THE ACTIVE INFINITIVE. 
21 
That we have an uninflected infinitive as subject to beon plus softe is 
probably due to the great distance separating 1 the infinitive from the verbal 
phrase. 
That ge&yncan in the sense of ‘seem good' has for its subject the uninflected 
instead of the inflected infinitive seems to contravene the general explanation 
given of the inflected infinitive above; and it may be an exception that proves 
the rule, though I doubt this. To me the explanation seems rather this: 
‘ seem good ’ is only occasionally the sense of gedyncan; moreover, the infini¬ 
tive both in the Latin original and in the Anglo-Saxon is separated from the 
principal verb by a number of words; in brief, geSyncan had but slight datival 
force to transmit to the infinitive, and this little was evaporated in the distance 
between it and the infinitive. 
Gelystan, we may suppose, merely follows the general rule of the simplex, 
lystan, which latter habitually though not invariably has an uninflected infini¬ 
tive as its subject. 
When we turn to the group of verbs having now the inflected and now the 
uninflected infinitive as the subject, we find that the group as a whole is true 
to the general principles already stated, with only two apparent, if not real, 
exceptions, aliefan and lystan , each of which is, as stated, found oftener with 
the uninflected than with the inflected infinitive, lystan far oftener. The 
datival sense in aliefan, though not so strong as in derian, helpan, etc., is still 
so strong that its having an uninflected infinitive for subject occasions sur¬ 
prise each time until I place the examples with uninflected infinitives side by 
side with those having the inflected, and discover that, with one exception (L. 
6.9 a ), in the former examples, the infinitive, in the Anglo-Saxon, is perceptibly 
farther removed from the finite verb {aliefan) than in the latter examples; and 
that, of the ten examples of the uninflected infinitive, five (MJc. 3.4 b> c , L. 6.9 a ’ b> c ) 
occur in two series of three infinitives each, in one of which series the first infini¬ 
tive (Mk. 3.4 a ) is inflected, — a fact that seems to indicate that the degree of 
separation 1 from the principal verb is an appreciable factor as to the inflection 
of the infinitive. Of course, it is open to one to claim that, in a series of the 
sort under discussion, the to is carried over as it were to the succeeding infini¬ 
tives, or, to put it differently, that the presence of to with the first infinitive 
accounts for the lack of inflection in the succeeding infinitives rather than the 
distance of the latter from the finite verb. This claim seems improbable, 
however, in view of the fact that in eighteen 2 series the inflected infinitive is 
followed by the inflected, while in only six 2 series is the inflected followed by 
the uninflected; and that in the former series, as a rule, the co-ordinated infini¬ 
tives are appreciably closer to each other and, therefore, to the principal verb 
than in the latter series. Again, this claim seems improbable in view of the 
fact that, with the verb under discussion, aliefan, we habitually find the single 
1 Separation from its governing verb, its adjective, or its noun, as we shall see later in Chapters II, XI, and 
XIII, likewise tends to the loss of inflection on the part of the infinitive. We thus have four additional illustra¬ 
tions of the principle so happily stated by Professor C. Alphonso Smith, in his Studies in English Syntax, p. 60: 
** Other illustrations of the general principle that I have endeavoured to outline will suggest themselves to the 
reader. Enough have been given, I believe, to show that a dominant characteristic of English syntax, a char¬ 
acteristic that differentiates it sharply from the syntax of Latin, is its insistent tendency to operate at close 
quarters, to span only limited areas, and to make its laws of concord depend not so much on logic as on proximity. 
English syntax is essentially a syntax of short circuits.” 
2 Given in the notes at the end of this chapter. 
