The history of pronominal subjects in the languages of northern Europe

这个项目着眼于主语代词（“我”、“她”、“他们”），以及它们的形式和功能如何随着时间的推移而变化。语言创造了新的代词（“she”和“they”都不是直接来自古英语）。代词的用法各不相同：“She and I both left”（两个代词配合使用）在英语中很好，但在法语中无法直译。因此，代词可以从一种模式转变为另一种模式：在这个例子中，法语曾经更像英语，人们通常认为法语代词在某种意义上变得“弱”，导致了这种变化。有些语言允许省略代词：“我说意大利语”在意大利语中是“Parlo italiano”，没有与“I”对应的单词（“Parlo”结尾的“- o”表示主语）。一种语言是否可以省略代词是可以改变的：法语在这方面曾经更像意大利语，现在更像英语了。即使在意大利语中，有时也会使用代词。一个代词何时合适取决于复杂的因素，例如，与当前讨论的主题有关，以及上一次被提及的时间。这些规则也会随着时间的推移而改变。这个项目旨在回答的核心问题是，主语代词是如何以及为什么随着时间的推移而变化的。为了做到这一点，我们深入研究了北欧三个语言群体的主语代词历史：凯尔特语（威尔士语、爱尔兰语、布列塔尼语等）、斯拉夫语（俄语、波兰语、保加利亚语等）和日耳曼语（英语、德语、荷兰语等）。虽然日耳曼语在这方面的研究相对较好，但斯拉夫语的工作发展得不太好，许多问题仍未得到解答，而凯尔特人的相关工作仍处于起步阶段。我们从这些语言的历史中对历史文本进行注释，以确定过去发现的模式。然后，我们试图在现有方法的背景下解释这些模式和变化，例如代词经历弱化和替代的循环，或者主语的省略与动词的不同形式的数量或语言词序的各个方面有关。通过这种方式，我们希望既能阐明被调查语言的历史，也能解决更广泛的问题，即代词系统和语言如何以及为什么会随着时间的推移而变化。

This project looks at subject pronouns ('I', 'she', 'they') and how their form and functions change over time. Languages create new pronouns (neither 'she' nor 'they' are directly descended from Old English). The ways pronouns are used can vary: 'She and I both left' (with coordination of two pronouns) is fine in English but its literal translation is not possible in French. Hence, pronouns can change from one pattern to the other: French used to be more like English in this example, and it is usually thought that French pronouns have in some sense become 'weaker', leading to this change. Some languages allow pronouns to be omitted: 'I speak Italian' is 'Parlo italiano' in Italian, with no word corresponding to 'I' (the '- o' ending of 'parlo' indicates the subject). Whether a language can omit pronouns can change: French was once more like Italian in this respect and has become more like English. Even in Italian, pronouns are sometimes used. When a pronoun is appropriate depends on complex factors, for instance, to do with what is the current topic of discussion and when it was last mentioned. These rules too can change over time. The central question that this project aims to answer is how and why so much to do with subject pronouns is variable over time. We do this by looking in-depth at the history of subject pronouns in three language groups broadly speaking spanning northern Europe: Celtic (Welsh, Irish, Breton etc.), Slavonic (Russian, Polish, Bulgarian etc.) and Germanic (English, German, Dutch etc.). While Germanic is relatively well studied in this regard, work on Slavonic is less well-developed and many questions remain unanswered, and relevant work on Celtic is still in its infancy. We annotate historical texts from the history of these languages to establish what patterns were found in the past. We then try to explain the patterns and changes against the background of existing approaches, such as the idea that pronouns undergo a cycle of weakening and replacement or that omission of subjects is linked to the number of different forms a verb has or to aspects of a language's word order. In this way, we hope both to shed light on the histories of the languages under investigation and to address broader questions about how and why pronominal systems and language in general change over time.