The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

48 The syntax of early Englishb. liflice onsægednysse and halige and Gode andfengeliving sacrifice and holy and to-God acceptable‘living and holy sacrifice, and acceptable to God’(ÆCHom I, 32.482.8)Two nouns or NPs may stand in an appositive relation where one specifies ormodifies the other. A frequently occurring type is that of an appellative incombination with a title:(27) Sidroc eorl se gioncgaSidroc earl the young‘The young earl Sidroc’ (ChronA(Plummer) 871.14)In Old English, the name usually precedes the title. Middle English has morevariation in this respect. In Old English, there are examples with severalappositions in one group:(28) heahfæderas, eawfæste and wuldorfulle weras on heora life, witegenapatriarchs religious and glorious men in their life of-prophetsfæderas, æra gemynd ne bi forgiten . . .fathers whose memory not is forgotten‘patriarchs, religious and glorious men in their lives, the fathers of theprophets, whose memory shall not be forgotten’ (ÆCHom I, 36.540.17)Pronouns can be modified by an appositive NP, as in (29):(29) a. He cwæ, se apostol Paulus‘He said, the apostle Paul’ (ÆCHom I, 9.146.33)b. se heora cyningthe their king‘he, their king’ (Or 1.14.35.14)NPs may also be discontinuous in Old English. Those elements that may occuras postmodifiers at the end of the NP can be separated from the rest of theNP:(30) Maran cyle ic geseah, and wyrsangreater cold I saw and worse‘I have seen a greater and worse cold’ (ÆCHom II, 23.202.107)A similar example involving a relative clause is:(31) foran e manegum wæron his wundra cue e god worhtebecause that to-many were his miracles known that God performedurh hinethrough him‘because the miracles that God wrought through him were known tomany’(ÆLS(Martin) 1)