The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

244 The syntax of early English(36a) or wh-movement as in (35b) and (36c)), and as an expansion of a NPPREDICATE construction by means of the verb sijn/wesen ‘to be’, as in (35a,c) and (36b, c). 19 Some examples showing these parameters from RenaissanceDutch are given in (36).(36) a. In dus een zee van zorgen, vernam zij, onder ‘t volk gezaaidin thus a sea of worries perceived she under the people sownte zijn zeker boek, getiteld . . .to be certain book entitled‘Thus surrounded by worries, she learned that a certain book, entitled . . .had been dispersed among the people’(Hooft Historien a.1581, Nijhoff 1947 [1978]: 311)b. Men waande hen opgeruid te zijn door Rennenbergh . . .one [people] considered them instigated to be by Rennenbergh‘They were considered to be instigated by Rennenbergh . . .’(Hooft Historien, Nijhoff 1947 [1978]: 269)c. ‘T geen ghy in andren meynt bestraffelijck te wesenwhich you in others think punishable to be‘Which you consider to deserve punishment in others’(van Helten 1883: 53)d. Al hunne goederen werden verklaard, aan den koning, vervallen teall their goods weredn declared to the king forfeited tozijnbe‘All their goods were declared to be the property of the king’(Hooft Historien, Nijhoff 1947 [1978]: 79)The Latinate AcI is frequent in two other types of syntactic constructions. Inthe first, the ‘accusative’ NP is a reflexive pronoun (37a). This was also foundby Warner (1982: 144), but not considered to be significant since it onlyoccurred with two verbs. The second is a construction with men, as in (37b, c)and also (36b), and is not found in Middle English, since Old English man had,by late Middle English, been replaced mainly by passives.(37) a. Den 1 May gisten ons ontrent 8 mylen buyten de Oostelyckstethe 1st May guessed us about 8 miles outside the most-easterneylanden van Macou te wesenislands of Macou to be‘The 1st of May [we] guessed (ourselves) to be about 8 miles away fromthe most eastern isles of Macou’ (Bontekoe 88/23, Overdiep 1935: 408)b. Men kan immers niet gelooven al gantsch Israel soo puyr sot‘Man’ can indeed not believe all whole Israel soo pure foolishte zijn gheweestto be been19For more details, see tables 1 and 2 in Fischer (1994b).