hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2018-12-18

■ #3522. 英語史における語順倒置の機能の変遷 [syntax][word_order][inversion][pragmatics]

　Stein は英語の2種類の倒置 (inversion) をとりあげ，それぞれが歴史的にいかなる機能上の変化を遂げてきたかを論じている．Stein (135, 139) の扱った倒置構造は，次の type A と type B である ．type A は新しい何かを導入する役割を果たし，type B は否定や限定を強める役割を果たす．いずれも近代英語期に台頭してきたものであり，古英語期の倒置構造が直接に受け継がれたものではない．

[ type A ]

　・ In came Chomsky.
　・ Down with the rebound comes . . .
　・ Beyond it rose the peopled hills.
　・ Developing offshore drilling in California are two Texas oil men.

[ type B ]

　・ Rarely did I hear such overtones of gratitude as went into the utterance of this compound noun.
　・ Not until the Book of Splendour did appear in Spain in the thirteenth century did a formidable metaphysical text on cabalism appear.
　・ Often did she visit the inhabitants of that gloomy village
　・ Only of late have I learned about the complexities of subjectivity
　・ Never did I hear about cabalism.

　これらの倒置構造の歴史的推移は，Stein (146--47) によれば次の通りである．

Prior to the central structural process, the grammaticalisation of SVO, inversion (or not) did have non-propositional meaning, which is best described as 'textual' or discourse meaning, but no affective meaning. . . After the dissolution of the Old English types of inversions, the late Middle English situation shows an incipient tendency for use as a focussing device. The modern developments include the rise of the B type (the emotional type), expressive and subjective in meaning, as well as the rise of the A type, with a discourse-cum-affective type of meaning. The latter type is in part a renaissance of a discourse meaning that was present in the Old English (VSO) pattern, which did not have the affective component. To that extent the development has gone full circle.

　以上をまとめれば，一般的に語順が比較的自由だった古英語では，倒置の機能は談話的なものに特化していたが，SVO語順を指向した中英語では談話的機能は失われて焦点化の機能が発達し，SVO語順が確立した近代にかけては感情的な機能が前面で出てくるとともに，部分的に談話的な機能が復活してきたという流れだ．
　語順倒置の形式ではなく機能の歴史的推移というのも，突っ込んでいくとおもしろそう（だが，難しそう）だ．

　・ Stein, Dieter. "Subjective Meanings and the History of Inversions." Subjectivity and Sbujectivisation: Linguistic Perspective. Ed. Dieter Stein and Susan Wright. Cambridge: CUP, 129--50.

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