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Abstract: The development history of the relative pronoun proves the constant supersession of an old convention by a new unconvention. Five main syntactical entities are explored. The syntactical development regularity from the conventional and unconventional perspective has been discovered.
Key words: conventions；unconventions；syntax；regularity
1 Introduction: General Idea in Syntax
The ordering or arranging of words in the sentence is termed syntax, from Greek “sy” (together) and “taxis” (arranging). Take the development of the relative pronoun for example. “That” (Old English poet) is the oldest relative pronoun in the language that exists. It was as a relative, a sort of particle or indeclinable word without ever having had any sign of case. It was in common use till the Renaissance, when the newer “who” came for a time to be preferred for its function in the written language, partly interrogative pronouns have mostly identical forms. This form “who” avoid the ambiguity often arising through the absence of case distinctions in the properly relative “that”, by Chaucer’s time, the Genitive “whose” and Dative “whom” came unconventionally to be substituted for “that”, and then later the tendency spread to the Nominative, and “who” came to be used beside “that”. Thus from the sixteenth century, “who” was at the same time both an interrogative pronoun and a relative to become a new convention.
The syntactical study can be approached from the breakdown of the important entities such as the relative pronoun.
2 Omission of relative pronoun as subject
Conventionally relative pronouns as subjects can’t be omitted. For example: He’s the most diligent student who has got the scholarship. “Perhaps it was his scars (that) suggested it.” was unconventional but owing to the particular sentence situations omission of relative pronouns as subjects has become conventional later.
3 Tag-question
Conventionally for the tag-question, if the statement is positive, the tag will be negative and vice versa. But in certain situations the convention is violated. “ --- He’s here now. ---Oh, he’s here now, is he?” doesn’t obey the conventional rule. It is an unconventionality to express a kind of sensation either sympathy or surprise or threatening. This new unconvention has developed into a new convention, i.e., an echo question. This proves conventionality isn’t dead, stable but changeable.
4 Expressive ways of future tense
Conventionally we use “will, shall, be going to” to express the future tense. For example: It will be a long time before I see another film. Please note the following sentence: George is arriving at the four o’clock train this afternoon. When verbs are those expressing the position-moving or position-shifting, the present continuous tense is used. Obviously at first it’s unconventional but now it’s regularized.
5 Agreement of tenses
When the predicate verb in the main sentence is the past tense, the predicate verb in the objective clause will be affected and usually the tenses in the past range. For instance: The doctor said she was going to have only one baby. But pay attention to the following sentence: Kepler proved that the sun is the centre of the solar system. The sentence destroys the conventional agreement rule. At first it was unconventional. But it’s become conventional again.
6 The subjunctive in conditional sentences
The expression of the subjective mood in the conditional sentence has conventional formulae. For instance, If the sun didn’t rise tomorrow, what would we do? But on some complex occasions, the formulae aren’t observed. For example, If I had a bike, I would have lent it to you yesterday. Obviously the if-clause and the main-clause express different facts, which was at first unconventional. But now this phenomenon is conventional.
“Had John been there, he would have been able to interpret for you.” is familiar to us now. The omission of “if ” and the fronting of “had, should, could, etc” was unconventional but has been again conventionalized.
7 Conclusion
The relative pronoun has undergone several processes of development. We may as well analyze two of the processes. “That” (Old English poet) is the oldest relative pronoun in the language that exists. Certainly it experienced a process U1→C1; In the Renaissance, “Who” came for a time to be used in the written language. By Chaucer’s time the Genitive “whose” and Dative “Whom” came occasionally to be substituted for “that”, and then the tendency spread to the Nominative, and “who” came to be used beside “that”. This is another process (U2→C2),The U2→C2 has its foundation, namely the function of relative pronoun, and the quality to introduce an attributive clause (K1 C1). Therefore, any syntactic entity develops like this:
Es(U1→C1)→K1 C1 (U2→C2)→…→ Kn-1 ( C1+C2+ …+Cn-1) Un→Cn)→…→…
Es means English syntax
参考文献
[1]李也白.关系代词作主语能省略吗[J].考试(高考英语版),2007,(Z1).
Key words: conventions；unconventions；syntax；regularity
1 Introduction: General Idea in Syntax
The ordering or arranging of words in the sentence is termed syntax, from Greek “sy” (together) and “taxis” (arranging). Take the development of the relative pronoun for example. “That” (Old English poet) is the oldest relative pronoun in the language that exists. It was as a relative, a sort of particle or indeclinable word without ever having had any sign of case. It was in common use till the Renaissance, when the newer “who” came for a time to be preferred for its function in the written language, partly interrogative pronouns have mostly identical forms. This form “who” avoid the ambiguity often arising through the absence of case distinctions in the properly relative “that”, by Chaucer’s time, the Genitive “whose” and Dative “whom” came unconventionally to be substituted for “that”, and then later the tendency spread to the Nominative, and “who” came to be used beside “that”. Thus from the sixteenth century, “who” was at the same time both an interrogative pronoun and a relative to become a new convention.
The syntactical study can be approached from the breakdown of the important entities such as the relative pronoun.
2 Omission of relative pronoun as subject
Conventionally relative pronouns as subjects can’t be omitted. For example: He’s the most diligent student who has got the scholarship. “Perhaps it was his scars (that) suggested it.” was unconventional but owing to the particular sentence situations omission of relative pronouns as subjects has become conventional later.
3 Tag-question
Conventionally for the tag-question, if the statement is positive, the tag will be negative and vice versa. But in certain situations the convention is violated. “ --- He’s here now. ---Oh, he’s here now, is he?” doesn’t obey the conventional rule. It is an unconventionality to express a kind of sensation either sympathy or surprise or threatening. This new unconvention has developed into a new convention, i.e., an echo question. This proves conventionality isn’t dead, stable but changeable.
4 Expressive ways of future tense
Conventionally we use “will, shall, be going to” to express the future tense. For example: It will be a long time before I see another film. Please note the following sentence: George is arriving at the four o’clock train this afternoon. When verbs are those expressing the position-moving or position-shifting, the present continuous tense is used. Obviously at first it’s unconventional but now it’s regularized.
5 Agreement of tenses
When the predicate verb in the main sentence is the past tense, the predicate verb in the objective clause will be affected and usually the tenses in the past range. For instance: The doctor said she was going to have only one baby. But pay attention to the following sentence: Kepler proved that the sun is the centre of the solar system. The sentence destroys the conventional agreement rule. At first it was unconventional. But it’s become conventional again.
6 The subjunctive in conditional sentences
The expression of the subjective mood in the conditional sentence has conventional formulae. For instance, If the sun didn’t rise tomorrow, what would we do? But on some complex occasions, the formulae aren’t observed. For example, If I had a bike, I would have lent it to you yesterday. Obviously the if-clause and the main-clause express different facts, which was at first unconventional. But now this phenomenon is conventional.
“Had John been there, he would have been able to interpret for you.” is familiar to us now. The omission of “if ” and the fronting of “had, should, could, etc” was unconventional but has been again conventionalized.
7 Conclusion
The relative pronoun has undergone several processes of development. We may as well analyze two of the processes. “That” (Old English poet) is the oldest relative pronoun in the language that exists. Certainly it experienced a process U1→C1; In the Renaissance, “Who” came for a time to be used in the written language. By Chaucer’s time the Genitive “whose” and Dative “Whom” came occasionally to be substituted for “that”, and then the tendency spread to the Nominative, and “who” came to be used beside “that”. This is another process (U2→C2),The U2→C2 has its foundation, namely the function of relative pronoun, and the quality to introduce an attributive clause (K1 C1). Therefore, any syntactic entity develops like this:
Es(U1→C1)→K1 C1 (U2→C2)→…→ Kn-1 ( C1+C2+ …+Cn-1) Un→Cn)→…→…
Es means English syntax
参考文献
[1]李也白.关系代词作主语能省略吗[J].考试(高考英语版),2007,(Z1).