So that in Clauses of Result and Purpose in Middle English Jerzy Nykiel University of Bergen, Norway ABSTRACT: The subordinator so that is known to function as a subordinator of finite clauses of purpose and finite clauses of result both in Present-day English and throughout the history of English. I argue in this study that the pairing of these two functions in one subordinator is nowhere near a coincidence and that the result function of so that chronologically precedes the purpose function. Much focus is placed on the ambiguous contexts between clauses of result and purpose. The ME data analyzed in this study shows that there are two types of so that clauses ambiguous between result and purpose. Ultimately, this ambiguity facilitates reanalysis of the result subordinator so that as a purpose subordinator so that. KEYWORDS: adverbial clause, subordinator, result, purpose, grammaticalization 1. Introduction It is well known that the subordinator so that has a dual function as a subordinator in Present-day English in that it can introduce both finite clauses of result and finite clauses of purpose. Examples in (1) illustrate this polyfunctionality of so that with (1a) showing a clause of result and (1b) showing a clause of purpose. (1) (a) We paid him immediately so that he left contented. (b) W e paid him immediately so that he would leave contented. (examples adapted from Quirk et al. 1985: 1108) That one subordinator serves these two functions is also quite common cross-linguistically as shown by Schmidtke-Bode (2009: 152f.). In the sample of 80 languages used in his study, purpose markers are most commonly identical with markers of result and reason/cause. As a consequence, in order to distinguish between the two types of clauses, clauses of purpose often display some overt mood specification, unlike result clauses. The purpose clause in (1b) is also overtly marked for mood through the use of the modal verb would.
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