hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2025-08-04

■ #5943. 副詞節を導く接続詞の発達のピークは初期近代英語期 [emode][conjunction][subordinator][syntax][pos][preposition]

　Fischer et al. (184) によれば，副詞節を導く接続詞 (conjunction) の種類は，英語の歴史を通じて全体的に増えてきたという．しかし，種類のピークといえば，現代英語期ではなく，それは初期近代英語期だという．

The most striking development is probably the expansion of the inventory of subordinators over time, described by Kortmann (1997). There is in PDE a core of high-frequency monomorphemic subordinators --- as, when, if, where, because, while, before, since, after, until and so on (cf. Kortmann, 1997: 131) --- which, from a historical point of view, is both old and relatively stable. The subordinators that make up this core already functioned as subordinators in OE (as, if, while, since) or else came to do so no later than ME (when, where, because, before, after, until). Remarkably, they also tend to be the subordinators that are first acquired by children. Outside this core, however, fluctuations in the subordinator inventory are more pronounced. Throughout the history o English, the trend has been for the inventory of subordinators to grow. PDE has almost twice as many subordinators as OE, though eModE had even more (Kortmann, 1997: 294). At the same time, many new additions --- especially, it appears, the ones that entered the grammar in eModE --- again disappeared, witness the subordinators in (63), all of which are now obsolete.

(63) a The Lyons . . . brake all their bones in pieces or euer [= 'well before'] they came at the bottome of the den. (1611, OED)
     b Such of them as . . . had a desire to stay in Spain . . . were suffered to do so . . . conditions, that [= 'provided that'] they would be Christened. (1622--62, OED)
     c The Parts of Musick are in all but four, howsoever [= 'even though'] some skilful Musicians have composed songs of twenty [. . .] parts. (1674, OED)

　「閉じた語類」に属する接続詞の種類が歴史的に増えてきたという事実は，うすうす気付いていたが，まともに考えてみたことはなかった．興味深いのは，「#1201. 後期中英語から初期近代英語にかけての前置詞の爆発」 ([2012-08-10-1]) でもみたように，やはり閉じた語類に属する前置詞 (preposition) も歴史的に増えてきており，しかも初期近代英語期にとりわけ増加したという点だ．この一致は偶然なのか必然なのか．おもしろい研究対象になりそうだ．

　・ Fischer, Olga, Hendrik De Smet, and Wim van der Wurff. A Brief History of English Syntax. Cambridge: CUP, 2017.
　・ Kortmann, B. Adverbial Subordination: A Typology and History of Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. Berlin: mouton de Gruyter, 1997.

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