No question: lexicalization and grammaticalization processes in the development of modal qualifier meanings

3. The lexicalization and grammaticalization of clauses with no question

3.1. Middle English (1150-1500)

The earliest examples in which question is followed by a complement are from Middle English, occurring between 1350 and 1420. They are all instances of a now obsolete composite predicate make + question. which meant ‘put a question’, ‘ask’ (OED XIII: 47). The different determiners that could precede question, a, Ø, this, show that this was a semi-fixed idiom. It started out taking prepositional phrase complements, e.g. (6), but, from 1420 on, the predicate is also attested with clausal complements, as in (7).

(6) And Joon was not git sent in to prisoun. Therfor a questioun was maad of Jonys disciples with the Jewis, of the purificatioun. (PPCME, 1350-1420)

(7) And tei tat were gadered to go with him, if tei mad question to what entent tei schuld rise, ... (PPCME, 1420-1500)

We view the formation of this composite predicate as lexicalization in the sense of the conventionalized association of a specific sense with a combination of words at the level of the lexicon (Blank 2001: 1603). Make a/Ø question behaves as a lexical item in that its meaning ‘ask’ constrains the complements it can take: either of / about + NP (6) or indirectly reported question (7). It is also ‘addressable’ as the main point of the utterance, e.g. was a question really made of the purification? (6). This is, as argued by Boye & Harder (2007: 581-585), characteristic of the lexical use of complement-taking predicates and correlates with its primary information status in discourse usage.

3.2. Early Modern English (1500-1710)

In Early Modern English, the composite predicate make a/Ø question developed another meaning. Example (8) can still be interpreted as the President asking questions about the Earl of Ormond’s Liberties, but also, in the light of the contextual clue bringe the Liberties into dispute, as ‘calling the Erle’s liberties into question’. In other words, (8) is a bridging context in which we see make question develop the meaning of ‘challenge’.

(8) But the President tooke it in ill Part, and wrote a sharpe Letter … unto the Erle’s Officers ... wherein he did sharpely reprend them, ... that being learned and wise, would bringe the Liberties into dispute, by making of undue Excuses. He did assure them that he had not byn yet of Mynd to make any Question of the Erle of Ormonds Liberties; (PPCEME, 1570-1640)

Also in the Early Modern English period, between 1500 and 1570, the first existential examples occur. They contain different verbs besides be, e.g. arise in (9) and be proponed in (10), but all describe that ‘a question was asked’. These existential expressions have the same two complementation types as make Ø/a question in its ‘ask’ sense: either a prepositional phrase, as in (9), or a reported question, as in (10).

(9) And ther arose a question bitwene Iohns disciplines and the Iewes a bout purifiynge. (PPCEME, 1500-1570)

(10) After this were there certaine questions among his councell proponed, whether the king needed in case to have any scruple at all, and if he had, what way were best to be taken to deliver him of it. (PPCEME, 1500-1570)

We view these semi-fixed phrases as lexicalizations for the same reasons as adduced for make Ø/a question in section 3.1, i.e. their sanctioning of specific complements and their primary discourse status.

As was the case with make Ø/a question, the existential expressions also shifted to a different meaning, illustrated in (11), where there hath ben question of his safty means ‘his safety had been at stake’. In examples like (11) we see the emergence of there be question as a semi-fixed idiom meaning ‘be at issue’, which has persisted into Present-day English.

(11) considering how many of ours, wee haue sacrificed for his sake, and how little wee haue weighed Vtility, when there hath ben question of his safty. (PPCEME, 1570-1640)

4.3. Late Modern English (1710-1920)

It is in the Late Modern English period that the clausal structures with question begin to occur with some frequency. Table 1 gives the occurrences and relative frequencies of the three structure types for the three historical periods. It shows that the Late Modern English data turned up 139 tokens as opposed to 7 in Early Modern English.