THE INFINITIVE IN ANGLO-SAXON. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Age-long was the discussion as to the nature and the origin of the infinitive 
in the Indo-Germanic family of languages. For something over two thou¬ 
sand years, from Panini to Bopp, it was disputed as to whether the infinitive 
should be classed with the verb or with the noun. Of this discussion an excel¬ 
lent history is given by Professor Jolly in his Geschichte des Infinitivs im Indo- 
germanischen (Munchen, 1873), the main conclusions of which are accepted by 
Professor Delbriick in his chapter on the infinitive in his Vergleichende Syntax 
der Indogermanischen Sprachen (Strassburg, 1897). To recount the history 
of this discussion is not called for here. Suffice it to say that, by a careful study 
of the forms of the words used more or less as infinitives in the older Indo- 
Germanic languages, Bopp, in his Conjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache (1816), 
reached the conclusion, now almost universally accepted, that originally the 
infinitives were petrified cases of nouns of action, 1 — a discovery that, according 
to Delbriick, was in a sense the beginning of the science of comparative syntax. 
The process by which these cases of nouns of action became petrified into 
infinitives is thus stated by Professor Delbriick: 2 
“ Demnach diirfen wir uns die Genesis der Infinitive etwa so vorstellen. Zu den altesten 
Zeiten der Ursprache konnten gewisse Kasus von nomina actionis verbale Konstruktion haben 
und dadurch eine innere Beziehung zum Verbum erhalten. Noch in der Ursprache war bei 
einigen derselben die Erstarrung so weit vorgeschritten, dass eine neue Kategorie, die des 
Infinitivs, in’s Bewusstsein trat. Einige Exemplare dieser neuen Formgattung mogen schon 
in formal ausgepragte Beziehung zu einzelnen Tempussystemen getreten sein. Viele andere 
Kasus waren erst auf dem Wege, sich zu Infinitiven umzubilden. Diesen Zustand erbten die 
Einzelsprachen. Im Arischen hat er sich nicht eben erheblich verandert. Im Griechischen 
aber hat sich die Erstarrung soweit vollendet, dass nur noch isolierte Formen vorhanden sind, 
und dass eine Auftheilung der gesammten Masse unter die Tempusstamme und unter die 
Genera des Verbums stattgefunden hat. Von dem letztgenannten Vorgang findet sich im 
Arischen noch keine Spur.” 
In the foregoing quotation describing the evolution from noun of action to 
infinitive, Professor Delbriick states that various cases of the noun were involved. 
These cases, as we learn from Professor Delbriick 3 and from Professor Brug- 
mann, 4 in the older Indo-Germanic languages, were largely the locative, the 
dative, and the accusative. 
When we turn to our own branch of the Indo-Germanic family, the Ger¬ 
manic, we find a much simpler state of affairs. The history of the infinitive 
forms in the Germanic languages, including English, is succinctly given by 
Professor Joseph Wright, in his Old English Grammar (London, 1908), § 480: 
1 See Jolly, l. c., pp. 47 f., 78; Delbriick. 1 1. e., I, p. 50, and II, p. 440; Brugmann,* * l. c., pp. 351 £F. 
* Delbriick, 1 1. c., II, p. 451. * Delbriick, 1 II, pp. 451, 453, 475. 
* Brugmann, 1 l. c., pp. 351 ff. See, too, Brugmann and Delbriick, l. c., p. 167; Fay, 5 l. c.,pp. 191-192; 
and Solmsen, l. c., pp. 161-169. 
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