CHAPTER IV.

ORDER OF WORDS.

20. The order of words in Old English is more like that of Modern German than of Modern English. Yet it is only the Transposed order that the student will feel to be at all un-English; and the Transposed order, even before the period of the Norman Conquest, was fast yielding place to the Normal order.

The three divisions of order are (1) Normal, (2) Inverted, and (3) Transposed.

(1) Normal order = subject + predicate. In Old English, the Normal order is found chiefly in independent clauses. The predicate is followed by its modifiers: #Sē hwæl bið micle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas#, _That whale is much smaller than other whales_; #Ǫnd hē geseah twā scipu#, _And he saw two ships_.

(2) Inverted order = predicate + subject. This order occurs also in independent clauses, and is employed (_a_) when some modifier of the predicate precedes the predicate, the subject being thrown behind. The words most frequently causing Inversion in Old English prose are #þā# _then_, #þonne# _then_, and #þǣr# _there_: #Ðā fōr hē#, _Then went he_; #Ðonne ærnað hȳ ealle tōweard þǣm fēo#, _Then gallop they all toward the property_; #ac þǣr bið medo genōh#, _but there is mead enough_.

Inversion is employed (_b_) in interrogative sentences: #Lufast ðū mē?# _Lovest thou me?_ and (_c_) in imperative sentences: #Cume ðīn rīce#, _Thy kingdom come_.

(3) Transposed order = subject ... predicate. That is, the predicate comes last in the sentence, being preceded by its modifiers. This is the order observed in dependent clauses:[1] #Ðonne cymeð sē man sē þæt swiftoste hors hafað#, _Then comes the man that has the swiftest horse_ (literally, _that the swiftest horse has_); #Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē frǫm his āgnum hām fōr#, _Nor did he before find any cultivated land, after he went from his own home_ (literally, _after he from his own home went_).

[Footnote 1: But in the _Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan_, in which the style is apparently more that of oral than of written discourse, the Normal is more frequent than the Transposed order in dependent clauses. In his other writings Alfred manifests a partiality for the Transposed order in dependent clauses, except in the case of substantival clauses introduced by #þæt#. Such clauses show a marked tendency to revert to their Normal _oratio recta_ order. The norm thus set by the indirect affirmative clause seems to have proved an important factor in the ultimate disappearance of Transposition from dependent clauses. The influence of Norman French helped only to consummate forces that were already busily at work.]

21. Two other peculiarities in the order of words require a brief notice.

(1) Pronominal datives and accusatives usually precede the predicate: #Hē hine oferwann#, _He overcame him_ (literally, _He him overcame_); #Dryhten him andwyrde#, _The Lord answered him_. But substantival datives and accusatives, as in Modern English, follow the predicate. The following sentence illustrates both orders: #Hȳ genāmon Ioseph, ǫnd hine gesealdon cīpemǫnnum, ǫnd hȳ hine gesealdon in Ēgypta lǫnd#, _They took Joseph, and sold him to merchants, and they sold him into Egypt_ (literally, _They took Joseph, and him sold to merchants, and they him sold into Egyptians’ land_).

NOTE.--The same order prevails in the case of pronominal nominatives used as predicate nouns: #Ic hit eom#, _It is I_ (literally, _I it am_); #Ðū hit eart#, _It is thou_ (literally, _Thou it art_).

(2) The attributive genitive, whatever relationship it expresses, usually precedes the noun which it qualifies: #Breoton is gārsecges īgland#, _Britain is an island of the ocean_ (literally, _ocean’s island_); #Swilce hit is ēac berende on węcga ōrum#, _Likewise it is also rich in ores of metals_ (literally, _metals’ ores_); #Cyninga cyning#, _King of kings_ (literally, _Kings’ king_); #Gē witon Godes rīces gerȳne#, _Ye know the mystery of the kingdom of God_ (literally, _Ye know God’s kingdom’s mystery_).

A preposition governing the word modified by the genitive, precedes the genitive:[2] #On ealdra manna sægenum#, _In old men’s sayings_; #Æt ðǣra strǣta ęndum#, _At the ends of the streets_ (literally, _At the streets’ ends_); #For ealra ðīnra hālgena lufan#, _For all thy saints’ love_. See, also, § 94, (5).

[Footnote 2: The positions of the genitive are various. It frequently follows its noun: #þā bearn þāra Aðeniensa#, _The children of the Athenians_. It may separate an adjective and a noun: #Ān lȳtel sǣs earm#, _A little arm of (the) sea_. The genitive may here be construed as an adjective, or part of a compound = _A little sea-arm_; #Mid mǫnegum Godes gifum#, _With many God-gifts_ = _many divine gifts_.]