The status of Dearr and ??earf in Old English.

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of dearr and pearf, which in Old English were clearly distinct preterite-present verbs. Nothing yet foreshadowed their future merger and the Middle English replacement of thar(f) with need. Their most significant syntactic restriction was that unlike other Old English premodal verbs they tended to occur only in nonassertive (negative, interrogative and conditional) contexts. Another interesting phenomenon was the occasional occurrence of third person singular forms ending in -ep in northern glosses to gospels.

1. Introduction

Dearr and pearf, whose semantic and syntactic properties distinguished them from other preterite-present verbs, were ancestors of modern dare and need, which also behave differently than typical modals. For this reason some grammarians call them 'marginal' modals (e.g. Quirk et al. 1972: 82, Denison 1993: 295). In late Middle English thar(f) was replaced by need, as its forms started to merge with those of dare. The degree of morphological, syntactic and semantic overlap between purven and durren was so high in Middle English that one of the verbs had to go (cf. Molencki, forthcoming). Similar processes occurred in the cognate Germanic languages. Nevertheless, in Old English they still appeared to be two clearly distinct verbs, though they shared certain morphosyntactic and semantic properties. The language material for this study comes from the Diachronic Part of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts (Kyto 1993), B&T, OED and also from the Early English Text Society editions of Old English texts.

2. Indo-European and Germanic origins

Both dearr and pearf (1) belonged to the third class of preterite-present verbs, which means that they followed the third ablaut series. The Indo-European proto-form of dearr was reconstructed as *dhers-, *dhors-, *dhrs- on the basis of such cognate forms as, for example, Sanskrit dhrsh-, perf. dadharsha, Greek [theta][alpha][rho][sigma][epsilon][alpha][nu], Old Church Slavonic drbzate (cf. B&T, QED, Prokosch 1939, Reszkiewicz 1973: 156). The Proto-Germanic apophony in this case must have been *ders- *dars-, *durs-, *durs- and due to subsequent phonological changes the following cognate forms developed in Germanic languages:

Gothic  ga-daursan   dars            daursum/daursun  daursta
OHG     turran       tar             turrun           torsta
OSax    durran       dar             durrun           dorsta
OFr     thura, dura  thur, dur, dor  thuron           thorste, dorste
OE      * durran     dear(r)         durron           dorste

The perfective prefix ga-, ge-, gi- was often attached to the verb, especially in the past tense forms. In Old Norse the verb appears to have been lost and replaced by the weak verb pora (cf. Tellier 1962: 56, Nielsen 1981: 186). The two biblical quotations below show that early Germanic languages were consistent in rendering the Latin semideponens audere:

1) Et nemo iam audebat eum interrogare.

Vulgate Mark 12.34

jah ainshun panaseips ni gadaursta ma fraihnan.

Wulfila Gothic

7 hine ne dorste nan mann ahsian.

West Saxon Gospels

7 neaenig mon soo ?? gee gedarste hine gefraigne.

Lindisfarne Gospels (Old Northumbrian)

7 naenig mon soooa gidarste hine gifregna.

Rushworth Gospels (Old Mercian)

2) et nemo audebat discentium interrogare eum...

Vulgate John 21.12

And nan paera be bar saet ne dorste hine axian hwaet he waere.

WSG 

7 negi darste aenigmonn oara hlingindi ?? oara raestendra gifraegna ?? frasiga hine...

Lindisfarne Gospels

7 naenigmonn ne darste of oegnum gifregna hine...

Rushworth Gospels

Inti nioman ni gidorsta thero sizzentero fragen man...

Tatian 237.4 (Old High German)

It appears that the Second (High German) Consonantal Shift d > t has not yet affected the forms of durran in the language of Tatian (c.830). The verb is also attested in the coeval Old Saxon poem Heliand (e.g. ni gidorstun nahor gangan, 1055; cf. Tellier 1962: 55).

As for the etymology of ??earf, the pre-Teutonic ablaut *terp-, *torp.. *trp.- is not certainly identified (cf. OED s.v. thar). Some etymological dictionaries (e.g. Bruckner 1927: 579, Linde 1859: 724, Machek 1971: 477) list several probable cognates in other Indo-European languages, whose consonantism and semantics provide some evidence for the relationship, e.g. Sanskrit tarpati 'satisfies', Avestan thrafdha 'satisfied', Greek [tau][epsilon][rho][pi][omega] 'I am satisfied', Latin oportet < *ob-portet 'one should, need' (with the metathesis of p and t), Lithuanian tarpti 'to be well off' and especially Prussian enterpo 'I need' and Old Church Slavonic trebovati 'to need' (hence Slovenian treba, Czech treba, Polish trzeba, potrzebowac). Rejzek (2001: 679) and Snoj (1997: 880) believe that the Indo-European root *terp- 'to satisfy need' had the variant *terb(h)- 'to need', whose descendant forms developed in Slavonic and Germanic. The Proto-Germanic gradation forms are reconstructed as *??per[beta]- *??ar[bet a]-, *??ar[beta]-, *??ar[beta]-, on the basis of the following cognates:

Gothic  *paurban  parf         paurbum  paurfta
OHG     durfan    darf         durfun   dorfta
OSax    thurban   tharf        thurbun  thorfta
MDu     dorven    dorv         dorven   dorfte
OFr     *thurva   thurf/thorf  thurvon  thorste
OE      *purfan   pearf        purfon   purfte
ON      purfa     parf         purfom   purfta

Here are some early attested Germanic examples, which show that apart from the preterite-present ??earf and the prefixed bepearf, we also find synonymous verbs (behofian) and periphrastic expressions discussed in Section 7:

3) scit enim pater vester quia his omnibus indigetis... Vulgate Matt 6.32

waituh ??an atta izwar sa ufar himinam ??atei ??aurbu??... Wulfila's Gothic

Witodlice eower faeder wat ??aet ge eallra ??yssa ??inga be-??urfon... WSG

wat foroon fader iuer foroon of oaem allum ge behofes ?? iuh behofes...

Lindisfarne Gospels

for??on ??e eower faeder wat ??aet ge ??issa alra ourfun...

Rushworth Gospels

Uueiz iuuer fater thaz ir thes alles bithurfut... Tatian 38.32

(4) nunc scimus quia scis omnia et non opus est tibi ut quis te interroget...

Vulgate John 16.30

flu witum ei pu kant alla, jah ni parft ei puk hvas fraihnai...

Wulfila's Gothic

Nu we witon paet pu wast ealle *ing. 7 pe nis nan pearf paet aenig pe axie...

WSG

nu ue uutun paette ou wast alle 7 ne ned-darf * is *e paette huaelc *ec gefraigna...

Lindisfarne Gospels

nu we wutun *aette * wast alle 7 ne ned is *e paette hwelc *ec gifregne...

Rushworth Gospels

Nu uuizumes thaz thu allu uueist inti fist dir thurft thaz thih ioman frage...

Tatian 176.2

The verb was also used in a similar way in Old Norse (e.g. Eigi parf langt fra pvi at segja, Hrafnkels Saga 1.120) and in Old Saxon (ne tharft thu ferah caron barnes thines, Heliand 2197), though Old Saxon thurban also developed the sense of possibility (cf. Tellier 1962: 55), which is now the central meaning of German durfen, the original sense need being preserved only in the prefixed verb bedurfen.

3. Old English verb forms -- morphology

The Old English forms display regular West Germanic phonological developments -- the present forms of dearr and pearf (and its synonymous prefixed form bepearf) have the same vocalism as Class Three strong verbs in the past (Reszkiewicz's 1973: 156 subclass 3c), e.g. steorfan, ceorfan, i.e. the original Germanic e was diphthongized before the consonantal cluster of /r/ + another consonant (ceorfan, cearf curfon, corfen). Like other preterite-present verbs, in the preterite they took weak endings -tel/-ton (dorste, dorston; purfte, porfton).

The table below presents the inflectional forms of both verbs in West Saxon:

Present
Indicative                        Subjunctive
ic dear/[dearr.sup.2]  we
pu dearst              ge durron  durre/[dyrre.sup.3]
he dear/dearr          hie        durren/dyrren
ic pearf               we         purfe/pyrfe
pu pearft              ge purfon  purfen/pyrfen
he pearf               hie


Present
Indicative             Preterite
ic dear/[dearr.sup.2]
pu dearst              dorste dorston/dorstan
he dear/dearr
ic pearf               porfte/purfte
pu pearft              porfton/purfton
he pearf

In northern dialects there are some other variants (cf. Brunner 1942: 368, Campbell 1959: 344), e.g. Mercian Rushworth 1 has the preterite durste, dyrste and Northumbrian Rushworth 2 and Lindisfarne have (gi)darste. Also in the Lindisfarne Gospels we find the singular present form darr. The variant forms of pearf include 2sg oearf paerf and plural durfun (Rushworth 1) and plural ourfu (Lindisfarne). Third person singular forms with the ending -(e)o from both the Rushworth and Lindisfarne Gospels might be the first indication of the process by virtue of which these verbs began to lose some of the characteristics of (pre)modal verbs. Witness the sentence from St. Johns Gospel (13.10):

5) cuoeo him to se haelend seoe geouaen ?? is sprec uaes ne oorfaeo ?? paette aooa hine...

Lindisfarne Gospels

cwaeo him oe haelend seoe gisprecen waes ne oorfeo oaet eft owae...

Rushworth Gospels

(WSG: Da cwaeo se haelend to him. Se pe claene byp ne beaoearf buton paet man his fet pwea)

or another example from Luke 5.31, where the manuscript form oofeo was emended by Skeat to oorfeo:

6) 7 ondsuarade se haelend cuoeo to him ne oofeo oaoe halo sint to lece ah oa oe yfle habbao.

Lindisfarne Gospels

(the Rushworth fragment is not extant, WSG has: pa andswarude se haelend and cwaep to him; Ne bepurfon laeces pa oe hale synd: ac pa oe unhaelpe habbao)

Brunner (1942: 368) also mentions northern forms bioorfeo, beoorfeo. In Rushworth Gospels we also find:

7) Hwaet helpep ?? bepearfap menn? Mt 16.26 (Quid enim prodest homini?)

One of the most conspicuous features in the tables above is the absence of nonfinite forms, i.e. the lack of infinitives and participles. B&T mention the infinitives durran, ourfan and the past participle (ge)dorren, but I do not find any examples in the Helsinki Corpus. First instances of these nonfinite forms are dated by the OED in the 14th and 15th for the infinitive and past participle, respectively. Warner (1993: 146), however, does not exclude the possibility that nonfinite forms of these verbs existed in Old English, but are not attested due to relatively low frequency of occurrence (cf. also Mitchell 1985: [section][section]990-995). We find some indirect support for this claim in Old High German, where the past participle gitorran is recorded (cf. Schmidt 1984: 189). The form pearfende (porfende, purfende) that looks like the present participle (Campbell 1959: 344) was only used as a nominal adjective corresponding to modern 'poor, needy'.

4. Syntactic properties

As for the types of complementation for both verbs, the most common is the simple infinitive either in the brace construction:

8) Da cirdon hie up in on oa ea, for paem hie ne dorston forp bi paere ea siglan for unfripe.

Or 14.18

9) Ne oearf he landgafol syllan.

Laws William 446.3.2

or following the preterite-present verb immediately:

10) ic pe halsie purh pone, pe pu to faerst, paet ic ne purfe libban seofon dagas aefter pe on pysum middangearde.

GregD3 21.53.28

11) oa 6a he oegn waes, he mette his feond, 7 oeah for Godes ege 7 for ryhtwisnesse lufum he hine ne dorste ofslean.

CP 50.393.4

The infinitive can sometimes undergo ellipsis:

12) as claenne, maessige, gyf he durre, 7 ladige on pam husle heana hine sylfne, aet anfealdre spaece. 7 aet pryfealdre spaece ladige he, gyf he durre, eac on pam husle mid twam his gehadan.

Laws Cnut 286.5.1

13) Gif hine mon gilt, ponne mot he gesellan on para hyndenna gehwelcere monnan 7 byrnan 7 sweord on paet wergild, gif he oyrfe.

Laws Ine 112.54.2

In the Old English corpus we find singular instances of the passive infinitive:

14) ac swa peah he ne dorste beon beforan him upp araered of paere eoroan.

GregD4 14.132.17

15) eac to manienne oaet hi unaorotenlice oa gedonan synna gelaeden beforan hira modes eagan, 7 oonne hi hi gesewene haebben, gedon oaet hie ne oyrfen bion gesewene aet oaem nearwan dome.

CP 53.413.17

In the Book of Leechdom there is an interesting example of a complex (inflected) infinitive, whose ending appears to have been reduced (to don for to donne):

16) Gif hit sie winter ne bearft pu pone wermod to don.

Laece 2.3.4

Thus, in most cases the two verbs are auxiliaries, but in the corpus there are also some marginal uses of pearf followed by a noun or a pronoun (both genitive and accusative objects):

17) 7 gyf he sig maegleas, ladige mid geferan oooe on faesten fo, gif he poet purfe, 7 ga to corsnaede 7 paeraet gefare, swa swa God raede.

Laws Cnut 286.52

18) Ne oearf he nanes pinges buton oaes oe he on him selfum haefo.

Bo 24.4

I do not find any corresponding examples for dearr.

The best proof that in Old English the two verbs had the same status as other preterite-present is the fact that they could be used in conjunction with other premodals, including the anomalous verb willan:

19) Ic cweoe nu oaet ic ne dearr ne ic nelle nane boc aefter oisre of Ledene on Englisc awendan;

AEPrefGen 80.113

20) aelc mon mot onsacan frympe 7 werfahoe, gif he mceg oooe dear;

Laws Ine 110.46.2

21) Se oe forstolen flaesc findeo 7 gedyrneo, gif he dear, he mot mid aoe gecyoan, paet he hit age; se oe hit ofspyreo, he ah oaet meldfeoh.

Laws Ine 97.17

22) Ic wolde eac gif ic dorste gadrian sum gehwaede andgit of oaere bec pe BEDA, se snotera lareow gesette;

AEDT 1.1

23) Naes me naefre gewunelic paet ic worhte fleames, ac ic wolde swioor sweltan gif ic porfte for minum agenum earde;

AELS 320.78

24) paet syndon pa, oe nellao oooe ne cunnon oooon ne durron folc wio synna gewarnian and synna gestyran;

InsPol 123

The most interesting syntactic restriction of pearf and dearr is that except for some isolated examples from poetry they were used only in nonassertive contexts (negative, interrogative, conditional). In affirmative sentences we find other expressions. The usual equivalent of dearr was the weak verb gedyrstigan (derived from the adjective gedyrstig), e.g.

25) oe gedyrstigon oaet hi Eastran heoldan butan heora rihtre tide. (qui Pascha non suo tempore observare praesumerent).

Bede 5.21

The verb pearf in assertive contexts was most commonly replaced by various periphrastic constructions discussed in Section 7 below. However, such restriction did not apply in Gothic, as can be seen in:

26) villain emi et necesse habeo exire et videre illam.

Vulgate Luke 14.18

land bauhta jah parf galeipan jah saihvan pata.

Wulfila's Gothic

ic bohte aenne tun. ic hoebbe neode paet ic fare 7 hine gesea;

WSG

lond ic bohte 7 neddarf ic hafo paet ic geonga 7 gesea paet ilca...

Lindisfarne Gospels

lond ih bohte foroon 7 nedoearfe ic hafo paet ic gongo 7 gisie oaet...

Rushworth Gospels

thorph coufta ih inti notthurft haben ih uzziganganne inti gisehen iz...

Tatian 125.3

Both pearf and dearr were used, albeit rarely, in impersonal constructions, where the logical subject or experiencer was in the dative case (cf. Denison 1993: 295, 302):

27) be pam ne dorste us nan wen beon geouht paet hi mihton beon daelnimende paes heofonlican wuidres.

GregD 232.7

28) Cwaeo pa eft raoe oore worde to Sarran sinces brytta: Ne pearf oe on edwit Abraham settan, oin freadrihten.

Gen 2727

29) for oam me witan ne oearf waldend fira moroorbealo maga, ponne mm sceaceo lif of lice.

Beowulf 2739

What is very interesting is the fact that most of the impersonal examples come from poetic texts, which means that the structure may already have been perceived as archaic. In prose we almost invariably find personal constructions with nominative subjects. Compare the examples below:

30) Ne pearf him ondraedan deofla straelas aenig on eoroan aelda cynnes, gromra garfare, gif hine god scildeb, duguoa dryhten.

Christ 779

31) Ne purfan we us ondraedan pa deoflican costnunga.

AELetSig 106.96

5. dearr

The earliest English instance of dearr is found on the south-east face of the Ruthwell Cross. This runic inscription dated for c.700 is in the Northumbrian dialect:

[LANGUAGE NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

ahof ic riicnae kyning heafunes hlafard haelda ic ni dorstae

Interestingly, in the later West Saxon version we find the impersonal use of the same verb:

32a) Ahof ic ricne cyning, heofona hiaford, hyldan me ne dorste.

Indeed this fragment of The Dream of the Rood has a whole series of clauses where this verb is used:

33) paer ic pa ne dorste ofer dryhtnes word bugan oooe berstan, pa ic bifian geseah eoroan sceatas. Bifode ic pa me se beorn ymbclypte. Ne dorste ic hwaeore bugan to eoroan, feallan to foldan sceatum, ac ic sceolde faeste standan. Rod waes ic araered. Ahof ic ricne cyning, heofona hlaford, hyldan me ne dorste. purhdrifan hi me mid deorcan naeglum. On me syndon pa dolg gesiene, opene inwidhlemmas. Ne dorste ic hira naenigum sceooan.

Dream 35-48

In a modern translation (Raffel 1998) only the last dorste is translated as dared, whereas the three preceding ones are rendered by could, which shows that as early as Old English there was a great deal of semantic overlap in the class of preterite-present verbs, the ancestors of modern modals. Nonetheless, in translations from Latin dearr was usually the equivalent of the semideponens audere and praesumere (thus means 'to have the courage or impudence to do something') or timere 'fear', if negated:

34) Se maesse preost, pe maessao and ne dear oaet husel oicgan, wat hine scildigne, se is amansumad; (Presbiter missam celebrans et non audens sumere sacrificium, accusante conscientia sua, anathema sit) AELetSig 95

35) for herodem his faeder ne durste pider gangan ?? faeran...

Rushw Mt

2.22

(timuit illuc ire; WSG he ondred pyder to farende)

As I have already mentioned, the verb was only used in nonassertive contexts, i.e. in conditional clauses, both in gif-protases:

36) gif hio dear mid aoe gecyoan, paet hio forstolenan ne onbite, nime hire oriddan sceat.

Laws Ine 116.58

37) ac wit on niht sculon secge ofersittan, gif he gesecean dear wig ofer waepen...

Beowulf 688 38) oonne wene ic to be wyrsan gebingea, oeah pu heaooraesa gehwaer dohte, grimre guoe, gif pu Grendles dearst nihtlongne fyrst nean bidan.

Beowulf 525

and in negative conditional butan-clauses (butan corresponding to modem unless):

39) gedeme heonon foro, for laeooe oooe for feohfange, beo se wio pone cingc CXX scyllinga scyldig on Engla lage, butan he mid aoe cyoan durre, paet he hit na rihtor ne cupe... Laws Cnut 3l6.5.1

40) leafan buton synne aet pam forman gylte paere fiohbote onfon, pe hie oa gesettan. buton aet hlafordsearwe hie nane mildheortnesse ne dorston gecweoan... Laws me 46.49.7

I have also come across instances in swa-clauses of hypothetical semblance, i.e. also counterfactual, where swa was the equivalent of modem as if:

41) pa dyde hio swa hio dorste hyre ape gebiorgan. Charters 128.33

Another type of adverbial clauses where dear occurred were negative final clauses introduced by the conjunction Oyloes, the ancestor of modem lest:

42) Foroon we oiss feawum wordum saedon, oy we woldongecyoan hu micel sio byroen bio oaes lareowdomes, oylces aenig hine underfon durre oara oe his unwieroe sie; CP33.9

43) Hine waldend on, tirfaest metod, tacen sette, freooobeacen frea, py laes hine feonda hwilc mid guopraece gretan dorste feorran oooe nean. Gen 1044

The verb was also found in interrogative sentences, both direct and dependent ones:

44) Hu durre ge nu forseon heora ealra gesetnyssa, ponne munecas healdao anes mannes gesetnyssa, paes halgan Benedictus; AELetWulfsige 23.101

45) Hwa waes aefre swa dirstiges modes paet dorste cynges dohtor gewaemman aer oam daege hyre brydgifta and him ne ondrede paes cyninges irre?

ApT 4.2.8

46) 7 oone papan 7 paet papseld paet hie befrinon 7 beahsodan hwaet him paes to raede puhte, hweper hie pa ciricean halgian dorston on opre wisan.

BlHom 205.157

But in the vast majority of cases, dearr was used in sentences that contained negative elements:

47) foroon hie nan monn ne dearr oreagean oeah hie agylten, ac mid oam beoo synna suioe gebraedda oe hie beoo sua geweoroade.

CP 2.31.12

48) Nis nu cwicra nan pe ic him modsefan minne durre sweotule asecgan.

Wanderer 9

49) oa saegde se bisceop paet paer naefre in londum regnes dropa ne cwome, ne fugel ne wildeor, ne naenig aetern wyrm her dorste gesecean oa halgan gemaero sunnan 7 monan.

Alex 42.826

50) Swilce he waes eac swyoe stearc man 7 raeoe. swa paet man ne dorste nan ping ongean his willan don.

Chr 1086.85

51) Ne dorste swa peah se maessepreost pone bisceop geaxian, for hwan he swylce ping bude, ac he pa gehyrsumode his haesum 7 ealle pa winfatu gegearwod.

GregD 3 22.58.3

52) 7 we ne durron na mare awritan on Englisc konne oaet Leden haefo, ne oa endebyrdnysse awendan, buton oam anum, oaet oaet Leden 7 oaet Englisc nabbao.

AEPrefGen 78.94

6. pearf

As is well known, each Modem English modal verb has a number of senses and in numerous cases meanings of different modals overlap. The Old English data show that preterite-present verbs behaved in a similar way. In (33) we can see how dearr encroaches upon the territory of mceg. Also kearf developed a number of meanings (cf. B&T, s.v. purfan). Tellier (1962: 103) observed that the negative forms of kearf were in a symmetrical relationship with maeg, i.e. the most natural negative counterpart of he maeg secgan was he ne pearf secgan. Thus, apart from its basic, prototypical sense of 'to need to do something', either to fulfill a purpose or because the need is based on grounds of right, morality, as in:

53) He ne oearf na faran fram stowe to stowe... AECHom i.52.3

54) Daet ou ne wene oaet Iudea leasungum gelyfan purfte... BiHom 177.35

pearf often expressed the idea of compulsion, or where the inevitability of a consequence is expressed, and thus is synonymous with sceal in the sense of modern 'should, ought to' (cf. Tellier 1962: 114):

55) Hu he oisse worulde wynna oorfte laesast brucan.

Guthlac 122.20

Dearf also corresponded to sceal in the sense of modem 'to owe':

56) Ne pearf ic N. sceatt ne scilling, ne paenig ne paeniges weoro.

Oaths 11

Another Old English preterite-present verb whose sense pearf seems to approximate was deah 'to be of use, to be good for a person to do something'. Visser (1963-1973: [section] 1343, fn.1) draws our attention to the fact that one of the probable causes for the loss of dugan (dowen) in Middle English was its phonetic and semantic similarity to thar and dare. The example below is the evidence that some confusion might have begun in Old English already:

57) Ne purfan ge noht besorgian hwaet we sprecan...

BlHom 171.18

Finally, in Beowulf there is a very interesting example where pearf becomes very close in meaning to dearr, which might be treated as a harbinger of the confusion between the two verbs in Middle English (cf. Molencki, forthcoming):

58) ne paer naening witena wenan porfte beorhtre bote to banan folmum.

Beowulf 157

Tellier (1962: 103) admits that this usage is exceptional ("dans un cas isole, DURFAN semble avoir le meme sens que DURRAN"), and supports his interpretation with the modem version of this sentence translated by Gordon: "Nor did any of the councillors MAKE BOLD TO expect fairer conditions from the hands of the slayer." In a more recent glossed edition of Beowulf (Alexander 1995) porfte is rendered in this case by 'have reason', the sense found in other quotations from Beowulf, e.g.

59) foroam me witan ne oearf Waldend fira...

Beowulf 2741

The semantic extension from 'did not need' through 'did not have reason' to 'did not dare' must have started from similar contexts.

Another interesting development is the fact that apart from their basic deontic senses, both dearr and pearf also appear to have developed some epistemic senses as early as Old English (e.g. sentences (54) and the impersonal constructions in (27-29)).

Except for two isolated instances in affirmative impersonal sentences from the Anglo-Saxon poetry below with accusative objects:

60) Mec paes pearf monap, micel modes sorg.

Elene 717

61) mupa gehwylc mete pearf, mael sceolon tidum gongan...

Maxims 124 pearf, like dearr, was predominantly found in nonassertive contexts, i.e. conditional clauses:

62) wuda ond waetres nyttao, ponne him bip wic alyfed, mete bygep, gif he maran pearf, aerpon on he to mepe weorpe;

Maxims 111

and comparative clauses:

63) Sume him ondraedao earfoou swioor ponne hi pyrfen, peah hi hi eaoe adreogan maegen.

Bo 39.133.27

There are several examples in dependent and independent interrogative sentences:

64) Hu pearf mannes sunu maran treowe?

Exod 426

65) Drihten is min onlyhtend, and min Haelend; hwoet pearf ic ondraedan?

ParPs 55.26.1

66) Hwaet, hi eac witon hwoer hi eafiscas secan purfan, and swylcra fela weoruldwelena.

MetBo 177.19.24

Otherwise, typical and most frequent uses of Pearf were in negative contexts:

67) Ne pearf nan mon on oys andweardan life spyrian aefter paem sooum gesaeloum, ne paes wenan oaet he aer maege good genog findan.

Bo 33.77.31

68) Ne pearft pu ma swincan ymbe paet.

Bo 34.87.25

69) Ne porftan pa pegnas in pam pystran ham, seo geneatscolu in pam neolan scraefe, to pam frumgare feohgestealda witedra wenan;

Elene 683

70) Se oe for oaem anum god deo oaet he sumre oreaunge yfel him ondraett, se wilnao oaette nan oing ne sie oe he him ondraedan oyrfe;

CP 265.7

71) Ne secge ic no paet he nauhtes maran ne oyrfe, foroaem ic wat paet nan nis paes welig paet he sumes eacan ne pyrfe.

Bo 33.75.5

72) Ne purfe ge noefre paes wenan, paet ic aefre eowrum godum me to gebidde, forpon pe hi syndon dumbe and deafe and blinde and mid drycraefte geworhte.

Margaret 174.142

7. Noun pearf

Apart from the verb pearf there was also a homonymous noun pearf, often used in various periphrastic structures, most commonly with a dative experiencer and the genitive object. Unlike the verb ""earf the periphrases with the noun ""earf are found mostly (though not only) in affirmative sentences:

73) ic minne kynegyrylan 7 me mid uncu""e hraegle 7 mid lyperlice gerelan me gegerede, swelce ic waere hwelc foiclic mon 7 me woere mete 7 wines ""earf. Alex 519.27

74) ""aet ic ""e wel herige ond be to geoce garholt bere, maegenes fultum, oe bio manna ""earf. Beowuif 1836

75) Mara gefea wyro on hefonum for anum hreowsiendum oonne ofer nigon 7 hundnigontig ryhtwisra oaera oe him nan oearf ne bio hreowsunga. CP 52.411.12

The impersonal variant of this structure made use of the nominative form of the empty pronoun subject hit:

76) Ac do freonda gehwylc, eallswa hit ""earf is, warnige hine georne and beorge him sylfum, ""aet he God ne abelge ealles to swyoe, ac cweme his drihtne mid rihtlicre daede. InsPol 81.93

The object could also be an inflected infinitive:

77) Leofan men, understandao swyoe georne ""aet ge rihtlice 7 waerlice ""aet healdan ""aet eow maest ""earf is to gehealdenne, ""aet is, rihtne cristendom. WHom 116.2

78) ""a nydendre ""aere lufe he gebohte, ""aet him nan ""earf naes to habbenne. GregD 4 123.10.79.5

or an object ""oet-clause with a subjunctive verb:

79) Him is oearf ooet hie geoencen hu micel menigu oaera getreowfulra bio, oe aegoer ge hi selfe cleane gehealdao, ge eac oore of hira gedwolan ahwierf. CP 403.20

80)Nces him oenig ""earf paet he to Gifoum oooe to Gardenum oooe in Swiorice secean ""urfe wyrsan wigfrecan, weoroe gecypan. Beowuif 2493

The noun could be modified by the adjective micel or its superlative form moest:

81) Leofan men, eallum cristenum mannum is mycel ""earf ""oet hy heora fulluhtes gescead witan. WHom 175.2

82) Is me ""earf micel ""oet seo halge me helpe gefremme. Elene 133.695

83) aet aerestan we laera??, paet maest ??earf is, paet aeghwelc mon his a?? 7 his wed waerlice healde.

Laws Ine 46.1

The genitive object could sometimes be followed by an appositive clause, as in:

84) Nis eow ??oes weorces peraf poet ge ??a ciricean halgian, for??on pe ic hie geworhte 7 ic hie gehalgode.

BlHom 207.174

Instead of pearf we occasionally find the noun neod (variant spellings: nied, nyd, ned), meaning 'desire', 'compulsion' or 'need', in the same construction:

85) Us is neod poet we ??a halgan eastertide be ??am so??um regole healdon naefre aer emnihte, 7 oferswi??dum peostrum.

AEDT 46 6.4

Sometimes both stems were combined into the compound nedpearf:

86) Nis him nanes pinges nedpearf.

Bo 42

87) Is eallum mannum nedpearf and nytlic ??aet hie heora fulwihthadas wel gehealdan.

BlHom 109.25

The following example from the three different versions of Old English gospels proves that the expressions were interchangeable:

88) Nu we witon paet pu wast ealle ??ing. 7 be nis nan pearf paet aenig pe axie...

WSG John 16.30

nu ue uutun paette ??u wast alle 7 ne ned-??arf 1 is ??e paette huaelc ??ec gefraigna.

Lindisfarne Gospels

nu we wutun ??aette ??u wast alle 7 ne ned is ??e paette hwelc ??ec gifregne...

Rushworth Gospels

Other analytic predicative constructions with the nouns pearf and neod were:

89) Nage we nane ??earfe paet we ??yses weor??an lease; ac utan don swa us pearf is, gelasestan hit georne.

WHom 181.125

90) ic bohte aenne tun. ic hcebbe neode (4) paet ic fare 7 hine geseo.

WSG Luke 14.18

91) bonne we geheton ussum hlaforde in biorsele, oe us oas beagas geaf, baet we him oa guogetawa gyldan woldon gif him byslicu bearf gelumpe, helmas ond heard sweord.

Beowulf 2638

92) Waes beaw hyra baet hie oft waeron an wig gearwe, ge aet ham ge on herge, ge gehwaeber bara, efne swylce maela swylce hira man dryhtne bearf gesaelde;

Beowulf 1251

The present participle of the verb bearf was sometimes used in the function of the adjective or noun corresponding to modem poor, needy:

93) Hlaford Apolloni, ure ceaster is bearfende and ne maeg bine aeoelborennesse acuman, ...

ApT 14.9.10

94) eadig ba burfende in gaste forbon heora his heofuna rice.

Rushw Mt 5.3

(WSG: Eadige synt ba gastlican bearfan, Lindisf: eadge bioon oa oorfendo of 1 from gaste, Vulgate: Beati pauperes spiritu quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum)

The stem bearf was very productive in Old English word formation, and some of the commonly used derivatives were nouns bearfedness, bearflicness, adjectives bearfa, bearfendlic, bearfleas, adverbs bearflice, bearflease and finally weak verbs bearfan, (ge)bearfian, bebearfian, which may have contributed to their confusion with the conjugational patterns of preterite-present bearf.

8. Later developments

With the loss of final -f and/or replacement of the initial dental fricative consonant with the plosive stop d-, in Middle English certain forms of tharf became similar to and sometimes even identical with those of dearr. This will be subject of the sequel to this article (Molencki, forthcoming). Let me only say now that such confusion led to the increasing use of the verb neden. Derived from the noun neod (see the previous section), the verb neodian/neadian had already existed in Old English, but is described in the OED as rare. Its two main senses in Old English were 'to force, compel, constrain':

95) Se oe ooerne neadab ofer his mihte to drincenne... AELetSig 74.1263 and 'to be necessary':

96) On cealdum eardum neodao baet baes reafes mare sy, on hleawfaestum laes. Daes abbodes forsceawung sceal beon be oysum hu oaes neodige.

BenR 89.6.8

In Middle English neden increasingly occupied the slot of kurven and acquired the modal characteristics in both its syntax and semantics. Thurven was totally lost in the late 15th century except for northern, especially Scottish dialects, where it survived in the form that. Similar processes of confusion between the two verbs can be observed in other Germanic languages, e.g. Old Norse, Middle German, Middle Dutch and Middle Frisian lost dare altogether, Modern German preserved durfen in the sense of English may, in Modem Dutch durven is used in the sense of dare. But in the period discussed in this paper, dearr and pearf were still clearly distinct Old English preterite-present verbs, though in a way exceptional ones.

(1.) I prefer to use their third person present forms rather than the hypothetical unattested infinitives.

(2.) Although most reference books list dearr as the basic form, the form with a single r is much more common in the Helsinki corpus.

(3.) According to Campbell, in the past subjunctive "umlaut is frequent in pret.-pres. verbs" (1959: ??736.m).

(4.) The phrase could also mean 'to desire' as in and we habbap nu neode paet he dead gefylle (AELS 31.1460).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DICTIONARIES

Bosworth Joseph -- T. Northcote Toiler = B&T

1898 An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

1921 Supplement by T. Northcote Toller. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

1972 Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda by Alistair Campbell. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Bruckner, Aleksander

1927

[1957] Slownik etymologiczny jezyka polskiego. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna. Kurath, Hans -- Sherman Kuhn (eds.) = MED

1956-2001 Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Linde, Samuel Bogumil

[1859.sup.2] Slownik jezyka polskiego. Lwow: Zaklad Ossolinskich. Machek, Vaclav

1971 Etymologicky slovnik jazyka ceskeho. Praha: Nakladatelstvi Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved.

Rejzek, Jiri

2001 Cesky etymologicky slovnik. Voznice: Leda.

Simpson, John Andrew -- Edmund Simon -- Christopher Weiner (eds.) = OED

[1989.sup.2] Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Snoj, Marko

1997 Slovenski etimoloski slovar. Ljubljana: Zalozba Mladinska Knjiga.

REFERENCES

Alexander, Michael (ed.)

1995 Beowulf. A glossed text. London: Penguin.

Brunner, Karl

1942 Altenglische Grammatik nach der angelsachsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers. Halle: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

Campbell, Alistair

1959 Old English grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Denison, David

1993 English historical syntax: Verbal constructions. London: Loagman.

Kyto, Merja (ed.)

1993 (2) Manual to the diachronic part of the Helsinki Corpus of English texts. coding conventions and lists of source texts. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.

Mitchell, Bruce

1985 Old English Syntax. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Molencki, Rafal

forthcoming The confusion between durren and thurven in Middle English.

Nielsen, Hans F.

1981 Old English and the continental Germanic languages. Innsbruck: Universitat Innsbruck.

Prokoseb, Eduard

1939 A comparative Germanic grammar. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America. Quirk, Randolph -- Sidney Greenbaum -- Geoffrey Leech -- Jan Svartvik

1972 A grammar of contemporay English. London: Longman.

Raffel, Burton -- Alexandra H. Olsen (eds.)

1998 Poems and prose from the Old English. (Translated by Burton Raffel). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Reszkiewicz, Alfred

1973 A diachronic grammar of Old English. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnietwo Naukowe.

Schmidt, Wilhelm (ed.)

1984 (5) Geschichte der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: Volk und Wissen Volkseigener Verlag.

Tellier, Andre

1962 Les verbes perfecto-presents et les auxiliaires de mode en anglais ancien. Paris: Klincksieck.

Visser, Frederikus Theodor

1963-1973 An historical syntax of the English language. 3 vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Warner, Anthony R.

1993 English auxiliaries: Structure and history. Cambridge University Press.

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