A typological switch in early Modern English – and the beginning of one in Dutch?

Abstract

Recent psycholinguistic studies by e.g. Carroll & Lambert (2003), von Stutterheim & Carroll (2005), and von Stutterheim & Rossdeutscher (2005) have uncovered a typological distinction between English and German at the level of macrostructural planning (“deciding what to say and how to say it”) which influences the ways in which events are narrated and scenes are described. This distinction is closely linked to the grammatical options of each language. English is not verb-second but very subject-oriented, and it has a progressive, while German is verb-second, not very subject-oriented and does not have a progressive. Dutch, however, has a progressive of sorts (aan het), and claims have been made about Dutch becoming more subject-oriented (eg. Cornelis 2000), although it is still solidly verb-second. Old English sides with German and Dutch in being verb-second, not subject-oriented and not having a progressive of the type of Modern English. This suggests that there was a typological switch, and also that diachronic phenomena which are normally regarded as independent developments - the loss of verb-second and the rise of a progressive - are in fact connected at a deeper level. Dutch presents an interesting case study here, sandwiched as it is between German and English.