Semantics and syntax in Old English mood selection

Abstract

A principled model of mood selection in Old English (OE) has long proved elusive. We analyse the distribution of the indicative and subjunctive in the OE Bede in light of the Latin original, the syntactic construction, and a semantic model of modality which classifies clauses according to whether the situation is represented as holding in the actual or in a possible world. The choice of mood in the Latin and OE Bede differs enough to rule out slavish imitation. In certain clauses, such as result and purpose clauses, the construction type, modality, and grammatical mood all match; however, in other clauses, such as concessives, the OE subjunctive is systematically used whether the situation is represented as actual or possible. Where the grammatical mood of OE forms is ambiguous, modal verbs are often seemingly used as a substitute for the subjunctive. Our results show that while the choice of mood in the OE Bede largely correlates with the syntactic construction, the subjunctive is close to being semantically redundant. This growing redundancy may have been one of the factors in the diminishing role of inflectional mood in the later history of English.To provide a starting point for discussion of diachronic tendencies in the role of mood, Latin may be used to exemplify the use of the subjunctive in older Indo-European languages. 2 In Latin, the subjunctive could be used freely in main clauses, and there were many minimal pairs distinguished by mood alone (examples after Allen et al. 1903). 1. a. Imus go.1PL.IND 'We are going' b. Eamus go.1PL.SBJV 'Let's go' 2. a. Beati estis blessed.NOM.PL be.2PL.IND 'You are blessed' b. Beati sitis blessed.NOM.PL be.2PL.SBJV 'May you be blessed' 3. a. Si monebo, audiet if warn.1SG.FUT.IND hear.3SG.FUT.IND 'If I warn, he will hear' b. Si moneam, audiat if warn.1SG.SBJV hear.3SG.SBJV 'If I were to warn, he would hear'However, already in Latin there is a growing rigidity in the selection of mood (see Appendix 2). For example, the sequence-of-tense rules once restricted to indicative constructions were also extended to the subjunctive (Clackson & Horrocks 2007: 58), while the restricted use of potential subjunctives in Latin (e.g. Allen et al. 1903) contrasts with the broader range of potential optatives still visible in Homeric Greek (see Goodwin 1889: 77). In many contexts, a change of mood also requires the assumption of a different syntactic structure, and even when the change does not lead to ungrammaticality the resulting sentence may still be of marginal acceptability, in the sense of not being the most felicitous or unmarked expression of a given meaning.