Research Nicola Swinburne

Abstract

This project will tackle an old and much debated topic in historical English: the origin of English do-support (DS). The new approach is within an interdisciplinary framework of language change and grammaticalisation, and views language as composed of constructions, the process driven by the pragmatics. The focus is the tipping point between the construction as semantically compositional, and the later stages where it is predominantly idiomatic. This research is underpinned by widespread evidence that grammaticalisation pathways for auxiliary verbs are often very similar cross-linguistically (Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca 1994). It is specifically informed by a recent study of a 'do'-support construction in a different language, the living Romance dialect of Camuno (the researcher's PhD topic: Swinburne 2021), perhaps currently the only example of DS other than English with sufficient data to indicate a grammaticalisation pathway. There are certain similarities between the more primitive forms of DS in modern Camuno and in (south)-western dialects of historical English (1400-1550). These are: 1) semantic preferences in the type of infinitival verb (activity > stative verb) and subject thematic role (agent > experiencer); 2) expression of reality, certainty and existence (in comparison to both main verb-only and modal sentences); 3) an intensifying meaning employed to express doubt or confirmation of a speaker's prior expectation (so in this sense its use is 'presuppositional). Through detailed analysis of certain historical texts, the project explores the meanings and functions of early DS in this period; how these meanings may be predetermined by the lexical meaning of 'do'; and the extent to which syntax played a part in the early developments.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Petré Peter
• Fellow: Swinburne Nicola

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project