The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

62 The syntax of early Englishcomplementation is quite different from that of the present-day language.While the to-infinitive is now the most extensively employed type, it was usedless frequently and in fewer environments in Old English, where the thatclausewas the most prominent form of complementation.2.5.2.1 Finite clausesVerbs of saying and declaring are obviously often found with a finiteclause complement, as in (68), but many other verbs can take a finite clausecomplement as well, as in (69):(68) a behet God æt he nolde næfre eft eal mancynn midthen promised God that he not-would never again all mankind withwætere acwellanwater destroy‘Then God promised that he would never again destroy all mankind withwater’ (ÆCHom I, 1.22.8)(69) eah e nu ince æt u deorwyre feoh forloren habbethough to-you now seems that you precious good lost have‘Though it may seem to you that you have lost precious goods’(Bo 20.48.17)The finite clauses range from æt ‘that’ clauses to dependent questions introducedby a range of question words. Finite object clauses always follow allother clause material. The conjunction æt is sometimes left out (Mitchell1985: § 1981 ff.), but not nearly as frequently as in Modern English.2.5.2.2 Non-finite clausesThe most frequent and important type of non-finite complementationin Old English is by infinitives. There are two basic types of infinitive: thefirst is the ‘bare’ or ‘zero’ infinitive, ending in -an or -ian, e.g. incan ‘think’,lufian ‘love’; the second is the inflected infinitive or to-infinitive, which consistsof to, followed by a verb stem and the ending -enne, e.g. to incenne ‘to think’,to lufienne ‘to love’. To in Old English infinitives is never separated from theverb form, as in present-day English I intend to clearly show that . . . The statusof to as an infinitive marker is something of a puzzle. It is thought by somescholars to be a preposition governing the dative case on the infinitive form,which is nominal in origin. But the nominal character of Old Englishinfinitives has been overestimated, and recent work (Los 1998) shows that toinfinitivesbehave more like clauses than like nominals.Variation in the choice of infinitive is found only with monotransitive verbs.A prominent group forms the verbs of intention like encan ‘think, plan’. Twoexamples are given here; (70a) has a to-infinitive, while (70b) has a bare infinitive: