The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

An outline of Old English syntax 59æs haligwætresof-the holy water‘Then the bishop sent the woman who lay sick there some of the holywater’ (Bede 5.4.396.1)The e relatives are by far the most frequent (for some figures for Ælfric, seeMitchell 1985: § 2165).The case form of se in the se e relative in (57) is the accusative (one)required by the relative clause, but it is not determined by its antecedentGode, which is in the dative. Case attraction, however, is possible, as illustratedin (59):(59) fore generednisse heora freonda ara e of weoruldefor relief of-their friends (G) whom (G) which of worldgeleordondeparted‘for the relief of their friends who had departed from the world’(Bede 4.23.330.16)The case of the antecedent and the case of the relative required by the relativeclause can, of course, also be identical:(60) æt se wære leoda cyning se e ær wæs folcethat he was of-people king (N) who (N) before was to-peopleeowin-bondage‘that he would be king who had been in bondage to the people’(Or 4.6.95.32)When the relative pronoun corresponds with a prepositional object, thepreposition is fronted along with the relative pronoun. This is called piedpiping and is illustrated in (61a) and (61b). However, the preposition is‘stranded’ in preverbal position when the relative pronoun is ær as the objectof a locative preposition (as in (61d)), in e relatives (without a relativepronoun) like (61c) and some minor types of relatives without a relativepronoun. Such cases of preposition stranding are discussed further in 2.6.(61) a. æt fyr getacnode one Halgan Gast, urh one we beo gehalgode‘The fire betokened the Holy Ghost, through whom we are hallowed’(ÆCHom II, 17.167.190)b. Hwæt sind as buton rymsetl heora Scyppendes, on am e hewhat are these but thrones their of-Creator on which hewunigende mannum demdwelling men judges‘What are these but thrones of their Creator, on which he, abiding, judgesmen’ (ÆCHom I, 24.346.11)