be contended that there is anything to be gained by classical scholarship. (BAIN- 1878,363.58)

14

Analysis of the examples (formal aspects)

Table 3: Weight of clausal local CAs (extraposed notional subjects)

PERIOD # WORDS (MEAN)

ME 19.42

EModE 15.33

LModE 20.30

15


Graphic 2: Weight of clausal local CAs (extraposed notional subjects)

16


• Default assumption: the principle of ‘end-weight’ is the major explicandum of the EX/it-passive construction (Erdmann 1988, Bolinger 1992, Pérez-Guerra 1999).

• Our data: as a corroboration of our first working hypothesis, extraposed global CAs (>local CAs) are longer than sentence initial global CAs (average: 10 words in ME, 9.6 in ModE and 11 in PDE, according to Pérez-Guerra 1999)

(11) It was ordeyned that a oxe fed with gresse schuld be seld for XVIs., a fatte oxe for XXIIIIs., a fatte cow for XIIs., a good swyn, to gere old, for XLd., a schep withouten wolle, XIIIId., a fat schep with wolle, XXd., a fat goos, IId.=obolo=, a capon, IId., a henne, Id., iiii dowes, Id.; (CMCAPCHR,140.3262)

• Explanation in terms of processing complexity/simplicity: EX/it-passive helps override the difficulty of processing heavy global CAs

17


Table 4: Agency/Agentlessness

PERIOD AGENT % AGENTLESS %

ME 2.95 97.05

EModE 7.69 92.30

LModE 5.12 94.88

18


Graphic 3: Agency/agentlessness in EX/it-passive constructions

19

Analysis of the examples(formal aspects)

Initial interpretations• Overwhelming predominance of agentless EX/it-

passive constructions• Subsequent need for the (unknown) active global CA

to be pragmatically recovered from the whole message (Seoane 1993)

• Pragmatic effects: – complete deletion of the active global CA from the

topical/thematic position and subsequent creation of a new topic for the message (Seoane 2009)

– the presentation of a given constituent as the local CA of the message (the clausal local CA in these cases of EX+passive) is justified by its communicative saliency and the speaker’s choice to bring it into discourse as ‘focus’

20

Analysis of the examples (informative aspects)

Referentiality of the clausal local CAs- Referring (near Walker, Joshi & Prince’s 1998

backward-looking centres): a link back to an entity evoked earlier. Givenness/availability in the discourse domain (7 previous clauses)

- Low-referring: semi-avilability in the discourse domain(12) Not long ago the coachman of an eminent London surgeon came to the author complaining of the 'rheumatism' of his left shoulder. On examining him, it was found that his left deltoid muscle was almost useless to him (POORE-1876,174.220)(13) master Robert haughtily bad him be silent and know himself , and not presume to contend with men so much his superiors in every respect (...) Master Robert was to be presented at court before his departure, and it was expected that he should be knighted (REEVE-1777,26.574)

- Non-referring (close to Walker, Joshi & Prince’s 1998 forward-looking centres): newness/absence from the discourse domain

21


Table 5: Informative potential of local CAs

PERIOD % BACKWARD-LOOKING (REFERRING)

BACKWARD-LOOKING (LOW-REFERRING)

FORWARD-LOOKING (NON-REFERRING)

ME 31.8 22.9 45.1

EModE 29.73 43.24 27.02

LModE 33.33 48.72 17.95

22


Graphic 4: Informative potential of local CAs

23


• Maintenance of referring local CAs and steady increase of low-referring ones (22,9% > 48,72%): marked predominance of backward-looking extraposed local CAs

• Gradual decrease in the number of non-referring, forward-looking extraposed local CAs from ME to LModE (45,1% > 17,95%)

So,• While extraposed local CAs were informatively new in

ME, data show the opposite situation for ModE• Lack of adjustment of EX/it-passive constructions to the

general principle of ‘end-focus’ (Pérez-Guerra 1999), as a restrictive variant of the ‘given-before-new’ principle

• Consequently, the commonly accepted presentative function of the EX/it-passive construction is rendered moot

24

Analysis of the examples (meta-informative aspects)

• EX/it-passive constructions in compliance with the so-called Centering Rule 2 (Walker, Joshi & Prince 1998: 4):

under certain discursive and contextual circumstances, EX/it-passive constructions become the preferred (or most coherent) transitions between utterances, requiring less processing time than others and softening rough-shift transitions

• EX/it-passive constructions as a meta-informative (word-order) ordering strategy for placing heavy clausal constituents in the local CA position

25

Informative and meta-informative aspects of EX/it-

passive -Similar to other thematic systems (e.g. right dislocation -- Grosz & Ziv 1998):- The joint usage of a dummy subject filler (it) and a postverbal description serves to establish discourse coherence- The satisfaction of the discourse purpose of the construction contributes to the satisfaction of the overall communicative purpose of the discourse- EX/it-passive constructions help to organize the discourse:

- either help to retrieve and refocus formerly centered constituents (referring and low-referring CAs which may be currently not sufficiently salient)

- or help to override the difficulty of processing heavy global CAs

26

Conclusions• The EX/it-passive construction tends to be

optional. The mapping of a thought onto a certain structure is not always the only way of expressing such idea.

• The EX/it-passive construction is productive in all the periods analysed but its frequency increases remarkably in LModE.

• The EX/it-passive construction cannot be regarded as a meta-informative strategy for accommodating informatively forward-looking CAs within a pattern which satisfies the communicative principles of ‘given-before-new’ and ‘end-focus’.

• Quite the contrary, the principle of ‘end-weight’ may be taken to account for the prototype of the EX/it-passive construction.

• Informatively speaking, the EX/it-passive construction as the preferred meta-informative transition strategy may require less processing time than others and soften rough-shift transitions (in terms of discourse coherence).

27

Questions for further research• Study of the EX/it-passive construction paying

attention to the variables text-type, style and genre

• Fine-grained analysis of the local CA of the EX/it-passive construction, studying and classifying not only extraposed clauses (that-; whether/if-; wh-; infinitive-clauses), but also other types of extraposed constituents (NPs; PPs; others)

• Study of the possible occurrence of medial segments (post-verbal non-final constituents) and their informative and meta-informative consequences

It was remarked by Mr. Lowe that the word 'aneurism,' to a Greek scholar, would be misleading (BAIN-

1878,375.251)• Study of the passive verbs as well as their

subcategorisation patterns (one- or two-argument EVPs) from the informative and meta-informative perspectives

References• Bolinger, D. 1992. The role of accent in extraposition and focus. Studies in Language

16/2: 265-324.• Curme G.O. 1931. Syntax. Vol. III of H. Kurath and G.O. Curme A grammar of the English

Language. Boston: Heath.• Erdmann, P. 1988. On the principle of ‘weight’ in English. In C. Duncan-Rose and T.

Vennemann eds. On language, rhetorica phonologica syntactica: a Festschrift for Robert P. Stockwell from his friends and colleagues, 325-339. London: Routledge.

• Grosz, B.J. and Y. Ziv. 1998. Centering, Global Focus, and right-dislocation. In M.A. Walker, A.K. Joshi and E.F. Prince eds. Centering theory in discourse, 293-307. Oxford: Clarendon.

• Haegeman, L. 1994. Introduction to Government & Binding theory. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.

• Hawkins, J.A. 1994. A performance theory of order and constituency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Jespersen, O. 1909-49. A modern English grammar on historical principles. Vols. I-VII. Heidelberg: Ejnar Munksgaard.

• Pérez-Guerra, J. 1999. Historical English syntax: a statistical corpus-based study on the organisation of Early Modern English sentences. München: Lincom Europa.

• Postal, P.M. and G.K. Pullum. 1988. Expletive noun phrases in subcategorized positions. Linguistic Inquiry 19/4: 635-70.

• Quirk, R., S. Greenbum, G. Leech and J. Svartvik. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.

• Seoane-Posse, E. 1993. The passive in early Modern English. Atlantis XV/1-2: 191-213.• Seoane-Posse, E. 2009. Syntactic complexity, discourse status and animacy as

determinants of grammatical variation in Modern English. English Language and Linguistics 13/3: 365-384.

• Walker, M.A., A.K. Joshi and E.F. Prince. 1998. Centering in naturally occurring discourse: an overview. In M.A. Walker, A.K. Joshi and E.F. Prince eds. Centering theory in discourse, 1-28. Oxford: Clarendon.

• Włodarczyk, A. and H. Włodarczyk. 2006a. Subject in the Meta-Informative Centering theory. Études cognitives / Studia kognitywne VII: 7-32.

• Włodarczyk, A. and H. Włodarczyk. 2006b. Focus in the Meta-Informative Centering theory. La Focalisation dans les langues. Paris: L’Harmattan.

29

‘It has been argued that passivisation is a meta-informative strategy’:

on active–passive variation in the recent history of English

Thank you!

ana e. martínez-insua ([email protected]) javier pérez-guerra ([email protected])

Documents