To appear in: In Eric Mathieu and Robert Truswell. (2016). From Micro-change to Macro-change.

Oxford University Press.

From Latin to Modern French: A Punctuated Shift

Michelle Troberg

University of Toronto

Heather Burnett

University of Toronto, Universit de Paris 7-Denis Diderot

1. Introduction

The goal of our paper is to illustrate a surprising intermediate stage during the course of the

development from the satellite-framed behaviour of Latin to the verb-framed behaviour of Modern French

and to suggest why such a development occurred. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, we show that this

typological shift does not simply involve a gradual loss of satellite-framed (henceforth s-framed)

properties accompanied by a gradual increase of verb-framed (v-framed) alternatives. Rather, Medieval

French presents a remarkable intermediate stage, permitting a cluster of s-framed constructions found

neither in Early Latin nor in Modern French and thus requiring a re-examination of the shift. We consider

this change from the point of view of micro changes occurring at the level of lexical items, and the

principal claim in our account involves a progression of reanalyses within the prepositional system. The

first change involves the Path prefix system, where telicizing preverbs in Latin, syntactically derived from

locative prepositions, had been reanalysed as Path heads by Medieval French. These elements were then

further reanalysed as an inseparable part of the verb to produce the Modern French system. The second

and more surprising development, however, involves a cluster of non-Latin s-framed constructions

involving resultative secondary predication: bare goal-of-motion, verb particle, and complex adjectival

resultative constructions. We suggest that the rise and fall of these innovations is linked to the loss of the

Latin telicizing preverbs.

 The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 outlines the s-framed properties of Early and Classical

Latin, and section 3 follows by showing how its daughter language, Modern French, is an archetypal v-

framed language. Section 4 then describes aspects of the grammar of Medieval French, arising midway

between these two typological poles and presenting strikingly new s-framed behaviour. Section 5 outlines

our account of the reanalysis, and section 6 finishes with some remarks on the theoretical implications of

the study.

2. Early Latin as a satellite-framed language

Following Talmys (1975, 1985, 2000) influential typology regarding motion events, languages are

characterised in terms of how the core schema, or Path, is lexicalized. In s-framed languages, transition is

lexicalized in a so-called satellite to the verb (such as particles, verbal affixes, and prepositional phrases),

while in verb-framed languages Path is not so lexicalized, but is rather encoded in the meaning of the

main verb itself. Typologically, s-framed languages tend to present a number of syntactic possibilities

involving main verbs that express manner combined with a resultative secondary predicate.

In Early and Classical Latin (200 BC to 200 CE), prepositional elements could appear as prefixes on

manner-of-motion verbs to give a goal-of-motion reading; see Haverling (2003), Acedo-Matelln (2010).

For example, in (1) the verbal prefixes encode the result state (the goal) of the theme: the flies come to be

at the goats udders through flying in (1a), the riders come to be down through jumping in (1b), and the

theme comes to be at the gates by riding in (1c). The verbal prefixes in (1) appear to be prepositions that

have incorporated into the verb.1 Similarly, the prefixes in (2) encode the result state of various DPs while

the verb encodes manner: the shells come to be out through coughing in (2a), and the blood comes to be

1
A derivational relationship between the prefix and the preposition would assume that the prefix assigns case to the Ground

argument. Dative DPs in contexts such as (1a) and (1c) therefore pose a problem for such an analysis; see Acedo-Matelln

(2010), who presents arguments favouring an analysis whereby the prefix governs in some way the dative DP.
away through wiping in (2b). The prefixes in (2) could be considered an incorporated particle (or

intransitive preposition).2

(1) a. Caprarum-que uberibus ad-volant

goat.GEN.PLUR-and udders-DAT.PLUR at- fly

And they fly onto the udders of the goats.

(Plin. Nat. 10, 115; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 100)

b. Repente ex equis de-siliunt.

suddenly out horses.ABL down-leap.3PL

Suddenly they lept down from their horses.

(Liv. 22, 48, 2; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 189)

c. Qui ubi ad-equitavit portis.

who.NOM.SG as.soon.as at-ride.PFV.3SG doors.DAT

This one, as soon as he had ridden to the gates.

(Liv. 22, 42, 5; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 189)

(2) a. Serpentes ova solida hauriunt, [. . .] atque putamina ex-tussiunt.

Snake.NOM.PL egg.ACC.PL whole.ACC.PL swallow.3PL, [. . .] and shell.ACC.PL out-cough.3PL

Snakes swallow the eggs whole and expel the shells though coughing

(Pliny, Nat. 10, 197; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 179)

b. Inspectum vulnus abs-terso cruore.

examine.PTCP wound.NOM.SG away-wipe.PTCP blood.ABL.SG

That the wound had been examined after wiping the blood off.

(Liv. 1, 41, 5; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 97)

2
How the Figure argument receives case is not always clear. In (2a) it appears to be the verb that gives accusative case to

putamina while in (2b) it looks to be the prefix abs that gives ablative case to cruore. In this article, we leave aside the specific

questions of Latin case assignment.

 Such prefixes could not only have directional meaning, as shown above, but also a related aspectual

meaning. In Early Latin, they were also used to create hundreds of verb pairs that correspond to

atelic/telic pairs. A few examples of this alternation are given in (3), taken from Haverling (2003: 114).

(3) a. edo eat/ eat of vs comedo eat up

b. bibo drink/drink of vs ebibo drink up

c. tacui have been silent vs conticui have fallen silent

Interestingly, the complex of prefixes introduced in (1) to (3) are the unique source of resultative

secondary predication with manner verbs in Early Latin. Unlike English, for example, Early Latin does

not present other common s-framed constructions (Acedo-Matelln 2010); it has no morphologically free

directional/aspectual verb particles (to eat something up; to walk away) and no adjectival resultative

constructions (to hammer something flat).3 In his dissertation, Acedo-Matelln (2010) argues that the

prefixes are not in fact inherently directional or aspectual, but that instead they have fundamentally

locative semantics, noting that when they are used with stative verbs, they have locative interpretations,

shown in in (4). Further, these forms also occur independently as locative prepositions, shown in (5).

(4) a. Argentum de-erat.

silver.NOM away-was.IPFV

Money was lacking.

(Ter. Phorm. 298; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 98)

b. Senex ab-est.

old.man.NOM away-is

The old man is missing.

3
Acedo-Matelln and Mateu (2013) present some evidence of resultative secondary predication formed from non-prefixed

verbs in (later) Classical Latin. Such cases reveal that the intermediate grammar we describe for Medieval French had

developed before the birth of Romance, further supported by evidence that similar kinds of resultative secondary predication

found in Medieval French are also attested in Old Catalan and Old Italian; see Acedo-Matelln and Mateu (2013), Iacobini

(2009), and Iacobini and Masini (2006) and references therein.

 (Plaut. Cas. 882; in Acedo-Matelln 2010: 98)

(5) a. quorum saepe et diu ad pedes iacuit stratus

whose often and long.time at foot.ACC.PL lay spread.out

At whose feet he often lay at that for a long time.

(Cic. Quinct. 96; in Luraghi 2010: 25)

b. quia ab tergo errant clivi,

because from back.ABL were hills

because behind them were hills

(Liv. 2,65,2; in Luraghi 2010: 26)

In sum, earlier Latin possessed a single kind of resultative secondary predication construction: that

involving verbal prefixes. One way to describe the system of prefixes would be to say that their

directional/aspectual meaning arises through a derivational relationship with their locative prepositional

counterparts. This relationship is summarized in Table 1; in section 5, we describe this relationship in

terms of head movement.4 5

Locative Preposition Path Prefix

de from, of de- down
ex out, ex- out from
cum with co(n)- become
in in, on in- into
ad at ad- to
ab at ab- from

Table 1: Locative prepositions and directional/aspectual prefixes in Latin

4
Early and Classical Latin present case variation according to the locative or directional sense of some prepositions (namely in,

sub, super). Iacobini (2012) suggests that the loss of such case distinctions may have contributed to the loss of satellite-framed

behaviour in Latin.
5
An anonymous reviewer points out that the preposition cum and the aspectual prefix co(n) are likely not etymologically

related, as discussed in Rosen (1992), but that they may later have been reanalyzed as derivationally related.
3. Modern French as a verb-framed language

While in s-framed languages Path is lexicalized in satellites associated with the verb, Romance

languages like Modern French are considered to be verb-framed because transition or result is lexicalized

in inherently directional verbs. In some cases, telic Path readings can arise through pragmatic inference as

well, but what is clear is that satellites do not productively contribute to such interpretations. For example,

goal-of-motion readings are not possible with manner-of-motion verbs in Modern French.6 Recall the

examples in (1) for Latin where goal-of-motion readings arise from the presence of bounded goal Path

prefixes on manner verbs denoting movement such as volre to fly, salre to jump and equitre to

ride. No such productive system of prefixes is available in Modern French, and prepositional phrases

cannot bring about the necessary telic readings either, as shown in the translations below. 7

(6) a. *Les mouches survolent aux pis des chvres.

*Les mouches volent sur les pis des chvres.

For: The flies fly onto the udders of the goats.

b. *Soudain ils ont desaut de leurs chevaux.

For: Suddenly, they leaped down from their horses.

6
In some cases, a bounded Path interpretation can indeed arise with a restricted set of manner verbs denoting movement

including courir to run and sauter to jump. Beavers et al. (2009) suggest that possible directional interpretations such as

those in (i) and (ii) are not grammatically constructed but are rather products of pragmatic reasoning associated with the

inherent aspectual properties of the verb and with the properties of the Ground.

(i) Jean a couru au magasin. John ran to the store/ John ran while at the store.

(ii) Jean a saut dans la flaque. John jumped into the puddle/ John jumped while in the puddle.

Comparable verbs (without prefixes) in Latin can also be used in goal-of-motion constructions. Acedo-Matelln (2010)

accounts for them in a similar way.

7
Only two prefixes (iterative re- and change of state de-) are productive in Modern French; see Sablayrolles (2000) and

Kopecka (2006).
 c. * Il avait achevauch aux portes.

* Il avait chevauch aux portes.

For: He had ridden to the gates.

As is typical of v-framed languages, the Path component of these events would be expressed via verbs

whose meaning is inherently directional or telic, while the manner component is expressed either

implicitly or explicitly. In (7a), the reflexive use of the verb poser to land encodes the result state of the

subject, while the manner is implied through the verb and the subject. In (7b), the manner is encoded in

the verb sauter to jump and the direction and result are implied. The telic directional verb arriver to

arrive encodes the result state of the subject in (7c), while manner is expressed either implicitly or by

mention of the horse.

(7) a. Les mouches se posent sur les pis des chvres.

The flies REFL land on the udders of.the goats

The flies fly onto the udders of the goats.

b. Soudain, ils ont saut de leur chevaux

Suddenly they AUX jumped from their horses

They suddenly jumped down from their horses.

c. Il tait arriv aux portes ( cheval).

He AUX arrived at.the gates (on horseback)

He rode to the gates.

Latin-style resultative prefixation is thus not available in Modern Standard French, nor are any other Path

satellites that would allow the language to express result in a goal-of-motion construction or other typical

s-framed constructions.

4. From satellite-framed to verb-framed: the case of Medieval French (1100-1500 CE)

It has been widely accepted that as Latin evolved into French, it passed gradually from a satellite-

framed language to a verb-framed language (Acedo-Matelln 2010; Acedo-Matelln and Mateu 2013;
Talmy 2000) and involved various stages of hybridization; see Hickmann and Robert (2006), Iacobini and

Fagard (2011: 158), Iacobini (2012), Kopecka (in press: 4), Slobin (2004). We demonstrate below that the

typological shift from Latin to Modern French is anything but a gradual decline in the degree of s-framed

behaviour.8 On the contrary, this shift is punctuated by the birth of a new s-framed system, significantly

different from what we understand Early Latin to be, presenting robust occurrences of bare goal-of-motion,

verb-particle, and adjectival resultative constructions. Moreover, the loss of this new s-framed system in

French appears to be rather abrupt, not gradual as previous accounts claim. In the next sections, we detail

the relevant facts from Medieval French.

4.1 Changes in the Latin prefixes

By Late Latin (200-600 CE), the robustness of the directional/aspectual prefix system was beginning to

erode; prefixes were coming to be reanalyzed as part of verb roots. Haverling (2003) demonstrates this

process by showing that the telicity alternation in Classical Latin between edo eat and comedo eat up is

lost by Late Latin, where comedo is used in atelic contexts. Likewise, she shows that the Classical Latin

alternation tacui have been silent vs conticui have fallen silent is less clear in Late Latin; authors

confuse the forms, so that conticui is used in atelic contexts and tacui can mean stopped talking.

Path prefixes are still widely used in Medieval French, but their spatial meaning has faded dramatically,

leaving them with the unique function of modifying the aspectual value of the event. In (8b), for example,

the prefix a- shifts the activity verb penser to think toward an accomplishment reading, to realize. This

prefix can also create the activity/accomplishment alternation with manner-of-motion verbs producing

goal-of-motion constructions similar to those we find in Latin (see examples 1a-c), illustrated in (9),

where voler has an activity reading and advoler has the accomplishment goal-of-motion reading. Martin

(2001) discusses hundreds of verbs that occur with the prefix a(d)- in Medieval French, focusing on the

distribution, interpretation, and productivity of the prefix. 9

8
See also Burnett and Troberg (2014).
9
The prefix a- can also contribute an inchoative flavour to the event (reminiscent of ad- in Latin).
(8) a. car il pensoit bien que aucuns de lostel le roi le sivroit.

for he thought well that someone from the-house the king him followed

for he suspected that someone from the kings residence was following him.

(Artu, 13th c., 11; Dufresne et al. 2001)

b. Mais quant il ouy la freinte, il appensa tantost que Glaudes retournoit,

but when he heard the noise, he a.think immediately that Glaudes return.IMP

But when he heard the noise, he immediately realized that Glaudes was coming

back,

(Arras, 1392-1393, 20; DMF)

(9) a. Et il vola si hautement

and he flew so high.ADV

and it flew so high

(Mach, D. Aler, a.1349, 356; DMF)

b. linnumerable nombre de langoustes qui ad-volerent en France

the-innumerable number of locusts who to-flew in France

the uncountable number of locusts that flew into France

(Simon de Phares, Astrol, c.1494-1498, fo 107 vo; DMF)

Other productive directional/aspectual prefixes in Medieval French are listed in (10); see Tremblay et al.

(2003: 555) and Kopecka (2009) for further discussion.10

10
Of the list in (10), deparler, enamer, sorquerre, poraler, and tresnagier are new formations, not lexical items inherited from

Latin.
(10) parler to speak de-parler to speak ill about something

tendre to stretch e-tendre to stretch out

amer to love en-amer to fall in love

querre to ask, seek sor-querre to insist

aler to go por-aler to go all around

geter to throw par-geter to throw all the way

nagier to swim tres-nagier to swim/row across

The crucial difference between the Latin Path prefixes and the Medieval French reflexes is that the

clear derivational relationship with a series of locative prepositional counterparts no longer exists. Latin

Path prefixes were essentially identical in form and in meaning to the prepositions save that they carried

an additional layer of meaning denoting the attainment of a goal. Table 2 summarizes what remains of the

prefixes in Medieval French. Note that only three have a prepositional counterpart and that none of the

prefixes have a clear spatial meaning corresponding to an analogous preposition.

Locative preposition Aspectual prefix: generalized meaning

of transition/result
a at a-
en in en-
par through par-
--- tres-
--- por-
--- e(s)-

Table 2: Medieval French aspectual prefixes and their prepositional counterparts

The development of the preposition-prefix relationship is not surprising; it heralds the well-known

reanalysis of the prefixes as an indivisible part of the verbal root. What is rather surprising, however, are

the syntactic innovations that accompany it, outlined in the next section.
4.2 Satellite-framed innovations

4.2.1 Bare goal-of-motion (without prefixes)

Similar to other s-framed languages (like Dutch, for example), Medieval French can express both

activities and goal-of-motion using the same verb, presenting unergative syntax for the former and

unaccusative syntax for the latter, shown below for voler to fly and courir to run. Note the auxiliary

alternation, where the auxiliary tre (11a, 12a) is associated with unaccusative syntax and avoir with

unergative (11b, 12b).

(11) a. Les aeles de vertus avoit []. Donc Marie est volee en haut, En la region ou est chaut

the wings of virtue had so Marie AUX flew in high in the region where is hot

She had wings of virtue []. So Mary flew up into the region where it is hot

(Bestiaire marial, c.1333, 181; TFA)

b. Et quant il avoit tant vol que toz li monz le tenoit a merveille

and when he AUX much flown that all the world him held at wonder

And once he had flown around enough so that everyone marvelled at him

(Queste del Saint Graal, 1225, 131; TFA)

(12) a. Mais tot li chevalier ensamble i sont coru por lui rescorre.

But all the knights together there AUX run for him rescue

But together the knights quickly ran there in order to rescue him.

(Vengeance Raguidel, 1200, 33; TFA)

b. Tant a coru et porchaci,

so.much AUX run and pursued

So much did he run and chase,

(Saint-Cloud, Roman de Renart Branche 7, c.1175, 5835; TFA)

Other manner-of-motion verbs that can occur with a goal-of-motion interpretation in our corpus include

marcher to walk/march, cheminer to make ones way, chevaucher to ride on horseback, ramper to
climb, flouer to flow, and trotter to trot. 11 12

The innovation in the expression of goal-of-motion is that Medieval French does not require the

presence of a Path prefix, which was generally the case in Latin, exemplified in (1a-c). Where is Path

therefore expressed? We contend that in constructions such as those in (11a) and (12a), Path is expressed

in the preposition. Indeed many prepositions alternate between a locative and a directional interpretation

in Medieval French; compare the directional interpretations of sur onto, en into, and aux to the given

in (13) with their locative counterparts in (14): sur on/over, en in, and au at/in the.

(13) a. il vole sur les rainceaulx ou sur les branches.

he flies onto the branches or onto the branches

he flies onto small tree limbs or branches.

(Le Menagier de Paris, c.1392-1394, 163; DMF)

b. Et puys aprs nous troterons en guerre.

and then after we will.trot in war

And then after we will trot into war.

(de La Vigne, La Ressource de la Chrestient, 1494,133; DMF)

c. en passant par la chambre et cheminant aux nopces

in passing by the room and making.his.way to.the wedding

while passing by the bedroom and making his way to the wedding

(Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, c.1456-1467, 122; DMF)

11 We draw on two electronic corpora: the TFA (La Base Textes du Franais Ancien, ARTFL) and the DMF (Dictionnaire du

Moyen Franais, ATILF). These facts are also discussed in Troberg (2011).

12 A subset of such verbs in later Classical Latin can also be used in goal-of-motion constructions without a Path-denoting

prefix (Acedo-Matelln (2010) cites curro run and navigo sail), but this set appears to have broadened considerably by

Medieval French.
(14) a. si aucun oysel vole sur icelui endroit, incontinent chet mort terre.

If certain bird flies on this place immediately falls dead to earth

if any bird flies over this place, it immediately falls dead to the ground.

(Simon de Phares, Astrologues, c.1494-1498, 87; DMF)

b. et cevauans en France nuit et jour

and riding in France night and day

and riding in France day and night

(Froissart, Chroniques, c.1400, 569; DMF)

c. Ne qu on puet au firmament Sans eles voler

nor that one can at.the firmament without wings fly

Nor can one fly in the heavens without wings

(Machaut, Les Lays, 1377, 388; DMF)

Table 3 contains some examples of prepositions that illustrate the new Place-Path meaning alternation

attested in Medieval French.

Place Interpretation Path Interpretation

a at to
en in into
sur on onto
hors outside to outside
par at through
dedans inside to inside

Table 3: Place-Path meaning alternation in prepositions in Medieval French

In sum, while telic Path with manner verbs could only be expressed in verbal prefixes in Latin, the data

suggest that it can be expressed both in aspectual prefixes (see Table 2) and in directional prepositions in

Medieval French.
4.2.2 Verb-particle constructions

Along with goal-of-motion constructions such as those discussed above, the presence of verb particles

that express or modify a Path expression are also typical of s-framed languages. Particle-like elements

already appear in Classical Latin, but Iacobini (2009) claims that they are marginal and stylistically

marked. The following examples are from Iacobini (2009: 37).

(15) a. retro regredi (Bellum Africum 50,2)

to march back; to retreat/return back

b. retroreverti (Lucr. 1,785)

to return/revert back

c. forasexire (Lucr. 3,772)

out leave

Early attestations show these elements occurring mainly with prefixed verbs, likely arising to reinforce

the directional Path meaning that is decreasingly salient in certain high frequency verbs. Iacobini (2009)

provides some further examples from the same period where these elements are used to express the Path

of a non-prefixed generic motion verb and gives examples from Late Latin, in (16), where their use is

more common. It is unclear from the examples, however, that these elements perhaps still adverbs

create a telic event. What is clear, however, is that they are the precursors of the telicizing Path particles

attested in Medieval French.

(16) a. Cecidit de tertio cenaculo deorsum (Act. apost. 20, 9)

and fell down from the third loft

b. Noli foras ire, in te ipsum redi (Aug., De vera relig. 39)

do not wish to go out, return into yourself

By Medieval French, a robust system of verb particles exists. These particles are discussed extensively

in Burnett and Tremblay (2009), Marchello-Nizia (2002), and Buridant (2000). These elements function

similarly to the Late Latin examples above, elaborating Path. The path can be implicit, as in (17a), where
sus specifies its direction, and the path can be encoded in the verb (or prefix), as in (17b,c), where hors

and jus reinforce the direction of movement.

(17) a. il sailly sus le plus tost qu'il peut

he leaps up the more fast that-he can

he gets up as fast as he can

(Percef. III, R., t.2, c.1450 [c.1340], 233; DMF)

b. A ces criz et a ces noises issi hors Messires Gauvains de son ostel

At these cries and at these noises exited out Messire-NOM Gauvain-NOM from his lodging

When he heard the cries and the noise, Sir Gawain went out of his house

(Artu, 13th c., p.130; Burnett and Tremblay 2009)

c. et le reversa jus a terre.

And him re.spill down to ground

and he dumped him down on the ground.

(Froissart, Chron. D., c.1400, 387; DMF)

While the verb particles shown above express spatial notions, they could also have strictly aspectual

interpretations, shown in (18).

(18) a. arriere les voit consillier

again them see converse

He sees them conversing again

(Belinagr., p.85; Burnett and Tremblay 2009)

 b. il s' entrecommencent a regarder et semont li uns lautre de

they REFL between.begin to look and ask the one the-other to

parler avant

talk forward

They begin to look at each other and ask each other to start talking

(Artu, 13th c., p.13; Burnett and Tremblay 2009)

c. boire fors; manger fors; paiier fors

drink out eat out pay out

to drink up; to eat up; to pay up

(Buridant 2000: 544)

4.2.3 Adjectival resultative secondary predication

Finally, Medieval French presents complex adjectival resultative secondary predicate constructions,

which are often found in s-framed languages. The Medieval constructions involve transitive VPs

combined with an adjective that describes the state of the direct object at the end of the event, as shown in

the examples in (19). Interestingly, this kind of secondary predication does not occur in Latin, as

demonstrated in Acedo-Matelln (2010). The following examples are taken from Troberg and Burnett

(2014), where this construction is discussed in detail.

(19) a. que mort ne lacraventet.

that dead not him-crush

so that it didnt crush him dead.

(Roland, c.1100, 285.3930; MCVF)

b. Que tricherie abat jus plate

that deception beats down flat

(Pizan, Fortune, t.2, 1400-1403, 29; DMF)

 c. Une colder trencha par mi, tute quarree la fendi.

A hazel.tree sliced through middle all square it cut.

He sliced a hazel tree through the middle, he cut it right square.

(Marie de France, Lais. 1154-89, p.183; TFA)

It is less obvious how these adjectival constructions are formally related to the resultative secondary

predicates built from prepositional elements, discussed above. We presume that there is in fact a formal

connection based on what appears to be a simultaneous loss of both adjectival resultatives and verb

particles in the 16th century and supported by the typological generalization. However, in this paper, we

focus on the relationships involving prepositional elements. A unified account has been left for future

work.

4.3 Discussion

Early Latin allowed only one type of construction that is associated with s-framed languages: a goal-of-

motion construction where the Path satellite appears as a telicizing verbal prefix. In Latin, these prefixes

can be considered to be derivationally related to locative prepositions. As Latin evolves into Medieval

French the form-meaning relationship between the prefixes and the prepositions diminishes. At the same

time, however, there is robust evidence that prepositions themselves can encode Path meanings, giving

rise to bare goal-of-motion interpretations (without directional preverbs) and correlating with (at least)

two new syntactic possibilities associated with s-framed languages: verb-particle constructions and

adjectival resultative constructions. This burst of innovation, however, doesnt appear to extend any later

than the sixteenth century; Modern French prepositions are predominantly locative, and speakers do not

productively admit any of the s-framed resultative secondary predication constructions that we find in

Medieval French.13

13
Save vers toward and par through, which have an unbounded Path denotation. Since these prepositions cannot be used to

build resultative secondary predicates, we do not discuss them further.

(20) a. Path prefixes; compare with (9b)

*Ils a-volrent en France.

they to-flew in France

b. Verb particles; compare with (17b)

*Seigneur Gauvain est all hors de son logement.

Sir Gawain AUX gone out of his lodging c. Goal-of-motion; compare with (13a)

c. *Loiseau vole sur les branches.

The-bird flies on the branches

d. Adjectival resultative secondary predication; compare with (20b)

*battre le metal plat

to.beat the metal flat

The Medieval French facts illustrate that the shift from the Latin s-framed system to the Modern French

v-framed system is not at all gradual. The development of the Modern French system involved three

distinct systems, summarized in Table 4. Each successive system is not simply a lesser degree of s-

framedness; rather, the restricted s-framed Latin develops into the less restricted s-framed grammar of

Medieval French, which then becomes the v-framed grammar of Modern French.

(EARLY) LATIN MEDIEVAL FRENCH MODERN FRENCH

S-FRAMED S-FRAMED V-FRAMED
Directional/aspectual prefixes
Goal-of-motion construction (prefix required)
Directional/aspectual verb particles
Complex adjectival resultatives
Table 4: Evolution of resultative secondary predication from Latin to Modern French

Certainly the tendency to express Path in the verbal root increased gradually over many centuries and

involved low-level lexical changes in which Path prefixes came to be reanalysed as part of the root itself.14

14
Dufresne, Dupuis, and Longtin (2001) systematically study the evolution of the preverb a-, by far the most productive and
the longest lasting, showing a steady decline from the 13th c. to the 17th c. in new verbs formed by the addition of a-.
In contrast, the disappearance of the new s-framed grammar attested in Medieval French appears to be

strikingly abrupt. For example, in order to measure the rate at which verb particles disappeared, we

tracked the loss of two directional particles, arrire back and avant forward, as they were replaced by

PPs introduced by en. Examples (21) and (22) show arrire and avant as particles in Medieval French,

reinforcing the path denotation already present in the verb. In Modern French, these elements are nominal

and must occur within the PP en arriere and en avant in order to perform the same function (21b, 22b). 15

(21) arriere vs en arriere

a. le mers reportoit le nef ariere (Medieval French)

the sea re.take the ship back

the sea pushed the ship back

(Clari, early 13th c., p.74; in Dufresne, et al. 2003)

b. La mer a rapport le navire en arrire. (Modern French)

(22) avant vs en avant

a. Lors saut avant Girflez et dist a la rene (Medieval French)

So jump forward Girflet and says to the queen

So Girflet jumps forward and says to the queen

(Artu, 13th c., p. 319; Burnett and Tremblay 2009)

b. Alors Girflet saute en avant et il dit la reine (Modern French)

We tracked the frequency of avant, en avant, arriere, and en arrire in directional contexts from the

beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century. Although the particles are

productive and used robustly through the fourteenth century, both arriere and avant begin to decline in

15
Data from the Old French period (12-13th centuries), Middle French period (14-15th centuries), and 16th and 17th centuries

come from the Textes de franais ancien (TFA) database, the corpus associated with the Dictionnaire du moyen franais

(DMF), and the Frantext database respectively.

frequency in the fifteenth century, and within 200 years, the particles are obsolete.16 Our results are shown

in Tables 6 and 7 and summarized in Figure 1. The time-course of the loss of verb-particle combinations

is thus not a slow and gradual decline. Rather, it bears similarities to other well-known syntactic changes.

1300-49 1350-99 1400-49 1450-99 1500-49 1550-99 1600-49 1650-99

avant 165 85 98 25 6 6 0 0
en avant 9 1 21 12 32 72 25 37
% of 94 98 82 67 15 8 0 0
particles

Table 6: Replacement of directional avant by directional uses of en avant (by date of authors birth)

1300-49 1350-99 1400-49 1450-99 1500-49 1550-99 1600-49 1650-99

arrire 126 63 43 39 21 13 7 0
en arrire 2 2 3 14 22 61 73 0
% of 98 96 93 73 49 17 9 --
particles

Table 7: Replacement of directional arriere by directional uses of en arrire (by date of authors birth)

Figure 1: Replacement of avant/arriere by en avant/arrire 17

A quantitative study of the loss of bare goal-of-motion constructions and adjectival resultatives would

allow us to assess a possible correlation between their disappearance and that of verb particles, a

16
Our results for the loss of the particles avant and arriere confer with Marchello Nizia (2002)s claim that the particle aval

falls out of use in the 15th century.

17
While the loss of the two verb particles follows an S-shaped curve, more data is required to confirm the Constant Rate

Hypothesis.
correlation we would expect to find if the three types of resultative secondary predicates are indeed

structurally related. Here, however, we have hit an impasse; measuring the loss of these constructions has

proved challenging due in part to the low number of tokens. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile noting that the

last adjectival resultative construction identified in our corpus was written by Franois Villon, born in the

first half of the fifteenth century. This may be evidence that this construction disappeared at

approximately the same time as the particles.

Finally, our results strongly suggest that neither normative pressures, implied in Iacobini (2009), nor

functional forces (Foulet 1958) lead to the disappearance of Path particles in Medieval French. The

uniformity and abruptness of the loss of arriere and avant are also incompatible with proposals that s-

framed syntax gradually falls out of use due to semantic and pragmatic aspects of the language favouring

v-framed strategies in the expression of motion events (Pourcel and Kopecka 2005; Slobin 2004). In line

with the idea that the typological shift has been gradual, it has also been suggested that during the

evolution of Latin to Modern French, so-called hybrid systems have arisen, where both s-framed and v-

framed behaviour is present. Our position is that hybrid systems do not exist in the sense claimed within

the functionalist tradition.18 If we understand v-framed grammars like Modern French to be those which

do not have a non-verbal morpheme expressing transition or attainment of a goal and which instantiate the

functional head Path, then v-framed and s-framed grammars are in a superset-subset relationship; mixed

strategies for the expression of manner and path are thus expected in an s-framed grammar, which will

give varying effects of a so-called hybrid system. On the other hand, in a v-framed grammar, we predict

no productive evidence of s-framed behaviour. The difference in the two grammars is thus categorical

from this perspective, and this difference is born out in the history of French. French was likely a satellite-

framed grammar until the fifteenth century, and by the seventeenth century, most speakers were only

acquiring a verb-framed system.

18
Our position is, however, entirely compatible with work in the competing grammars tradition.
5. Two reanalyses involving Path

We claim that the typological difference between Early Latin and Modern French involves at least one

abstract category belonging to the extended functional projection of the prepositional system, often called

Path. It encodes transition/result and can add a layer of meaning to lexical items that otherwise encode

location. Lexical items that instantiate this function give information about a trajectory and, in the case of

those with a bounded goal denotation, create a resultative reading (see Koopman 2000; den Dikken 2010;

Folli and Ramchand 2005; Son 2007; Son and Svenonius 2008, among others). We propose that Path in

Early Latin is lexicalized by a null prefix with a bounded goal denotation, which permits the rich stock of

Latin locative prepositions to also function as Path-denoting prefixes. We assume that the null Path head

triggers incorporation of the lower Place head, and then this complex, with the morphological

specification of a prefix, incorporates into the verb.19 A structure such as that in (23) would derive the

Path prefix from a locative preposition, accounting for the pairs in Table 1. To illustrate, we use the Latin

sentence in (2b) as an example. The Ground, here realized as pro, is coindexed with vulnus wound.

(23) 3
V PathP
3 3
Path V DP 3
3 ters- cruore Path PlaceP
Place Path 3 3
abs - Place Path DP 3
abs - cruore Place DP
abs proi

As the sound-meaning relationship is lost between the locative prepositions and their directional prefix

counterparts, so is the derivational relationship. This loss produces a new system in Late Latin and

Medieval French where the prefixes are reanalyzed as dedicated Path morphemes, a classic case of

19
Although our assumptions about head movement differ, the present account is in essence very similar to that proposed in

Acedo-Matelln (2010). We adopt a theory of head movement along the lines of Bakers (1988) P-incorporation, which frames

Latin verbal prefixation as the result of a property of a lexical item. Acedo-Matelln, on the other hand, treats the prefixation as

the presence of a broader PF operation involving lowering of v to Path.

grammaticalization, where internal merge is reanalyzed as external merge, as described in Roberts and

Roussou (2003). This process is shown in (24).

(24) a. Early Latin derived Path prefixes b. Medieval French Path prefixes

3 3
Path Place P Path PlaceP
2 3 a-
Place Path 3 de-
ad - Place e(s)-
de ad
ex de
ex

In addition to the Path preverbs, the data suggest the presence of a null non-prefixal Path morpheme into

which a locative preposition would incorporate, deriving the directional meaning of many simple

prepositions in Medieval French (25a) and licensing verb particles (25b).

(25) a. Medieval French prepositions with Path interpretation20

3
Path PlaceP
2 3
Place Path 3
a Place (DP)
sur a
en sur
hors en
hors

20
This system should allow robust occurrences of goal-of-motion constructions with strictly manner of motion verbs as we see

in English (i.e. wiggle, spin, etc.); however, we have only been able to identify goal-of-motion with manner verbs that

themselves imply translative movement. A potential problem with this proposal, therefore, is that it is not constrained enough.
 b. Medieval French Path particle 21

See (17c): et le reversa jus a terre and knocked him down to the ground

DirP
3
PP 3
jus Dir PathP
3
DP 3
Path PlaceP
2 3
Place Path DP 3
Place DP
terre

We tentatively suggest that the erosion of the Latin prefix system (concretely, the loss of incorporation)

naturally lead to the development of a non-prefixal null Path (shown above). By Late Latin, the semantic

bleaching of some prefixes produced variable input so that prefixed verbs occur in both telic and atelic

contexts; recall the brief discussion in section 4.1 of tacui/conticui and edo/comedo. Applied to manner-

of-motion verbs, we contend that such variable input would lead the child learner to analyze the source of

the telic interpretation as the preposition, not the preverb.22 For example, accourir to run quickly to a

destination occurs in telic goal-of-motion constructions as expected; two examples of this are given in

(26).

(26) a. et y fu tantos acourus, car il n'i a que quatre liewes.

and there AUX immediately to.run for it NEG-there has that four leagues

and he immediately ran there, for it was only four leagues away.

(Froissart, Chron. R., VIII, c.1375-1400, 108; DMF)

21
Following Svenonius (2010); although not shown here, would conceivably also raise to lexicalize Diro.
22
Although our discussion and examples come from Medieval French, the reanalysis we suggest likely occurred much earlier.

Already in Late Latin there is confusion between prefixed and non-prefixed forms as described in Haverling (2003) and more

extensively in Haverling (2000). Moreover, Iacobini (2009) offers examples of prefixed manner-of-motion verbs from Late

Latin that occur with particles that reinforce the meaning of the prefix; see (15).
 b. environ l'eure de sept heures au matin, [] vindrent et acoururent

around the-hour of seven hours at.the morning came and to.ran

dedens les trenches de ladicte ville grant quantit desdiz Bourguignons

inside the ditches of the.said city great quantity of.said Burgundians

at around the time of seven oclock in the morning, [] a great number of Burgundians came

and ran quickly into the trenches of the said city

(Roye, Chron. Scand., I, 1460-1483, 275; DMF)

In addition, however, accourir comes to also be used to simply express manner: to run quickly, to hasten.

The Godefroy, for example, points out that the present participle, acorrant, used as a noun modifier

simply means fast:

(27) Et beles armes et acorranz destriers

and beautiful weaponry and fast horses

(Garin, ms. Dijon, fo 3d; Dictionnaire de lancienne langue franaise)

Similarly, the prefix a- does not contribute a telic meaning in example (28), in which the hero, Huon,

looks back to see the Saracens pursuing him. The verb accourir here can only refer to an atelic event.

(28) Quant Hulin voit payens aprs luy acourir

when Huon sees pagans after him run.INF

When Huon sees the pagans quickly pursuing him

(Huon Bordeaux B., c.1400-1450, 211; DMF)

The use of the verb accourir to simply mean rush or run quickly are numerous, particularly in the

present participle form when used to modify a directional verb, as shown in (29).

(29) et vint acourant par grant ire vers le cerf,

and came running by great anger toward the deer

and in great anger it came rushing toward the deer,

(Chev. papegau H., c.1400-1500, 84; DMF)

 To reconcile this variable use, we suggest that the child learner would have analyzed a prefixed verb

like accourir as an atelic manner verb based on uses like those in (28) and (29). This would drive the

parse for a goal-of-motion construction, such as those in (26), to involve Path located in the prepositional

phrase not the prefix , and would require a null Path morpheme, as shown in (25a).

Of course, not all prefixed verbs were reanalyzed as manner verbs, but we propose that enough

relatively high frequency manner-of-motion verbs like accourir, avoler, attroter, achevaucher, etc. were

used in enough atelic contexts to trigger a Path-in-preposition parse. The appearance of the non-prefixal

null Path and the resultative secondary predication constructions that it entails would therefore be the

result of the variable use of possibly only a handful of high frequency prefixed manner-of-motion verbs.

The Modern French system has neither productive Path preverbs from Latin nor the null Path that

permitted the satellite-framed innovations in Medieval French. This verb-framed system is the

culmination of the centuries-long reanalysis of the preverbs contribution to the telic interpretation of the

verb phrase as a contribution derived from the idiosyncratic meaning of the verb root itself. But if it is

relatively clear how the telicizing preverb system gradually disappears, it is not so for the system

illustrated in (26), which rapidly becomes obsolete by the 16th century. We think that the loss of null Path,

which underlies the bare goal-of-motion and verb particle constructions, is linked to the definitive loss of

the Medieval French preverbs. If the system in (26) arises out of the variable use of prefixed manner of

motion verbs, as we have proposed, then the loss of this variation may entail the end of the grammar that

produces the new constructions. For example, a great many prefixed verbs disappear as each prefix loses

productivity. This holds for manner-of-motion verbs with variable telic and atelic uses such as attroter and

avoler. Meanwhile, the prefixed manner-of-motion verbs that remain are reanalyzed as inherently telic

(accourir to run up and affluer to flow in, for example), resulting in an unambiguous Path-in-verb

analysis.

6. Theoretical implications

The present study examines changes in the syntactic expression of events involving features related to

event composition within the vP. From a diachronic point of view, this kind of change has been little

explored; studies in generative diachronic syntax have tended to focus on word-order changes where the

analysis concerns categories and features found within the extended IP and CP domains. As we have

emphasized, it is widely accepted that changes involving event structure, such as shifts from s-framed to

v-framed or visa versa, occur gradually over very long periods of time. Our study seeks to challenge and

qualify this description, demonstrating that, in some cases, gradual drift is but a mere impression. We have

shown that there is no gradual unfolding of a v-framed language from a s-framed one, but rather an

evolution punctuated by a new system, which then disappears rather abruptly during the fifteenth century.

Only a theory that appeals to abstract grammatical formatives can really explain why this occurs. Within

such a theoretical framework, we have attributed the loss of the intermediate s-framed system to the

reanalysis of telecizing verbal prefixes and the properties of a null element in Path, which encodes

transition/result.

It is clear that the reanalysis of the Latin directional/aspectual prefixes is gradual and unrelenting; the

slow and steady loss of the Path preverbs drives the shift toward a v-framed grammar, but as this happens,

a dramatic development occurs, which, we claim, is contingent on the semantic bleaching of the preverbs.

The variable use of prefixed manner-of-motion verbs causes a new grammar to emerge, one that includes

a null Path morpheme, which itself underlies a cluster syntactic innovations associated with resultative

secondary predication. This new grammar, however, is short lived. Once the Medieval French preverb

system is lost and the prefixes are reanalyzed as an inseparable part of the verbal root, the variable use of

prefixed manner-of-motion verbs is lost too, the cue, we claim, for null Path. The s-framed grammar

disappears as a consequence. The kind of change we observe here is thus in line with Lightfoots (1999,

2006) well-known arguments that a shift in the distribution of cues has significant consequences for the
abstract system, and further, that certain abstract changes in the grammar spread rapidly through a

population of speakers.

Our claim is therefore that changes at the syntax-semantics interface involving event structure proceed

in much the same way as they do in the IP or CP domains; the reanalysis of functional morphemes or the

non instantiation of a functional head may entail the same kind of dramatic reflexes regardless of its type.

We also attempt to show that a fine-grained analysis of the grammatical formatives involved in event

composition can account for the development of intermediate microsystems that fall outside broad

typological descriptions.

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