On, Se and related valency alternations in Medieval French

Abstract

This article explores the question of why Medieval French does not use se -constructions as exhaustively as other Medieval Romance varieties and why the indefinite pronoun on is clearly the preferred choice. It is claimed that se exhibits affix-like behavior in passive constructions and that it is very likely to be a morphological exponent of absorbing the [+Def] feature on T in IACs. These assumptions are connected to the possibility within a language system to store affixes as independent lexical entries, following Speas, 1995 . It will be shown that Medieval French seems to be a language system in flux in which signs of NSL > non-NSL were present over a longer period of time. The uncertain status of affixes within these radical changes would have prompted learners to go for a multifunctional solution that is readily available and unequivocally identifiable: on .