MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES

VOLUME XXXVII

MARCH, 1922

NUMBER 3

THE DATIVE OF TIME HOW LONG IN OLD ENGLISH

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As is well known, in West-Saxon Time How Long is usually denoted by the accusative case, as in Matthew 20. 6: Hwi stande ge her eallne dag idele = Quid hic statis tota die otiosi? At times, however, in West-Saxon and somewhat more frequently in Northumbrian, duration of time is expressed by the dative case, as in Elfric's West-Saxon translation of Exodus 12. 19: Ne beo nan gebyrmed mete seofon dagum on eowrum husum! Septem diebus fermentum non invenietur in domibus vestris;1 and in the Northumbrian Lindisfarne Gospels, Matthew 20. 6, which has the dative instead of the accusative of the West-Saxon translation above given: hwæt her stondes ge allen dæge idlo? quid hic statis tota die otiosi? It was the relative frequency of the use of the dative to denote time how long in the Lindisfarne Gospels, observed while studying that text for another purpose, that led me to take up my present theme, the Dative of Time How Long in Old English, especially in the Northumbrian Dialect.

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On turning to our standard English grammars, such as those by Koch, Mätzner, March, Mueller, Sweet, and Wülfing, I was surprised to find that, while the fact is stated that the dative is sometimes used in West-Saxon to express duration of time, little or no explanation of that fact is offered. Nor in the treatises dealing more or less directly with the syntax of the Northumbrian Dialect of Old English did I find any explanation suggested of this idiom. Accordingly I set out in search of an explanation myself.

'As noted by Mätzner, in his Englische Grammatik, II, p. 175, in Exodus 12. 15 the accusative is used in a similar passage: And etað deorf seofon dagas Septem diebus azyma comedetis.

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Whether or not my quest has been successful, must be left to the decision of my readers.

To begin with the West-Saxon, Eduard Mätzner, in his Englische Grammatik (3rd ed., Berlin, 1880-1885), Vol. 1, pp. 174-175, merely says: "In Beziehung auf Zeitbestimmung bezeichnet der Akkusativ-der Raumbestimmung analog-das Erstrecken durch einen Zeitraum, und wird daher zunächst zum Ausdrucke der Zeitdauer auf die Frage: wie lange? . . . Neben dem Akkusativ steht aber der Dativ in gleicher Bedeutung im Angelsächsischen: And etað deorf seofon dagas (Exod. 12, 15); dagegen: Seofon dagum (12. 19). Ne mæg eow nan ding wiðstandan eallum dagum ðines lifes (Jos. 1, 5)." In each of the two examples from the Elfrician Exodus just quoted by Mätzner the Latin original, not given by him, has a durative ablative (Septem diebus azyma comedetis and Septem diebus fermentum non invenietur in domibus vestris), as also in the example from Joshua (Nullus poterit vobis resistere cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ).

C. F. Koch, in his Historische Grammatik der Englischen Sprache (2nd ed., Cassel, 1878), Vol. 11, p. 92, § 112, states that "Der Dativ bezeichnet die Zeit, wann die Thätigkeit geschieht;" he gives examples of the Dative of Time When in Old English; and adds an example of the dative expressing "Zeitdauer: He was micelre tide wunigende, Bed. 3.7." The corresponding Latin, not quoted by Koch, again has an ablative (in Hibernia non parvo tempore demoratus). Koch says nothing of temporal relations in his discussion (in Vol. II, p. 93, § 113) of the Dative of Measure.

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In his Die Syntax in den Werken Alfreds des Grossen (Bonn, 1894), J. E. Wülfing does not treat separately the Dative of Time When and the Dative of Time How Long, nor does he segregate his examples of the former use from those of the latter. merely says, in Vol. 1, p. 143: "Der adverbiale Dativ dient zur Angabe der Zeit, wann, auch häufig: wie lange, wie oft (*) etwas geschieht," and then gives his examples, without separating the one use of the dative from the other. Moreover, as he himself indicates, his statistics are by no means complete. Nor does he say anything of temporal expressions in his discussion, in the same volume, p. 144, of the Dative of Measure.

While gratefully making some use of the incomplete and unclassified examples of Wülfing and of the statistics of other inves

tigators mentioned later, I have been forced to gather statistics of my own not only for Alfred but for other writers, also. For the preparation of this paper I have read statistically the following works: (1) for West-Saxon: Beowulf, edited by A. J. Wyatt (Cambridge, 1908); Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, edited by Charles Plummer (Oxford, 1892); King Alfred's Orosius, edited by Henry Sweet, Part I. Old English Text and Latin Original (London, 1883), which has numerous temporal expressions; The West-Saxon Gospels, in the four-volume edition by Professor James W. Bright (Boston, 1904-1906), with the Latin original as given in Wordsworth and White's briefer edition of the Nouum Testamentum (Oxford, 1911); Elfric's partial Translation of the Old Testament, with the Latin Original, both edited by C. W. M. Grein (Cassel and Göttingen, 1872);-(2) for the Northumbrian: the Lindisfarne Gospels (and for comparison the Rushworth Gospels), with the Latin Original, all edited by W. W. Skeat 3 (Cambridge, England, 1871-1887).

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The Dative of Time How Long falls, it seems to me, under two larger subdivisions, which I shall venture to denominate (A) the Quasi-Durative Dative of Time and (B) the True Durative Dative of Time. In Type A, the Quasi-Durative Dative, the dative gives the time of one event by referring to another event either antecedent or subsequent thereto, and of necessity expresses at once both time when and time how long, as in these examples from Orosius: 44.3: Er dæm de Romeburg getimbred wære III1 hu[n]de wintrum & hundeahtatigum, Uesoges, Egypta cyning, was winnende of suðdæle Asiam . . . & wæs siððan mid firde farende on Sciddie on da norðdælas Anno ante Urbem conditam cccclxxx, Vesoges, rex Aegypti, meridionem et septentrionem aut miscere bello, aut regno jungere studens, Scythis bellum primus indixit;-208. 22: Efter dæm de Romeburg getimbred wæs DC wintrum, wearð Romanum se mæsta ege from Sceltiuerin

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The full title runs: Ælfrik de Vetere et Novo Testamento, Pentateuch, Iosua, Buch der Richter, und Hiob.

* The full title runs: The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions, Synoptically Arranged with Collations Exhibiting All the Readings of All the MSS.; together with the Early Latin Version as Contained in the Lindisfarne MS., Collated with the Latin Version in the Rushworth MS.

Anno ab Urbe condita DC, . . . cum Romanos ingens Celtiberorum metus invasisset, etc. No example of Type A has been found in the Northumbrian. In Type B, the True Durative Dative, the extent of time occupied by an event is expressed without reference to any other event, as in these examples:-Genesis 3. 14: God cwæð to dære næddran . . . ðu gæst on dinum breoste and etst ða eorðan eallum dagum dines lifes Et ait dominus deus ad serpentem: . . . super pectus tuum gradieris et terram comedes cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ;-Lindisfarne Luke 15. 29: heono feolo uel menigum gerum ic hero de ecce tot annis seruio tibi (Rushworth: lacking; W. S.: fela geara).

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Having defined and given general illustrations of the two types of the Dative of Duration of Time, let us now look at each for a moment by itself and try to discover more precisely the nature and the origin thereof.

As to the nature of Type A, the Quasi-durative Dative of Time, some scholars hold that the dative is a dative of measure, and denotes degree of difference much as the ablative does in Latin. Mätzner, for example (1. c., Vol. II, 1880-1885, p. 181), in discussing the Denotation of Measure, says: "Das Mass, um wie viel ein Gegenstand von einem anderen im eigentlichen oder bildlichen Sinne übertroffen wird oder hinter ihm zurückbleibt, wird durch den Akkusativ bezeichnet. Dies geschieht namentlich beim Komparativ der Adjektive und Adverbien und bei dem von too begleiteten Positiv, so wie bei Verben, welche einen Komparativbegriff enthalten, wie überbieten, vermehren, vermindern, u. dgl. . . . Im Angelsächsischen stand zum Theil der Instrumentalis beim Komparativ zur Angabe der Differenz, daher dy (de) læs, dy wyrse, dy bet; vgl. eo minus. Longe hu geornor (the longer the more welcome) (Cod. Exon. 110, 18). Daneben der Dativ, wie bei dem Komparativen ær: Fela wintrum ær (Sax. Chr. 1054)." Similarly Oskar Erdmann, in his Syntax der Sprache Otfrids (Halle, 1874, 1876), Vol. II, § 273, after discussing the Instrumental Case Denoting Cause, speaks thus of the Dative of Measure (including the Temporal Dative): "In ähnlicher Weise steht einigemal bei Zahlangaben der Dat.-Instrumental zur Bezeichnung des Masses, um welches eine Grösse die andere übertrifft; das Mass der Unterscheidung kann leicht als Grund derselben aufgefasst werden. So bei Zeitdifferenzen: IV, 2, 5 sehs dagon fora thiu. IV, 4, 3: thaz

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was finf dagon er sechs, fünf Tage vorher," etc.. This statement by Erdmann is substantially adopted by W. Wilmanns, in his Deutsche Grammatik, 111, 2, p. 613 (Strassburg, 1909), who, in discussing the Dative of Measure, refers to Erdmann, and quotes two of his temporal datives; and by Otto Mensing, who, in his Grundzüge der Deutschen Syntax (Stuttgart, 1898), Vol. II, p. 274, says: "Der Dat.-Instr. dient ferner zur Bezeichnung des Masses oder der Differenz bei Zahlangaben;" and who, also, quotes Erdmann's Temporal Datives. Finally, so far as the Dative with a Comparative Adjective is concerned, the Erdmann theory is accepted by Professor B. Delbrück, who, in his Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen, Vol. I (Strassburg, 1893), § 125, speaks as follows of "Der Instrumentalis bei Komparativen": "Bei Komparativen erscheint ein sog. Instrumentalis des Masses, dasjenige bezeichnend, um welches ein Gegenstand einen anderen übertrifft. . . . Über das Germanische s. Grimm 4, 751. Im Got. ist noch die Instrumentalform þe in pe haldis co amplius erhalten, ahd. diu halt." Personally I have always considered that the Dative-Instrumental with the comparative of adjectives denotes, as is claimed by all the writers just quoted, degree of difference substantially as does the ablative with a comparative in Latin. And it is possible to consider that in my Quasi-durative Dative of Time with verbs we have a dative denoting degree of difference, just as Dr. A. W. Ahlberg, in his Durative Zeitbestimmungen im Lateinischen (Lund, 1906), p. 68, considers that the Latin ablative denoting time with ante and post is an ablative of measure rather than an ablative of time when. The fact that measure is often expressed in Old English by the dative-instrumental might seem to justify that view.

But I doubt whether the Quasi-durative Dative was so felt or considered by the Anglo-Saxon writers. On the contrary, I believe that it was felt to denote time when rather than time how long, and for two reasons. First, at times we find the Quasi-durative Dative and the Accusative of Time How Long in one and the same sentence, as quoted below, in which it seems to me that the writer purposely uses the dative to designate time when and the accusative to denote time how long. Observe these examples:-Orosius 56. 14, 15: Er dæm de Romeburg getimbred wære xxgum wintrum Læcedemoniæ & Mesiane, Creca leode, him betweonum winnende