Abstract
Li and Thompson (1976) classified languages in the world into four types:[+Subject-prominent (+Sp), -Topic-prominent (-Tp)], [-Sp, +Tp], [+Sp, +Tp], and [-Sp, -Tp] languages. And they presented a theory of circular language change as follows:[-Sp, +Tp]>[-Sp, -Tp]>[+ Sp, -Tp]>[+Sp, +Tp]>[-Sp, +Tp]>…If, then, this theory of language change were correct, it would predict that English had passed through the [-Sp, -Tp] stage, since Proto-Indo-European was a [-Sp, +Tp] language and ModE is a typical [+Sp, -Tp] language. One can indeed admit that the process from OE to ModE was the change from the [-Sp, +Tp] stage to the [+Sp, -Tp] stage in which topicprominence decreased and subject-prominence increased gradually. But it is quite doubtful whether English has passed through the stage [-Sp, -Tp]. In this paper, by clarifying the characteristics of the four types of languages and comparing them with those of OE, I will show that English has not passed through the stage [-Sp, -Tp] as their theory predicts, but it has passed through the [+Sp, +Tp] stage.