Old English Syntax

Between this syntax and that of the Chronicle, as illustrated by the above example, there is of course a very great difference, which can only be interpreted as due to the stylistic peculiarities of the two texts, and this in its turn, depends on the subject matter and on the purpose of the texts. 

                                              3. WORD-ORDER

In some sources, especially older ones, we can find information that Old English word-order is "free" compared to that of Modern English, and we may conclude that writers of Old English could mix up their words in any order at all. But though word-order was freer then than now, there are just a few common word-orders in Old English clauses. The main Old English word-orders are these:

Subject-Verb.

This, of course, is how most Modern English sentences are arranged.

Verb-Subject.

This word-order still occurs in Modern English sentences like "There are plenty of fish in the sea," and often in questions, such as "Are you sleeping?"

Subject . . . Verb.

The finite verb is delayed until the end of the clause.

Each of these can occur in several different environments, but each is also typical of particular kinds of clause.

3.1. Subject-Verb

This is the standard word-order of the Modern English clause, and it is very common in Old English. It is typical of independent clauses, though it also occurs frequently in subordinate clauses:

Ēac swylċe ðā nȳtenu of eallum cynne and eallum fugolcynne cōmon tō Noe, intō ðām arce, swā swā God bebēad ‘Also the beasts of each species and (of) each species of bird came to Noah, into the ark, as God commanded’

The direct object, when it is a noun or noun phrase, will generally follow the verb:

God bletsode ðā Noe and his suna and cwæð him tō: "Weaxað and bēoð ġemenifylde and āfyllað ðā eorðan."

God then blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Increase and be multiplied and fill the earth."

Old English has a tendency to place pronoun objects - direct and indirect - early in the clause. A pronoun object will usually come between the subject and the verb:

And iċ  hine ġesēo and bēo ġemyndiġ ðæs ēċean weddes ðe ġeset is betwux Gode and eallum libbendum flǣsce.

And I will see it and be mindful of the eternal covenant that is established between God and all living flesh.

If the clause has both a direct and an indirect object, and one of them is a pronoun, the pronoun will come first:

Hēr ġē magon ġehȳran þæt hē ġyfð ūs anweald, ġif wē on hine ġelȳfað, Godes bearn tō bēonne.

Here you may hear that he gives us the power, if we believe in him, to be God's children.

If the indirect object had been a noun and the direct object a pronoun, the direct object would have come first.

Though you will most frequently find a noun object after the verb and a pronoun before, there is no hard-and-fast rule for the placement of objects. Sometimes a pronoun object stands after the verb, and sometimes the object will come before the subject:

and iċ  fordō hī mid ðǣre eorðan samod.

I will destroy them together with the earth.

Ðone cyning hī brōhton cucene tō Iosue.

They brought the king alive to Joshua.

Adverbial elements, including prepositional phrases and adverb clauses occur in various places in the sentence, e. g. God bletsode ðā Noe ‘God then blessed Noah’

3.2. Verb-Subject

This word-order is common in independent clauses introduced by the adverbs þā 'then', þonne 'then', þǣr 'there', þanon 'thence', þider 'thither', the negative adverb ne, and the conjunctions and/ond and ac 'but'.

Since Old English narrative often advances in a series of þā-clauses, we will find the Verb-Subject word-order quite frequent in narrative:

Ðā  cwæð Drihten tō Caine: "Hwǣr is Abel ðīn brōðor?"

Ðā  andswarode hē and cwæð: "Iċ nāt; seġst ðū, sceolde iċ mīnne brōðor healdan?"

Ðā  cwæð Drihten tō Caine: "Hwæt dydest ðū? Þīnes brōðor blōd clypað tō mē of eorðan."

Then the Lord said to Cain: "Where is Abel, your brother?"

Then he answered and said: "I don't know: do you say I must look after my brother?"

Then the Lord said to Cain: "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries to me from the earth."

This word-order also occurs in independent clauses not introduced by an adverb or adverbial element:

Wǣron hī ēac swȳþe druncene, for ðām þǣr wæs brōht wīn sūðan.

[They were also very drunk, for wine had been brought from the south.]

When the clause contains a direct object, it will usually follow the subject, but it may also come first in the clause.

The Verb-Subject word-order is also characteristic of questions, whether or not introduced by an interrogative word:

Him cwæð Nicodemus tō: "Hū mæġ se ealda mann eft bēon ācenned? Mæġ hē, lā, inn faran tō his mōdor innoðe eft, and swā bēon ġeedcenned?"

Nicodemus said to him, "How can the old man be born again? May he, indeed, go into his mother's womb again, and thus be reborn?"

In Modern English this word-order is used mostly in questions, but in Old English it is also used in declarative sentences.

Eart þū se Bēowulf,   se þe wið Brecan wunne [Beowulf, l. 506.]

The Verb-Subject word-order has suggested to most editors that the line is a question, to be translated "Are you the Beowulf who contended with Breca?" But it has been plausibly suggested that it is instead a statement, to be translated "You're that Beowulf, the one who contended with Breca!"

Commands also generally have the Verb-Subject word-order unless the subject is omitted, as happens more often than not when the command is positive:

Ne wyrċ ðū ðē āgrafene godas.

[Do not make graven gods for yourself.]

Ārwurða fæder and mōdor.

[Honor (your) father and mother.]

3.3. Subject . . . Verb

The Subject . . . Verb word-order is commonly found in subordinate clauses and clauses introduced by and/ond or ac 'but', though it does sometimes occur in independent clauses. The subject comes at the beginning of the clause and the finite verb is delayed until the end (though it may be followed by an adverbial element such as a prepositional phrase).

Gode ofðūhte ðā ðæt hē mann ġeworhte ofer eorðan.

Then it was a matter of regret to God that he had made man upon the earth.

In the noun clause (ðæt . . . eorðan), the direct object of ġeworhte comes between the subject and the verb. Indirect objects complements, adverbial elements and various combinations of these are to be found in the same position:

Adverbial element:

Se Iouis wæs swā swīðe gāl þæt hē on hys swustor ġewīfode.

This Jove was so very lustful that he married his sister.

and þā bēċ ne magon bēon āwǣġede, þe þā ealdan hǣðenan be him āwriton þuss.

and the books that the old heathens wrote thus about them may not be nullified.

Complement:

Nū secgað  þā Deniscan þæt se Iouis wǣre, þe hī Þōr hātað, Mercuries sunu.

Now the Danes say that this Jove, whom they call Thor, was Mercury's son. 

Indirect object and object:

and Adam him eallum naman ġesceōp

and Adam made names for them all. 

                                                  
 
 
 
 

Conclusion 

The syntactical structure of OE was determined by two major conditions: the nature of OE morphology and the relations between the spoken and the written forms of the language.

OE was largely a synthetic language; it possessed a system of grammatical forms which could indicate the connection between words; consequently, the functional load of syntactic ways of word connection was relatively small. It was primarily a spoken language, therefore the written forms of the language resembled oral speech – unless the texts were literal translations from Latin or poems with stereotyped constructions. There was no fixed word order, the order of the words in sentence being relatively free. Consequently, the syntax of the sentence was relatively simple; coordination of clauses prevailed over subordination; complicated syntactical constructions were rare.

                                                               Bibliograрhy

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