WORD ORDER IN SIMPLE NARRATIVE SENTENCES IN THE OLD SPANISH LANGUAGE (BY THE EXAMPLE OF FORMAL LETTERS)
Abstract
There are
different classifications of sentences. Structurally-typological approach to
the classification of sentences is based on a comparison of the word order,
i.e. the position of main and secondary components in a simple sentence. Such
an approach follows from the theory of language typology elaborated by the
American linguist J. Greenberg. In the theoretical part the report provides the
main thesis of the classical Greenberg’s theory, which is based on the order of
the basic components of a simple sentence: subject (S), verb (V) and object
(O). According to this theory any language admits different configurations of
the elements: SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV or OVS, but the dominant order can be
only one. Greenberg took into account only sentences with nominal subject and
nominal object. As a rule the most frequent orders are SVO, SOV and VSO. The
other three orders VOS, OSV, OVS are very rare and hardly reach the dominant
status.
Spanish is
traditionally considered SVO-language. Nevertheless there are contemporary
linguistic investigations that give new information according to which the
Spanish language is not only the type SVO but also the type VSO.
As for the old
Spanish language there are different opinions: some linguists consider that the
type VSO is an intermediate one between the Latin order SOV and modern Spanish
order SVO, others refer the old Spanish language to the type SVO. Thus, the aim
of the report is to analyze the types of simple narrative sentences in the
language of formal letters written in old Spanish of the XIII century.
Based on the theory of J. Greenberg the author examines models of simple
sentences with so called full syntactic frame, i.e. models where subject and
object are expressed by separate word. In models SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, OVS
the author distinguishes pronominal, nominal and pronominal-nominal ways of the
subject expression, as well as the nominative object and pronominal
object-clitic. The examples from formal letters dated by the XIII century show
that the old Spanish language refers to the type SVO.
Keywords
Spanish Old Spanish Latin business letter simple sentence word order subject predicate object SVO SOV VSO VOS OSV OVS-models
References
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Abstract
References
- Adams J. N. (1977). The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus (P. Mich. VIII, 467-72). Manchester: Manchester University Press. Arnaiz A. R. (1998). An overview of the main word order characteristics of Romance // Constituent Order in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Bernal M. J. (2007). El orden de palabras de la oración simple en español y en griego // Revista electrónica de didáctica / español lengua extranjera, № 9. URL: http://www.mecd.gob.es/dctm/redele/Material-RedEle/Revista/2007_09/2007_redELE_9_01Bernal.pdf?documentId=0901e72b80df390b Blake R. (1992). Aspectos sintácticos del español antiguo: Cartulario de San Millán de la Cogolla // En Ariza, M. et al. (eds.): Actas del II Congreso internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española, Madrid: Pabellón de España, Vol. I. Bossong G. (1998). La typologie des langues romanes // En Holtus, G., M. Metzeltin & C. Schmitt (eds.): Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. VII. Cavanilles A. (1999). Memoria sobre el Fuero de Madrid, del año de 1202 // Memorias de la Real Academia de Historia. Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Comrie B. (1981) Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Syntax and Morphology. Oxford. Corpus de documentos españoles anteriores a 1800 [CODEA+]. URL: http://corpuscodea.es/#presentation-hidden-documentos Dryer M. (1997). On the Six-Way Word Order Typology // Studies in language 21:1. URL: http://wings.buffalo.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/Dryer6Way1997.pdf Gili y Gaya S. (1975). Curso Superior de Sintaxis Española. La Habana: Editorial Pueblo y Educación. Greenberg J. (1963). Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements // In: Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.). Universals of Language. London: MIT Press. URL: http://pkdas.in/JNU/typo/lu.pdf Groos А., Bok-Bennema R. (1986). The structure of the sentence in Spanish // Generative Studies in Spanish Syntax. Dordrecht (Holanda) y Riverton (EE.UU.): Foris Publications. Ostos Salcedo P., Sanz Fuentes M. J. (1996). Corona de Castilla. Documentación real. Tipología (1250-1400). // Diplomatique Royale du Moyen Âge, Oporto. URL: http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/3829.pdf Pinkster H. (1991). Evidence for SVO in Latin? // Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages. London/New York: Routledge. Serrano L. (1906). Fuentes para la historia de Castilla. Valladolid. Siewierska A. (1988). Word order rules. London/New York/Sydney: Croom Helm. URL: https://www.academia.edu/7179671/Word_Order_Rules Suárez Fernández M. (2007). El orden de constituyentes en el romance temprano. Las Glosas Emilianenses // Moenia., vol. 13. URL: https://dspace.usc.es/bitstream/10347/6071/1/09-Su%C3%A1rez%20Fern%C3%A1ndez.pdf Tomlin R. S. (1986). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm. Whaley L. (1997). Introduction to Typology. London: Sage Publications. Zubizarreta M. L. (1999). Las funciones informativas: tema y foco // Gramática descriptiva de la lengua Española. Madrid: Real Academia Española y Espasa Calpe, Vol. 3.
Details
| Journal Section | Articles |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | April 30, 2017 |
| Submission Date | April 27, 2017 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2017 |
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