A contribution to the problem of word-order in old and middle English

oleh: Anton Grad

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani) 1955-02-01

Deskripsi

An interesting, though not very common phenomenon in Current English word-order is afforded by the occurrence of the inverted subject (inverted word-order, VS) in declarative sentences1 which is, on the one hand, far less frequent than in German and Scandinavian languages2 — in this respect English goes parallel with French —, and, on the other hand, also f a r less frequent than in Old and Middle English, both resorting to the inverted word-order in many cases in which it is 110 longer admitted in Current English.3 Thus we meet — among other cases of its use in older English — the inversion of the subject especially in the so-called introduced declarative sentences, e.g.