20 
THE SUBJECTIVE INFINITIVE. 
(1) Uninflected: 
/Elf. Horn. II. 398 b h 2 : forban cSe us is beboden, burh gewrite bsere ealdan se, 
ofsittan and fortredan (5a gewilnigendlican lustas. 
(2) Inflected: 
Bede 206.16: of eallum Son, be on halgum bocum beboden is to healdanne 
- 161.27: nil ex omnibus, quae in . . . literis facienda cognoverat (or final?). 
Boeth . 40.10: to Sam weorce Se me beboden woes to wyrcanne = 0 (or final?). 
— -Ib. 40.24: Ne maeg he . . . nan Sara Singa wyrcan Se him beboden is to 
wyrcenne = 0 (or final?). 
Differentiation of the Two Infinitives. 
If now we seek to discover what determines the use of the inflected or of 
the uninflected form of the infinitive as the subject of active verbs, the answer 
is clear in the case of the verbs having only the inflected form as subject. In 
the majority of instances the finite verb is made up of the appropriate form 
of beon or Syncan plus an adjective (or occasionally plus an adverb or a noun) 
that is usually followed by the dative (or occasionally by the genitive) case of 
nouns and naturally by the inflected infinitive when the adjective is modified 
by an infinitive; hence, even when not immediately modifying the adjective, 
but when used as the subject of a finite verb, the infinitive is by the indirect in¬ 
fluence of the adjective attracted from the logically expected nominative form, 
that is, the uninflected infinitive, into the dative form, that is, the inflected 
infinitive. In the prose Gen. 2.18 a (Nis na god bisum men ana to wunienne = 
Non est bonum hominem esse solum) and in the Chron. 173 m , 1048 E b (for ban 
him wees la& to amyrrenne his agenne folgab), for instance, we see the 
transforming influence of the dative-governing adjectives, god and laS. Of 
course, as already stated, at times it is difficult to decide whether the infinitive 
was intended by the writer to modify the adjective or to be the subject of the 
finite verb. Most of the remaining verbs of the group are such as habitually 
govern a dative (or occasionally a genitive), and this oblique regimen is, as in 
the case of beon or Syncan plus an adjective, strong enough to cause the infini¬ 
tive to be inflected when used as a subject, — a result the more easily brought 
about by the circumstance that these verbs are in most instances impersonal, 
and that the infinitive usually follows rather than precedes the finite verb. 
For example, in Greg. 237.11 (sua dereS eac hwilum sumum monnum baet sob 
to gehierenne = 178.25: ita nonnunquam quibusdam audita vera nocuerunt ) and 
in /Elf. L. S. XXXVI. 183 (unc bam mceg helpan to hoebbenne bis an), we see 
the same sort of transforming influence exercised by the dative-governing 
verbs, derian and helpan. Moreover, because of its frequent postposition, the 
infinitive is often in close proximity to the transforming adjective or verb. 
Occasionally, too, out of analogy to these dative-governing verbal phrases, a 
verb that does not govern a dative has an inflected infinitive as its subject, 
as has beon in Mat. 20.23, owing to the influence of the frequently recurring 
beon plus a dative-governing adjective. 
As to the verbs having only the uninflected infinitive as subject, it seems 
natural that becuman in the sense of 1 happen 1 and geweorSan with the same 
meaning should have the uninflected infinitive as subject, since there is no 
factor to cause inflection. 
