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Thestructureofthebook
9
thatintheconstructionofataggedcorpusitisnecessarytoassumeaneco-
nomical,uniformanduniversalapproach,becauseonlythenisitpossible
toreflectthetruenatureoflanguage.Moreover,oneofthebasicfeatures
ofourtaggedcorpusisthatittakesintoaccountthedynamicaspectoflan-
guagechange,thatis,howlanguagechangescanbereflectedinthecorpus.
Inotherwords,itisaflexiblecorpusand,apartfrombeingabletodescribe
thesynchronicstateofwordorder,italsotakesintoaccountitsdiachrony.
Weexplainthedetailsofitsflexibilitywhilediscussingparataxisandhy-
potaxisinOldEnglish.Towardstheendofthefirstchapterwegiveour
owndefinitionoftheobject,bothdirectandindirect,andwealsodiscuss
someproblemsthatweencounteredintheprocessoftheconstructionofthe
taggedcorpus.
InChapter2westartwiththediscussionofthereconstructedProto-
Indo-Europeanwordorder,andafterwardsweconcentrateupontherecon-
structedProto-Germanicwordorder.Wetrytoarriveatourownconclu-
sionsastowhatitmighthavelookedlike.Inordertodothatweperform
ananalysisofquitealargenumberofrunicinscriptionsfromallthethree
runicperiods,andweanalysethemforwordorder,namelyfortheposition
oftheobject,bothnominalandpronominal,withrespecttotheverb,andfor
theV2andtheSV2-within-V2phenomena.Apartfromthat,wetakesome
prosetextswrittenintheoldestGermaniclanguages(Gothic,OldHighGer-
manandOldEnglish)andanalysethemfortheirwordorderstructure.Since
thesetextsaretranslationsoftheBible,wealsodoaparallelanalysisoftheir
counterpartsinthelanguagesfromwhichtheyweretranslated,thatisLatin
andGreek.Suchananalysisallowsustoestablish,ontheonehand,towhat
extentthewordorderinGothicwasinfluencedbyGreek,and,ontheother,
towhatextentthewordorderinOldHighGermanandOldEnglishwere
influencedbyLatin.Afterwards,wemakeaparallelcomparisonofallthe
datathatweobtainfromallofthetexts.TowardstheendofChapter2we
discussProto-Germanicwordorderasimpliedbyouranalysis.Oneofthe
mostinterestingobservations,contrarytowhathasgenerallybeenclaimed,
isthatProto-GermanicwordorderwasbasicallyVOasfarasthepositionof
thenominalobjectwithrespecttotheverbisconcerned.
Havingestablishedsomegroundforfurtherdiscussionconcerningthe
diachronyofwordorderchangeinGermaniclanguages,inChapter3we
discusstheOldEnglishwordorder.Westartthediscussionwithwhatsome
authorstelluswithrespecttothat,andafterwardswegetdowntoourown
analysisofsomeOldEnglishprosetexts.Weconcentrateupontheanalysis
ofthewordorderfoundintheOldEnglishOrosius,Ælfric’sCatholicHomi-
lies,andintheAnglo-SaxonChronicleiAsfortheAnglo-SaxonChronicle,
weanalysetwomanuscripts,theParkerManuscriptandthePeterborough
Manuscript,uptotheentryfor1066andcomparetheresults.Oneofthe