The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

Changes in infinitival constructions 243c. Over hondert milen daer wetic enen wilden wenen . . .over hundred miles there know-I a wilden live‘I know [by experience] where a wild man lives a hundred miles away’(Wal. 5938, MNW IX: 2383)These native AcI’s are recognizable (as in Old English; cf. 7.2.2) by the natureof the matrix verb (perception verbs and causatives); the absence of te (thecognate of to) preceding the infinitive; the frequent preference for the presentparticiple over the infinitive; the presence (usually) of a locative phrase; thesimultaneity of the actions expressed by the matrix verb and the infinitive; andthe concreteness of the activity expressed by the infinitive. Note that (34c) withthe matrix verb weten (a cognate of OE witan) is similar to the OE witan examplesdiscussed in (18). When we look at some of the Latinate AcIs found inMiddle Dutch, as in (35), we see that these indeed do not share the abovecharacteristics.(35) a. Si vinden di te wesen een haven des vreden‘They find you to be a harbour of (the) peace’ (Stoett 1923: 137)b. Een jonglinc dien wi horen geboren zijn van Ragusiaa youth whom we hear born be from Ragusa‘A youth of whom we hear that he was born in Ragusa’(Stoett 1923: 136; also in Duinhoven 1991: Franc 8637)c. Si kennen di te sijn die camer eens machtigen meestersthey know you to be the servant of-a powerful master‘They know that you are the servant of a powerful lord’(Stoett 1923: 129)In these examples the infinitive is usually preceded by te; it does not conveyany concrete activity (in fact, the verb usually is the Dutch equivalent of tobe); present participle constructions are as good as absent; and when a perceptionverb is used, as in (35b), the action expressed in the infinitive is not perceivableand not in the same temporal frame as the matrix verb. In otherwords, the two types seem to be structurally different.The same is true for the AcI examples from seventeenth-century Dutch. Inthe data examined, there is a sharp division between the native AcIs, which arevery common, and the Latinate AcIs, which are rare. What is striking in theLatinate examples from both Middle and Renaissance Dutch is that thefactors identified by Warner (1982) for AcIs in Middle English are observedhere too. Warner found that the AcI occurs very often in constructions thatshow a ‘minimal alteration’ of existing structures. Thus, it occurs often inconstructions in which the accusative NP has been moved (e.g. in passiveconstructions like (36d), cases of topicalization or heavy NP movement as in