Towards a grammar of parenthetical constituentsSynchronic and diachronic aspects of the Old Irish extraclausal noun phrases

Resumen

This paper argues that a number of Old Irish parenthetical noun phrases (NPs) constitute a theoretically coherent set for which a certain paradigmatic consistency can be assumed. These NPs, which will be termed extraclausal NPs in this paper, are dislocated Focus, dislocated Topic, Reported Speaker and Vocative NPs. These NPs are regulated by some positional rules and are related to syntactic constituents (namely, to pronominal references) in the intraclausal domain. To some extent, these extraclausal NPs can be viewed as constituents added or attached to the aforementioned intraclausal pronominal references. An important aspect of these Old Irish extraclausal NPs is the amount of diachronic innovations which they involve, namely, the distinction of a vocative plural case in some inflectional classes and the creation of the specific constituent called Reported Speaker. From a diachronic viewpoint, Old Irish reveals a certain effort, so-to-speak, to distinguish a given set of pragmatic functions that are usually attributed to parenthetical elements. In this regard, it is also important that the specific changes leading to these innovations are based most frequently on the functional affinities and contrasts between those constituents, as well as on the positional rules that can be observed.