5. Secondary predication constructions

One of the peculiarities of the English syntax is a rather wide range of predicative complexes in the function of various parts of the sentence, which are then called complex parts of the sentence: complex subject, complex object, etc. A predicative complex comprises two parts, the first denotes the doer of the action or the bearer of a certain state or quality and the second the action (state or quality) itself.

Predicative complexes with verbals are far more frequent than those with adjectives, statives, adverbs and nouns, e.g. I heard him cry. I think him clever. Your doing nothing won’t help anybody. That is not for me to decide.

One of the most important developments in Late ME and Early NE syntax was the growth of predicative constructions. Predicative constructions date from the OE period, when dative absolute was used in translations from Latin and the accusative with the infinitive – in original English texts.

Oe infinitive phrases

1. Accusative with the infinitive: verb + noun / pronoun + infinitive. This construction was mainly used with verbs of perception: sēon ‘see’, hīeran ‘hear’, efrinan ‘learn’ and also with verbs expressing order and permission: hātan ‘order’, lætan ‘let’, etc., e.g. fÿrleoht eseah, blācne lēoman beorhte scīnan ‘He saw a firelight, a glittering flash shine brightly’. ne hÿrde ic cymlicor cēol eyrwan ‘I did not hear a more handsom ship constructed’.

2. Accusative with the participle or adjective: noun + adjective / participle, e.g. edeþ him swā ewēaldene (participle II) worolde dælas (noun) ‘he will make parts of the world so subdued to him’.

3. Absolute participle construction with the noun and participle being in the dative case, e.g. forlætenre þære ceastre, he cōm ‘the camp having been left, he came’.

Me infinitive phrases

1. In Early ME the construction accusative with the infinitive was used much less often than in OE. It is mainly found with the verbs hoten ‘order’, leten, maken, sometimes with verbs of perception: sen, heren, e.g. and hehte þane duc stronge: herien in suþ londe ‘and ordered the strong duke to make war in the south country’.

Since the 14^th c. more verbs are used in this structure, mostly of French origin: causen, compellen, constreynen. E.g. This prison caused me not for to crye ‘This prison did not make me cry’. But deeth, that wol not suffre us dwellen heer ‘but Death, who will not suffer us to stay here’.

Thus, the construction, whose use had been somewhat reduced in Early ME, rises again in the 14^th c.

2) The absolute construction which had existed in OE as an independent dative, is preserved in ME. Now a noun takes the form of the common case, and a personal pronoun, that of the nominative. E.g. High on horse he sat, uppon his head a Flaundrish bever hat (nouns in bold italics are used in the common case).

Ne infinitive phrases

In Late ME and Early NE (the 15^th -16^th c.) the use of the “objective + infinitive continues to grow. The accusative with the infinitive and the accusative with the participle came to be used with an increasing number of verbs of various meanings. In the 17^th and 18^th c. new types of predicative constructions appeared: the nominative with the infinitive and with participles I, II, the nominative absolute construction and the absolute construction with prepositions, and, finally, the for-phrase with the infinitive and the gerundial construction. E.g.:

objective predicative constructions (“complex object”)

I would desire you to draw your knife and grave your name.

subjective predicative constructions (“complex subject”)

He was reported to be a very, a very uncontented person.

absolute constructions

My flesh being troubled, my heart doth hear the spear.”

for-phrase with the infinitive

The descriptions whereof were too long for me to write, and you to read.

In the 19^th and 20^th c. the construction spread still further and became a typical feature of contemporary English.