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The Absolute Participle in Middle and Modern English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2021

Charles Hunter Ross
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Extract

There is much divergence of opinion among scholars as to the naming of the main periods of the English language, and hardly any two agree in regard to the limits of each period. But in treating of the absolute participle, an arbitrary division must be made according to the occurrence and development of this form in the language.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , 1893 , pp. 245 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1893

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References

Note 1 page 255 Michel's numbering with his error of 600 lines corrected.

Note 1 page 256 Only one volume of Wyclif was read on account of the extreme scarcity of examples. The same was the case with Pecock.

Note 2 page 256 Comparative Table of Absolute Participles in Wyclif's and the Latin Gospels.

Note 3 page 256 Skest, W.W.: Introd, to Forshall and Madden's New Textament of Wycliffe and Peurvey. Oxford, 1879.

Note 1 page 267 It is now held by scholars that Mandeville was not the translator of the English work that bears his name; but for convenience' sake I shall give his name to this work.

Note 1 page 259 Einenkel, E.: Streifzüge durch die mitteleng. Syntax. Münster, 1887.

Note 1 page 260 Loansbury, T. R.: History of the English Language. New York, 1879.

Note 2 page 260 Callaway has clearly and conclusively shown that the Anglo-Saxon construction was borrowed from the Latin; hence it seems strange to see this statement in Kellner's recent work (Hist. Outlines of Eng. Syntax, London, 1892, p. 34): “ It is doubtful whether the Absolute Participle in Old English and in the other Teutonic dialects is akin to similar constructions in Latin and Greek and thus of Aryan origin, or whether it is only borrowed fromLatin.” A study of the construction in English since 1150 leads to the belief that it is really a borrowing, directly or indirectly, from Latin during the whole of its history.

Note 1 page 261 French influence will be more fully treated in the next section.

Notes.—Several points may be treated of here that cannot properly come under the regular heads of the work: (1) Callaway (1. c. p. 21) mentions that “occasionally the A. S. absolute clause is incorrectly joined to the chief sentence by a conjunction.” This practice is very common in Middle English, and the absolute clause is thereby obscured. Four examples of this use occur in Malory alone, and the practice continues down into very recent English; as, for example, Lowell's Latest Literary Essays, p. 86. (2) In some of the examples cited where the subject of the absolute clause and that of the main clause are in apposition, as in Landry 1 98, there is doubt as to whether the subordinate clause is really absolute. Possibly many such examples may be like this from Wyclif: John, xix. 28—“Jhesu witinge. . . that the scripture schulde be fillid, he seith,” etc. = Vulgate—“Sciens Jesus . . . ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit,” etc. In the poetry (as in Ch. Poems iii. 124), the superfluous substantive may be almost always looked on as introduced for the sake of the metre. (3) In such a sentence as “They went away, the one here, the other there,” the italicized phrases are to be looked on rather as appositive than absolute. This is borne out by the Old French construction: “Se misent en la forest, li vns cha, et li autres la”—Map 22. Here the nominative of the article is used, while the absolute case in Old French is the accusative. A Modem English example shows this apposition clearly: “We have two accusatives of slightly different functions: the one indicating the object, . . . the other indicating the result”— Strong, Logeman, and Wheeler: The Hist. of Lang., p. 281.

Note 1 page 266 I follow Mr. Furnivall in assigning this romance to Map, though I believe the consensus of opinion now is against Map's authorship.

Note 1 page 268 Nehry, H.: Ueber den Gebrauch des absolut. Casus abliquus des altfranz. Substantivs. Berliner Diss. Berlin, 1882.

Note 1 page 269 Chevallet, A. de: Origini et Formation de la Langue Française. 3rd ed Tome iii. Paria, 1858.

Note 2 page 269 In comparing Chaucer and his original I was very much indebted to Mr. W. M. Rossetti's admirable comparison of Troylus. and Cryseyde and Il Filostrato, published by the Chaucer Society.

Note 1 page 272 Skeat, W. T.: Principles of English Etymology. 2nd Series. Oxford, 1891.

Note 2 page 272 Earle, J.: English Prose. JW New York, 1891.

Note 1 page 275 In the case of several works in Mod. Eng want of time prevented a reading of the entire work. However, the portion read was looked on as a sufficient index of the work.

Note 1 page 277 Minto, W.: Manual of Eng. Prose Literature. Boston, 1889.

Note 2 page 277 Arnold, M.: Pref. to Johnson's Six Chief Lives. London, 1886.

Note 1 page 283 Morris, R.: Historical Outlines of Eng. Accidence. London, 1886.

Note 2 page 283 Oliphant, T. L. K.: The Old and Middle English. London, 1878.

Note 1 page 284 Example similar to the one just preceding.

Note 1 page 286 Ed. by B. Lodge. EETS., London, 1873 and 1879.

Note 1 page 287 Cited by Latham, R. G.: A Hand-book of the English Language. 6th ed. London, 1864 (p. 417).

Note 1 page 288 Maetzner, E.: Englische Grammatik. Berlin, 1865. Zw. Theil, zw. Hälfte.

Note 2 page 288 Bain, A.: A Higher English Grammar. London, 1876.

Note 3 page 288 Swinton, W.: A Grammar of the Eng. Lang. New York, 1889.

Note 4 page 288 Abbott, E. A.: A Shakespearian Grammar. London, 1888

Note 1 page 289 Kellner, L.: Historical Outlines of English Syntax. London, 1892.

Bright, J. W., in Modern Long. Notes, March, 1890, col. 159-162.

Note 1 page 291 Murray, L.: An English Grammar. Vol. i. York, 1808.

Note 2 page 291 Fowler, W. C.: Eng. Grammar. New York, 1860.

Note 3 page 291 Cobbett, Wm.: A Gram, of the Eng. Lang. Revised and annotated by Alfred Ayres. New York, 1884.

Note 4 page 291 Brown, Goold: The Gram, of Eng. Grammars. 6th ed. New York, 1861.

Note 1 page 292 Cited by Latham (1. c. p. 417).

Note 2 page 292 Adams, E.: The Elemente of the Eng. Language. 13th ed. London, 1874.

Note 1 page 293 Schneider, G.: Geach, der eng. Sprache. Freiburg, 1863.

Note 2 page 293 Koch, C. F.: Hist. Gram, der eng. Sprache. 2 Aufl. Bd. i. Cassel, 1878.

Note 1 page 295 Gildersleeve, B. L., in The Amer. Jour, of Pkil., ix (1888), pp. 137-157.

Note 1 page 298 Spieker, E. H, in The Amer. Journal of Phil, vi (1886), pp. 310-343.

Note 1 page 299 McElroy, J. G. R.: The Structure of English Prose. New York, 1885.

Note 2 page 299 Genung, J. F.: The Practical Elements of Rhetoric. Boston, 1890.

Note 1 page 300 Diez, F.: Gram. der roman. Sprachen. Bd. iii. Bonn, 1876-7.

Note 2 page 300 In his Beobachtungen über den Homerischen Sprachgebrauch.