The subjunctive mood in Late Middle English adverbial clauses: the interaction of form and function

This thesis focuses on the history of the inflexional subjunctive and its functional substitutes in Late Middle English. To explore why and how the inflexional subjunctive declined in the history of English language, I analysed 2653 examples of three adverbial clauses introduced by if (1882 examples), though (305 examples) and lest (466 examples). Using a corpus-based approach, this thesis argues that linguistic change in subjunctive constructions did not happen suddenly but rather gradually, and the way it changed was varied , and that different constructions changed at different speeds in different environments. It is well known that the inflexional subjunctive declined in the history of English, mainly because of inflexional loss. Strangely however this topic has been comparatively neglected in the scholarly literature, especially with regard to the Middle English period, probably due to the limitations of data and also because study of this development requires very cumbersome textual research. This thesis has derived and analysed the data from three large corpora in the public domain: the Middle English Grammar Corpus (MEG-C for short), the Innsbruck Computer Archive of Machine-Readable English Texts (ICAMET for short), and some selected texts from The Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, part of the Middle English Compendium that also includes the Middle English Dictionary. The data were analysed from three perspectives: 1) clausal type, 2) dialect, and 3) textual genre. The basic methodology for the research was to analyse the examples one by one, with special attention being paid to the peculiarities of each text. In addition, this thesis draw on some complementary – indeed overlapping -- linguistic theories for further discussion: 1) Biber’s multi-dimensional theory, 2) Ogura and Wang’s (1994) S-curve or ‘diffusion’ theory, 3) Kretzchmar’s (2009) linguistics of speech, and 4) Halliday’s (1987) notion of language as a dynamic open system. To summarise the outcomes of this thesis: 1) On variation between clausal types, it was shown that the distributional tendencies of verb types (sub, ind, mod) are different between the three adverbial clauses under consideration. 2) On variation between dialects, it has been shown that the northern area, i.e. the so-called Great Scandinavian Belt, displays an especially high comparative ratio of the inflexional subjunctive construction compared to the other areas. This thesis suggests that this result was caused by the influence of Norse, relating the finding to the argument of Samuels (1989) that the present tense -es ending in the northern dialect was introduced by the influence of the Scandinavians. 3) On variation between genres, those labelled Science, Documents and Religion display relatively high ratio of the inflexional subjunctive, while Letter, Romance and History show relatively low ratio of the inflexional subjunctive. This results are explained by Biber’s multi-dimensional theory, which shows that the inflexional subjunctive can be related to the factors ‘informational’, ‘non-narrative’, ‘persuasive’ and ‘abstract’. 4) Lastly, on the inflexional subjunctive in Late Middle English, this thesis concludes that 1) the change did not happen suddenly but gradually, and 2) the way language changes varies. Thus the inflexional subjunctive did not disappear suddenly from England, and there was a time lag among the clausal types, dialects and genres, which can be related to Ogura and Wang’s S-curve (“diffusion”) theory and Kretzchmars’s view of “linguistic continuum”. This thesis has shown that the issues with regard to the inflexional subjunctive are quite complex, so that research in this area requires not only textual analysis but also theoretical analysis, considering both intra- and extra- linguistic factors.

O falar de Marvão

Nesta dissertação, é estudado o Falar de Marvão, um concelho de raia, do Alto Alentejo, com baixa densidade demográfica, população muito envelhecida e uma taxa de analfabetismo acima da média nacional e regional. O presente estudo é composto por cinco capítulos. Nos dois primeiros, são apresentados os estudos dialectológicos realizados no distrito de Portalegre e é caracterizado o concelho de Marvão. O estudo do falar desenrola-se ao longo dos três capítulos principais, dedicados aos aspectos fonético-fonológicos e morfo-sintácticos, bem como ao léxico relacionado com o Homem. O Falar de Marvão está integrado nos dialectos portugueses centro-meridionais, mais especificamente na variedade da Beira Baixa e Alto Alentejo. Assim, apresenta a maior parte das características identificadas pelos linguistas do século XX sobre esta região dialectal, demarcando-se, contudo, por algumas particularidades que o distinguem dos falares dos concelhos circundantes, essencialmente ao nível de alguns aspectos fonético-fonológicos e do léxico. /ABSTRACT: ln this dissertation is presented a study on The Marvão 's Dialect, a bordering district from Alto Alentejo, with a low demographic density, very old population and a rate of illiteracy above the national and regional average. This study is composed by five chapters. ln the two first chapters, are presented the dialectological studies, which took place in the district of Portalegre, and there is also characterized the district of Marvão. The study of the dialect is developed along the three main chapters, which are dedicated to the phonetic, phonologic, morphologic and syntactic aspects, as well as the lexicon related to the human being. The Marvão 's dialect is integrated in the centre-meridional portuguese dialects, specifically in the Beira Baixa and Alto Alentejo’s diversity, presenting the main characteristics identified in this dialectical region by the linguists of the XX century. However, it distinguishes itself by some particularities, which differentiate it from the dialects spoken in the surrounding districts, mainly on the level of some phonetic and phonologic aspects and the lexicon.