8. Word order and phrase structure

EModE word order is modern in its basic shape (subject – verb – object), but it allows more movement: the verb can come before the subject after an adverb or a fronted object, an object can stand first, a subject can be announced and then picked up by a pronoun, and noun phrases carry appositions and postposed modifiers that modern prose avoids. The biblical register adds patterns calqued from Hebrew (chapter 11). This chapter lists the orders a parser meets and how UD annotates them.

8.1 Subject–verb inversion in declaratives

EModE inherits from Old English a tendency to put the finite verb second after a fronted adverb (a «verb-second» residue). Abbott 1884, §§420–427 («Transposition») describes the freedom of Elizabethan order, including transposition after emphatic words (§425) and after relatives (§426).

In the db (2026-10-17), the subject follows a lexical VERB head in about 300 declarative cases; the most frequent word before the verb is there (131), then and (32), shall (31: «shall the man be cut off»), thus (14), then (9), therefore (5).

UD. Inversion changes nothing in the tree: the subject is nsubj of the verb, the fronted phrase keeps its relation (obl, obj, advmod). there in there came is expl only if it is the dummy subject; in «And there went a man» it is the dummy (expl), the real subject man is nsubj. In «thus saith the LORD» thus is advmod.

Parser risk. A modern parser expects the first noun phrase to be the subject. «with rooms shalt thou make the ark» → rooms as subject; «Only the land of the priests bought he not» → land as subject. The pronoun case (thou, he nominative) is the reliable cue, and the archaic pronouns are exactly the forms the SLM mis-tags (chapter 3). With thou tagged PRON|Case=Nom, a rule «a nominative pronoun after the finite verb is its subject» is safe.

8.2 Left dislocation and resumptive pronouns

The biblical register (after Hebrew casus pendens) often announces a noun phrase and picks it up with a pronoun:

• «And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock» (jps:GEN:90, GEN 4.4).
• «the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy» (jps:NUM:616, NUM 16.7).
• «that the LORD, He is God» (jps:DEU:147, DEU 4.35).

UD English annotates the dislocated phrase as dislocated attached to the head of the clause, and the resumptive pronoun as nsubj. The db analyses «the LORD, He is God» with LORD as vocative (jps:DEU:147), which is wrong: Moses is not addressing God there. A rule: NP + comma + nominative pronoun agreeing in person and number + finite verb → NP dislocated.

8.3 Noun phrases

Apposition with a possessive

The db makes God the appos of LORD 231 times out of 233 in «the LORD thy God»: consistent. In «Where is Abel thy brother?» the db has brother as appos of Abel — right.

Postposed adjectives and fixed titles

«God Almighty» (6), «the land of Egypt», «the city of Enoch», «a land flowing with milk and honey». The title type God Almighty follows the modern pattern of flat or appos; pick one.

Partitive of

The biblical register uses of + definite noun as a partitive object, with no quantifier: «thou shalt not eat of it», «he took of the stones of the place», «brought of the firstlings» (jps:GEN:90). Counts: eat of 34, take of 26, took of 7, drink of 7.

UD has no partitive case in English; the phrase is an oblique (obl with case = of). The db does this consistently: eat of → obl 32 times, took of → obl 6; take of → obl 20, obj 5 (the 5 are the inconsistent ones). For the world of the text, though, «eat of the tree» means «eat (some fruit) of the tree»: the tree is the source, the eaten thing is implicit. The frame reader needs a rule that turns obl:of after eat, take, drink, give, offer, bring into a partitive object.

Possessive of and construct chains

«the children of Israel» 371, «the face of the deep», «the tree of the knowledge of good and evil». These are ordinary nmod chains, longer than modern ones because they render Hebrew construct chains. They make sentences long and deep; they do not make them hard.

8.4 Double prepositions and adverbial particles

from off: the first preposition is case of the noun, the second also case (UD allows two case dependents) or fixed. The db marks according unto as fixed 15 times — consistent with modern according to.

unto is a plain preposition (ADP, case): 2 339 times in the db, plus 16 fixed, 3 obl, 1 iobj (the last four are errors). unto before a dative object («gave unto him») is still case of an obl, not an iobj: UD English reserves iobj for bare noun phrases.

8.5 Pronoun objects and ethical datives

• Benefactive object pronouns after imperatives: «Make thee an ark» (jps:GEN:163), «get thee into the land of Moriah» (jps:GEN:577), «Take Me a heifer» (jps:GEN:385). Counts: get thee 13, make thee 21, take thee 7.
• I pray thee as a parenthetical politeness formula: «Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister» (jps:GEN:326, GEN 12.13): 52 times. UD: parataxis of the main verb (or discourse if treated as a fixed formula, like modern please).
• Reflexive without -self: «he lay him down», «get thee hence»: the simple pronoun is the reflexive object (obj), and its lemma is the ordinary pronoun.

8.6 Phrasal verbs and separated particles

«Go not down unto Egypt» (jps:GEN:735), «rose up early» (6), «lifted up his eyes» (9), «put off thy shoes». The particle is compound:prt. With not between the verb and the particle, the parser tends to attach not to the particle (chapter 7.4).

8.7 Clause-level patterns

8.8 Order inside the verb group

«thou shalt surely die» (jps:GEN:51, GEN 2.17): adverb between the auxiliary and the verb, as today. «ye shall not surely die» (GEN 3.4) puts not before surely. «I will surely visit you». surely renders a Hebrew infinitive absolute (chapter 11) and is advmod.

8.9 What the parser needs

1. Use the case of the archaic pronoun (thou, ye, he) to find a postposed subject.
2. Attach there in there went/came/was as expl.
3. Re-attach dislocated noun phrases (dislocated) when a resumptive pronoun follows.
4. Keep unto as case and never iobj.
5. Map partitive of after verbs of eating, taking and giving to a partitive role in the frame layer.

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