Historical morphosyntax of Scots

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is intended to provide an analysis of the morphosyntactic nature of Scots across time. From the beginning, however, awareness that more research is needed to give a full sense of all phenomena. At the same time, discussion of the many similarities and marked dissimilarities between English and Scots in relation to this field is ongoing. Recent changes, such as the spread of second person plural youse, are considered sociolinguistically. The ‘hiatus’ in the use of written Scots from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth centuries is brought into focus in relation to the Middle Scots use of plural-marked adjectives and the means of demonstrating verb–subject concord.