Diachronic change in medieval French sentential coordination

Abstract

Sentence coordination presents variation in Old and Middle French. We investigate two aspects of this variation: the syntactic level at which coordination occurs (CP vs. TP), and the choice between the two most common coordinating elements (et & si, both meaning ‘and’), which have been claimed to be essentially equivalent and interchangeable in Old French (e.g., Foulet 1928; Bergh 1952; Buridant 2000). Our analysis combines a generative approach with a variationist analysis to ascertain the effect of eight different factors (the presence of an object/adverbial clitic, personal/impersonal subjects, verba dicendi, subject change, sentence polarity change, text-internal register, background/foreground information shifts, & sequential actions) on coordination level and coordinating element over a period of five centuries. Results from 5430 occurrences of declarative second conjuncts from 19 Old and Middle French texts document the progressive replacement of CP coordination by TP coordination and the gradual loss of si in coordination. Numerous factors significantly influence both coordination level and  the choice between et and si. For example, a change of subject between conjuncts favors CP coordination in numerous texts, as does sequentiality between conjuncts. Similarly, the presence of an object pronoun in the second conjunct or sequentiality between conjuncts favors si over et in numerous texts. The influence of individual factors, however, varies over time and across texts. We also argue that changes in the verb-second grammar of Old French (obligatory lexicalization of the preverbal position; loss of verb-second) affect both these aspects of coordination. The results add to our understanding of how syntactic change influenced coordination strategies, clarify how clause-initial si functioned in medieval French, and reveal potential new insights about Latinate influences in Middle French.