The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

usually in the dative, but the accusative occurs too with some verbs (usuallyverbs that are semantically close to causatives). 6What is remarkable about the infinitival constructions that we find in OldEnglish is that they are of two kinds, indicated in (21) by (a) and (b). The (a)examples all have a matrix verb object that controls a PRO subject in theinfinitival clause (i.e. wiht in (21i), scep in (21ii), him in (21iii)). 7 We will referto this type as the ‘subject infinitival’. In the (b) examples, the object of thematrix verb (which controls the PRO subject of the infinitive) is left unexpressed,and the object NP that is present is the object of the infinitive (theseconstructions are often called passival infinitives in the literature; we shall usethe term ‘object-infinitival’ for them). The difference is shown in the followingstructures:(a) NP SV finiteNP Oi[PRO iV infinitive](b) NP SV finite[PRO arbNP OV infinitive]Changes in infinitival constructions 227The infinitive in (b) has an implicit subject with generic interpretation (i.e.‘arbitrary PRO’). Note that the object in (b) regularly precedes the infinitive,as one would expect in subordinate clauses in Old English.We will now consider in detail a corpus of Middle English texts in order tosee what changes occur with respect to these four groups of verbs. The corpusinvestigated consists of around 850,000 words and contains a selection of earlyand late Middle English texts, poetry as well as prose: the Caligula Ms. ofLayamon’s Brut from the second half of the thirteenth century (verse; 75,500words); John Gower’s Confessio Amantis from the late fourteenth century(verse; 207,300 words); the Paston Letters from the last three quarters of thefifteenth century (prose; 235,300 words); and Malory’s Morte Darthur from thethird quarter of the fifteenth century (prose; 336,700 words). 8 The frequency ofthe different types of infinitival complements in these texts is given in table 7.1.The following changes in Middle English are noticeable. The ‘subject-infinitivals’(the (a) examples in (21)) occur with all three groups of verbs and throughoutthe whole period. With some verbs, there is an increase in infinitival6When verbs of group (21iii) are semantically close to causative verbs, they are sometimesfollowed by the bare infinitive that is usual after true causatives,and bead . . . hi up ahon bi an fotumand commanded them up hang by the feet‘and commanded them to be hanged by their feet’(LS 14(Margaret Ass 15) 279)7We are ignoring at this point whether the structure involved is mono- or ditransitive;in both the objects can be functionally subjects, and both constructions can appearin the passival (b) form.8What follows is a summary of the main points of Fischer (1992b).