JUS: A PORTRAIT OF A VERB PARTICLE IN MEDIEVAL FRENCH

Michelle Troberg and Patrycja Wyslobocka

University of Toronto Mississauga, Department of Language Studies

Lexical search of four variants of jus: jus, jos, ju, juz # jus /total words (e-05)

1. What are the syntactic properties of the verb particle jus? Classified by verb, by simple vs coordinated particle vs locution 25
Occurrences of jus (all
2. What is the time course of change of this particle? Over five centuries: 1100-1599 20
readings) begin to decline
Databases: - Textes de Franais Ancien (ARTFL Project) in the 14th c.
- ARTFL-FRANTEXT (ARTFL Project)
15
- Change is abrupt
- - FRANTEXT Moyen Franais (ATILF) 10
Jus is virtually obsolete
5 by the 16c - predominantly
mettre jus and ruer jus in
0
the 16c.
1. Medieval French is a highly restricted satellite-framed language (Troberg 2017).
12c 13c 14c 15c 16c

Locative vs path readings should thus be predicted according to verb meaning;

path readings of jus are restricted to verbs with Path semantics. Path reading - down - limited to verbs denoting a transition: % transition contexts

100
l Change of location/position: (a)baisser, aller, amener, (r)anverser, (r)avaler, 90 Proportion of Path
2. The loss of jus is a reflex of an underlying grammatical change affecting 80 readings is more or less
(re)cheoir, (in)cliner, descendre, devaler, envoyer, mettre, oter, passer, (r) 70
constant over the five
resultative secondary predication more broadly. The time course of change should (a)porter, poser, reculer, tomber, venir; with manner component: bouter, couler, 60
centuries.
50

at the very least pattern with other qualitative and quantitative studies of verb degoter, empeindre, emporter, escouer, espandre, evoquer, glisser, hurter, jeter, 40
The locative (adverbial)
30
particles. The loss of the particle should be abrupt (Lightfoot 1999, 2006). lancer, ruer, sachier, (a)seoir, saillir, sauter, suivre, terdre, tirer, traire, trebucher, 20
uses of jus do not appear
10 to outlast the Path uses or
voler Change of state: (r)(a)battre, (a)craventer, (a)raser, couper, ferir, fletrir, 0 vice versa.
12c 13c 14c 15c 16c

fondre, plier, rere, rogner, trancher, tronconner

(3) par les degrez descendent jus

by the stairs descend.3PL.PRS down
Medieval French particles:ariere back; amont upward; aval downward; they go down by the stairs
avant forward; contremont upward; contreval downward; ens in; fors/ 1. Properties of jus
(Lais, 12c., p.96; TFA)
hors out; jus down; sus up Path readings are restricted to contexts with verbs that denote transition or

Verb particles appear in Late Latin texts and are robustly attested in that optionally have a transition interpretation. Lexcial distribution supports is in

Medieval French. Grammars report particles are obsolete by the 16th century. line with Burnett & Tremblay (2007)
2. Jus merges most frequently as a specifier of DirP with transition verbs and as a
- arrire dramatic decline in frequency in 14th c.; gone by 16c. (BGT 2010)
specifier of DeixP in all other contexts (Svenonius 2010)
Aspectual reading down > off
- avant - dramatic decline in frequency in 15th c.; gone by 16c. (BGT 2010)
3. No evidence of jus or jus de as a preposition (contrary to previous claims)
(completive) with change-of-state verbs
- arrire & avant both decline dramatically in 14th c. (Troberg & Burnett 2017) 4. Jus disappears when transition is expressed via Result-to-v raising (no more
Cognate verb particles are robustly used in varieties of Italian and to lesser extended PP as a resultative secondary predicate)
(4) Le sanc jus de ses plaies tert (Charette, 12c, p.89; TFA )
extents in other Romance varieties. 2. Time course of change
the blood down from his wounds wipes
No previous work on the formal syntax of Medieval French particles jus has disappeared by the 16 c.
he wipes the blood off of his wounds
change begins in the 14 c.
Jus: its unique function is that of a particle. Robustly used. It has completely
(5) li ont jus la tieste cope (Mousket, Chronique. 13c; FRANTEXT) change is abrupt, affects all uses of jus (constant rate effect?)
disappeared from the lexicon. Relatively easy to study.
him AUX down the head cut
Lexical distribution of particles (Burnett & Tremblay 2009) they have cut his head off
- Locative interpretation: restricted to predicational environments
- Directional interpretation: restricted to locative or motion verbs
Locative reading below/down in all other contexts.
- Aspectual interpretation: all other verbs
BURIDANT, C. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de lancien franais. Sedes.; BURNETT, H, G.
Jus (and other verb particles) are phrasal (8) Guiburc le guarde jus a la terre;
GAUTHIER, & M. TREMBLAY. 2010. La perte des particules arrire et avant en franais
G him looks down at the ground medieval: tude quantitative. In F. Neveu et al. (eds.) Congrs Mondial de
(1) Jus descendirent (topicalised)
down descend.3.PL.PST G. looks at him down on the ground; Linguistique Franaise 2010.; BURNETT, H. & M. TREMBLAY. 2009. Variable-behaviour Ps
Down they went and the Location of PATH in Old French. In Enoch Aboh et al. (eds.), Romance
(Guillaume, 12c, p.56; TFA)
(Moniage Guillaume 1, 1150, p. 29) Languages and Linguistic Theory 2007. Benjamins.; Svenonius 2010. Spatial P in
English, in G. Cinque &L. Rizzi (eds), Mapping spatial PPs. OUP.; TROBERG, M. & H.
(2) Sa lance lessa jus cheoir (scrambled) BURNETT. 2017. From Latin to Modern French: A Punctuated Shift. In E. Mathieu &
his sword let down fall R. Truswell, From Micro-change to Macro-change. OUP.; TROBERG, M. 2017.
He let his sword fall down Adpositions of Result in Medieval French, Paper given at Morphosyntactic
(Brut, 1155, p.124) Variation in Adpositions, Cambridge University, UK. May 8-9.