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

uns as follows:
(His grete ost it ne ±i) (KA 4108).
The object of the finite verb is preposed here. Furthermore, the
following example in Ferumbras, which also illustrates this condition,
is also the only uncontracted form of witen in the text:
Je fairnesse Jar-of no man ne wot : to telle it al on sonder
(rerumbras 1698).
These four examples, 2 ° however, account for only a small portion
of the large number of uncontracted forms in the seven texts listed
above (80 examples). 21One notable point of the above examples is
that all illustrate the case in which the finite verb is located at the
end of a line and three of them (except for the example in
Ferumbras) are at the clause-final position as well. Blockley (1988:
440-2) suggests that clause-final position tends to provide
uncontracted forms owing to the fact that it is a place where clausal
complements tend to be unexpressed. As far as the seven ME texts
in question are concerned, however, the clause-meOial position snows
a higher proportion of uncontracted forms (about six percent) than
the clause-final position does (roughly three percent). The issue is
20 Apart from the four examples in PM (Dgb), Kil, KA, and
Ferumbras, examples also occur in texts where uncontracted forms
are more common than contracted ones. G&E, for instance, provides
the following examples:
For he wió hire ne wulde speken,
Ghe 6henke on him for to ben wreken (G&E 2027-8)
In here teld he stonden a-gen
Moyses, and v[t] ne wulde gon (G&E 3769-70).
The following are examples in CA:
Bot he the sothe noght forthi
Ne wiste, and ther was sorwe tho (CA 94/2150-1)
And feigneth as he noght ne wiste (CA 95/2197).
21 Forms of have in KA are excluded, since they present a
distinctive preference for uncontracted forms, as discussed above.
230