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

P fader me for-bed al-so : Pat for Jyng Pat mi3te be-falle
Pat to no man ne schold y e dore v?ido : with hymen to
speke or calle
(Ferumbras 1230-1).
The main clause provides me as a verbal complement, but something
which is hindered or prevented from me is not available as a
constituent of the main clause. Thus the semantic requirement of the
verb for-bed is not fulfified. The above is a construction which
shows the intermediate stage between the constructions whose verbal
complements are non-finite and finite. One of the necessary
complements takes the form of a main-clause constituent, whereas the
other complement is expressed in the form of a subordinate clause.
The redundancy of the complement which presses 'someone to be
hindered or prevented from doing something' occurs, but this is
simply because the second complement occurs as a finite clause which
usually, though not always, takes an expressed subject. 6 Thus the
J-clause of the above example (Ferumbras 1230-1) is nominal rather
than consecutive, and negation in it is pleonastic. Examples of this
type are consistently cited in the above list.
Thet e is another case in which -clauses involved may better
be understood as nominal rather than consecutive and the negative
elements in them are therefore pleonastic. Some illustrative examples
are:
Wy he god for-bode hyt 30w
Pet 3e ne mote
Eten of al at frut at hys
Here growynde in paradys
To 3oure bote? (WS 152/656-60)
So that it myhte noght be let
For yifte ne for no beheste,
That sche ne was al at his heste (CA 133/128-30).
6 The omission of the subject in -clauses is pointed out by
Smithers (1987: 112). His statement 'what sets the consecutive force
of the subordinate clause beyond doubt is the presence of an
expressed subject' may not always be true as the counterexample
illustrated above (Ferumbras 1230-1) suggests, however.
287