The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

280 The syntax of early EnglishThey were therefore forced to analyse such sentences as involving wh-movement.A result of the new analysis would be that (58) (This is easiest to gainheaven by) would come into existence; it could then spread out from the varietywhere it originated to other varieties.In this way, we now have a scenario in which the new wh-analysis was notonly possible, but also necessary. Obviously, the empirical claims inherent inthe scenario are difficult to prove: there is a lack of data for the period in question,and the construction is not frequent anyway. This in itself may be aproblem, since the modal passive appears to be more frequent throughout theOld and Middle English periods than the ‘easy-to-please’ construction, makingit somewhat difficult to see why the latter rather than the former underwentsocial or regional diffusion. However, it may not be frequency in itself thatdetermines whether an item or construction will get diffused: much mustdepend on the types of occasions on which it is used and the functions it has.Again, these are factors that seem to be beyond recovery in this specific case.We now turn to the second question posed at the end of 8.4: what factorscaused the appearance of the passive infinitive in ‘easy-to-please’ in lateMiddle English? In Fischer (1991), several factors are identified which mayhave played a role. First of all, this development should be viewed in relationto the rise in early Middle English of the verbal form consisting of to be followedby a past participle (i.e. to be V-ed, a form that does not occur in OldEnglish, where bare bepast participle, i.e. be V-ed, is attested), and thespread of this new passive infinitive through various constructions in the language,some of which were discussed in chapter 7. For the introduction of thisform in the ‘easy-to-please’ construction, several reasons can be given. Forone, the new use of the passive infinitive after eager-adjectives may have promotedits use also with adjectives belonging to the easy-class. An example ofa passive infinitive with an eager-adjective is (77).(77) the quene was aferde to be schente‘the queen was afraid of being ruined’ (Syr Tryamowre 364)Second, in late Middle English several adjectives (among them light, hard)appear both in the ‘easy-to-please’ construction and in the ‘eager-to-please’construction. This may have started with Romance adjectives that were borrowedinto English with two slightly different meanings, reflecting a systematicproperty of Latin vocabulary having to do with mental concepts. Theword profitable, for example, could mean ‘able/competent’ (and hence occur inthe ‘eager-to-please’ construction) as well as ‘useful’ (leading to the use of the‘easy-to-please’ construction). In (78) and (79) we illustrate this property withthe native word eth ‘easy’.