Yoko Iyieri PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText - University ...

(1963-73, III: 1440) in fact notices that examples are for the most
part observed in poetry even in early MnE. Thus it may simply be a
phenomenon most typically found in verse texts both in ME and in
early MnE. There are, however, some sporadic examp]es at
clause-medial positions. Examples include:
"Sais jou soth?" "yaa, sa mot i the,
And if Jat J)ou noght traues me,
Rise up and come Ji-self and se" (CM 5150-2)
Jan spak Naymes and sayde, "nay, Certis, syre, Jov no3t
ne jj
Gon out of oure ferede"
(Ferumbras 3467-8)
May I saffly wone ther aye,
That ye wythe werre not come me on?
(SMA 2446-7)
Examples also occur in alliterative verse:
And syjen Jis note is so nys Jat no3t hit yow falles
(GGK 358)
Syn ye haue tarit ouer tyme tomly at home,
And noght hastid with harme your hething to wenge
(PT 4580-1).
Secondly, the intervention of pronominal objects between the
finite verb and not is to be dealt with. More than 60% of the
examples of not which does not occur directly after the finite verb
(304/489) belong to this group. Sonic illustrative examples are:
He tok horn his clojes,
Pat nere him no3t loJe (KH 1059_60)18
Slep wel faste and dred J nouth-- (Havelok 662)
Oure godes ne helpej us no3t . Jat alle habbel to wolde
(SEL 29/127)
You kissed me noht sin I corn inc (EMH 18/23)
Dc .x. comen, for nede sogt,
To losep, and he ne knewen him nogt (G&E 2161-2)
18 The present example yields a pronominal object in the dative
case. All the other examples present a pronorninal object in the
accusative case as far as the present study is concerned.
94