The Evolution of the Subjectival Paradigmatic Pattern in the English Language: Historical and Typological Aspects

In order to describe in comparative and typological light such an important element of the syntax of Modern English as the subject, a short historical introduction is needed to summarise the evolutionary changes the English subject has undergone over the centuries, as well as to outline the subjectival paradigmatic scheme, characteristic of the current state of the language. The means of expression of the semantic subject has evolved along with the changes in the structure of the language as a whole. Throughout its history, the English language has been characterized by the nominative structure, although the latter has experienced serious transformations. Accordingly, the Old English and Modern English sentences are invariably characterised by such parameters as nominativeness and verbality. The development of analyticism of the language system has resulted, in particular, in the expansion of non-finite forms of the verb – the infinitive and the gerund – functioning as subject, both in their “pure” form and as part of certain constructions. Along with the changes of the paradigm of the English subject, the gerund tended to expand and to compete with the
infinitive throughout the Middle English and early Modern English periods. In the same vein, one should also interpret the expansion of the impersonal subject (h)it, which was fixed in the language as a result of fixing the direct word order, with the subject in the first place in the sentence. There has also been a certain reverse development of “transition from analysis to synthesis”, demonstrated by the gradual displacement of the “He se cyning – type” pleonastic constructions, as well as by the victory of morphological means over the syntactic ones, as happened to the “Margere ys dowghter – type” construction, which was completely substituted by the possessive form -'s. There also evolved a deep restructuring of the pronoun system, in the course of which a new indefinite personal pronoun one was developed in the role of the subject. It is the syntactic means that acquired decisive importance for the organization and functioning of the entire language system. The means of expression of the subject in Modern English resulted to a considerable
extent from the changes in question.