8 
THE SUBJECTIVE INFINITIVE. 
The examples in full are: — 
becuman, happen: 
Chad, Anhang, 11: Sam cilde ne becymtS nsefre into heofonan rice becuman . 
been, be, plus an adjective of Pleasantness: — 
softe, soft, pleasant: 
JElf. Horn. I. 164*: Him MS' swiSe softe, and nan geswinc <5aet he fylle 
his galnysse, and druncennysse, and gytsunge begange and modignysse, and 
Sa unstrangan berype, and don (sic!) swa hwaet swa hine lyst. 
gelystan, please: 
Lcece. 69.31*’ b , 32: hwilum hie wel gelyst utgangan 7 him tSa byrSenne fram 
aweorpan 7 georne tilian, ac ne magon. 
geSyncan, seem good: 
L. 1.3: me ge&uhte, geornlice eallum [fram fruman gefylgdum], on endebyrd- 
nesse writan <5e = Visum est et mihi, assecuto omnia a principio diligenter, ex 
ordine tibi scribere. 
geweorSan [-u-], happen: 
Gen. 1692: Ne meahte hie gewurftan weall stsenenne up forS timbran, ac hie 
earmlice heapum tohlodon hleoSrum gedaelde. 
II. The inflected infinitive only is found as subject with the following 
verbs: — 
aCreotan, weary. beon, be, without an adjective, 
behofian, behoove. 
beon, be, in predicative combination with: — 
(1) Adjectives 1 of Ease and Difficulty, 
deoplic, profound, difficult. 
earfotS(e) [-fetS(e)], difficult. 
earfotSlic, difficult. 
earfotSre, more difficult. 
eafte [e-, ie-, y-], easy. 
eaSelicor, more easily. 
eatSelicre, more easy. 
eaS(e)re [e-, ie-], more easy. 
efnefte, equally easy. 
(2) Adjectives of Goodness, Usefulness, 
betst, best. 
fulfremedlic, perfect. 
god, good. 
nyttre, more useful. 
and the like: 
hefig, heavy, unpleasant . 
ieffe: see eatSe. 
ie? 5 re: see eaS(e)re. 
lang [-0-], long, tedious. 
langsum [-0-], long, tedious. 
langsumlic [-0-], long, tedious. 
leng, longer. 
unease [-ie-, -y-], not easy , difficult. 
unieSe: see uneaSe. 
Necessity, and the like: 
nyttwierSe [-y-], useful. 
sel, excellent. 
selest [-ost], most excellent. 
% (3) Adjectives of Pleasantness and Unpleasantness, and the like: 
aatSryt, troublesome 
arwierblicost [-y-J, honorable. 
deorwiertSe, precious. 
dyslic, foolish. 
earmlic, distressing. 
egeslicost, most terrible. 
gedwolsum, misleading. 
geomorlic, sad. 
hefi(g)tyme, troublesome. 
latS, loathsome. 
leofost [-ast], most dear. 
leofre, more dear. 
lustbaerre, more pleasant. 
pleolic, danger oils. 
sar, grievous. 
scandlic [-0-], disgraceful. 
sceamu, shame. 
sorhlic, grievous. 
* Instead of an adjective we occasionally have a noun or an adverb in these groups with beon and 
with SSyncan. 
