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syntax</title></head><body>
<div>not about English but German, and I don't vouch for it
either:</div>
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<div>It has sometimes been assumed (and I would have to search for
references) that strict verb-final in comp-introduced subordinate
clauses in Mod German is due to normative Renaissance grammarians
trying to impose on "educated" German what they believed
were the proper Latin standards -- naturally first in writing, but
they were quite succesful for speech too. </div>
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<div>The traditional story of course is that V-final is the original
Germanic state of affairs; but apparently<u> strict</u> V-final
doesn't really have an unbroken continuity.</div>
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<div>Frans Plank</div>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Dear typologists,<br>
<br>
Does modern English have any examples of sentence patterns which
originated in WRITTEN usage before spreading to the spoken domain?<br>
<br>
So far I have only been able to find instances - or at least, claims -
outside of syntax, e.g. phonological examples (reading pronunciations
and/or misfits such as [@uphEk] for OPEC; [)f@n] vs. [)ft@n] for
_often_; [ji:] in Ye Olde Inn, etc.); or lexical examples, e.g. words
like _e-business_ and _e-learning_.<br>
<br>
Please note that the status of the above examples & claims is NOT
my concern here. I only mention them to inquire if there are any known
syntactic parallels, i.e. sentence patterns which used to be bookish
before they entered into mainstream spoken English.<br>
<br>
The phenomenon has been observed e.g. in Mandarin, where modern
passive patterns (especially those in which the patient is not
literally 'suffering') initially spread as written translations from
English, French, German and Russian, and only later to spoken usage. -
Does spoken English perhaps have similar developments from
translatese, e.g. from medieval French literature, or from Latin
legalese?<br>
<br>
I checked various sources on the history of English to find examples,
but lacking a background in English studies, I may have been looking
in all the wrong places. Any suggestions about literature on the
subject will be greatly appreciated!<br>
<br>
Jeroen Wiedenhof<br>
<br>
- - -<br>
<br>
Sinological Institute, Leiden University<br>
P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, Holland<br>
@ jeroen@wiedenhof.nl<br>
W www.wiedenhof.nl<br>
T +31-71-527.2525<br>
F +31-71-527.2526</blockquote>
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