The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

276 The syntax of early Englishduring the period when (68) did not exist yet. Afterwards, a wh-analysis as in(69) and (70) might be more plausible. In the following section, we come backto this issue.Our late Middle English data show one more innovation in the ‘easy-toplease’construction, at about the same time that examples with prepositionstranding start appearing. This innovation involves the use of a morphologicallypassive infinitive; (71) is an example. Note that it features an adjective inthe superlative (hardest), which is one of the contexts in which many of theexamples with a passive infinitive are found (see Fischer 1991 for further discussion).(71) e blakc of e ye . . . is . . . hardest to be helidthe black of the eye is ... hardest to be healed‘the black of the eye is hardest to cure’(Trevisa De Proprietatibus Rerum 42a/b)The occurrence of such sentences seems to indicate that in late MiddleEnglish, ‘easy-to-please’ could be due to either wh-movement, as is unambiguouslythe case in (68), or NP-movement, as the use of the passive infinitive in(71) suggests. For (71), the structure could be as in (72), where the main clausesubject has been NP-moved from its underlying object position in theinfinitival clause.(72) e blak iis hardest [ IPt i[ VPto be helid t i]]We saw above that Middle English allows preposition stranding in passives,and we might therefore expect to find this option realized also in the ‘easy-toplease’construction with a passive infinitive. As it happens, we have found twolate Middle English instances of this, given in (73) and (74).(73) e souereinnest pointe of contemplatife leuingthe most-sovereign pointe of contemplative livinge whiche is possible by gracethe whiche is possible by gracefor to be comen tofor to be comen to‘the most sovereign stage of contemplative life which can be reached bygrace’ (Cloud 2.3)(74) Fleschly leuyng men of e woreld, e whicheworldly living men of the world the whoinkyn e statutes of Holy Chirche ouerthink the statutes of Holy Church overlyharde to be amendid byharde to be amended by‘Men living the life of this world, who think the statutes of Holy Churchoverly hard to amend themselves by’ (Cloud 104.12)