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

Of his bodi ne hauede he eyr
Bute a mayden swije fayr (Havelok 110-11).
Thus clauses with ne but 'only' and clauses with but 'except' present
almost complementary features in terms of the occurrence of never,
no, etc. They are almost entirely avoided in the former, while they
are most freely and frequently employed in the latter. This suggests
the possibility that but when combined with never, no, etc. tends to
have the meaning 'except' and when not linked with never, no, etc.
tends to have the meaning 'only'. In fact, the meaning 'only'
presented by the collocation ne but is not entirely irrelevant to the
original meaning of but 'except'. Burnley (1983: 73-5) interests
himself in the phrase I nam but deed in Chaucer's English, which is
often rendered 'I am only dead'. He refers to the original sense of
but 'except' and concludes that the phrase should be understood as
'I am not other than dead'. As I understand it, the collocation ne
but 'only' is a special case that derives from the original meaning of
but 'except' especially when but is not followed by a complement
noun and but therefore functions as an adverb.
3.2.5. J-clauses dependent upon a negative or an interrogative
clause
While the present syntactic condition has not been discussed in
relation to early ME, it tends to yield ne rather than ne ... not and
not as far as later ME prose is concerned (Jack 1978c: 60 and 63).
There are some further relevant studies which particularly
investigate Chaucer's English. Kent (1890: 131), for example, remarks
that ne alone is favoured in clauses subordinate to a negative clause
in Chaucer. Baghdikian (1979: 676) makes an argument to the effect,
although she deals especially with Chaucer's Boece. Neither Kent nor
Baghdikian refers to J-clauses dependent upon an interrogative
clause, however. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales the tendency to
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