A Comparative Syntax of Verbs in Shakespeare and Modern English

FAIN: FT-10746-70

Michael J. Capek
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA 02139-4307)

Comparative study of verb syntax (placement and sentence structure) in Shakespeare and modern English using the methods of transformational grammar. According to transformational grammar, two sentences--for example "I know you what you are" (King Lear) and "I know what you are"--have the same meaning if, even though the surface structures of the two sentences are different, both have the same deep structure. The difference between the two surface structures results from the fact that a transformation, in this case one involving deletion, has been applied to the second sentence but not the first. While this transformation is necessary in modern English, it was optional in Elizabethan times.