The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

Verb–particles in Old and Middle English 201There are also a few cases where what appears to be a particle precedes anadverb rather than the verb. Examples are given in (39):(39) a. swa eac se e ut wel lær mid his wordum, he onfehso also he who out well teaches with his words he receivesinnan æs inngeonces fæstnesse, æt is wisdomin of-the of-mind fastness that is wisdom‘so also, he who externally teaches well with his words, shall receiveinternally firmness of mind, that is, wisdom’ (CP 49.381.4)b. 7 geseoh æt u ut onon ne gongeand see that you out thence not go‘and see that you do not go away from there’ (Bede 3.10.186.26)c. Ah in dagunge he eft acuicode 7 semninga up heh asætbut at dawn he again revived and suddenly up high sat‘But at dawn he revived again and suddenly sat up straight’(Bede 5.13.422.28)d. and a mam-fatu æs temples ungerime . . . mid orumand the costly-vessels of-the of-temple innumerable with othergoldhordum for samod ferodontreasures forth at-the-same-time carried‘and carried the innumerable costly vessels of the temple . . . away at thesame time’ (ÆCHom II, 4.36.218)From the context of (39a) it is clear that we should interpret ut as a straightforwardadverb and not as part of a verbparticle combination, as a contrast ismade here between ut ‘externally’ and innan ‘internally’. In (39b) ut can reasonablybe interpreted as modifying onon ‘thence’; a similar combination isfound in Bede 5.5.398.3. For the case in (39c), it is to be noted that three outof the four other manuscripts of Bede omit heh altogether from this sentence.Finally, one other manuscript has samod mid him in (39d).We may conclude this section, then, by observing that the Old Englishdata support the generalization that the position of the particle is to the leftof the verb, where it is stranded when V-movement obtains; if we follow theuniversal VO base hypothesis, the particle can be said to be in its checkingposition Pred. Let us now look at the distribution of particles in MiddleEnglish.6.7 Particles in Middle EnglishThe surface word order patterns of Middle English are predominantlyVO but, as we saw in chapter 5, OV survived as a minority patternfor a long time. Some early Middle English texts, such as the VespasianHomilies, are assumed to be modernizations of Old English texts, and they