The Syntax and Semantics of the Old English Predicative Construction

This chapter analyses Old English constructions of the type Se cyningc þa him andswarode bysmerigende Then the king answered him deceiving. In the predicative construction, the matrix predication contains a finite form of a verb other than bon to be, while the linked predication, expressed by a present participle, shares its first argument with the matrix predication. This construction is discussed within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar. The data, which have been extracted from The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose, show that the predicative construction presents matrix verbs not only of motion and rest but also from other classes. The analysis of the syntactic structures and interclausal semantic relations holding in the predicative construction has implications for the evolution of the infinitive, which loses its ability to alternate with the participle because the configurations of a finite verb with a linked present participle show a low degree of syntactic and semantic integration