CHAPTER VIII. 
THE PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH ACCUSATIVE 
SUBJECT. 
The uninflected infinitive active as the quasi-predicate of an accusative 
subject, in object clauses, is found about 1512 times in Anglo-Saxon. It is 
common in Anglo-Saxon prose, early and late, and in Anglo-Saxon poetry, 
after certain verbs (1) of Commanding, (2) of Causing and Permitting, (3) of 
Sense Perception; is less frequent after (4) verbs of Mental Perception; and 
is almost unknown after (5) verbs of Declaring. 1 The passive infinitive in 
this construction is far less common, being restricted almost exclusively to 
the translations. In subject clauses, the predicative infinitive with accusa¬ 
tive subject, whether active or passive, is very rare, and with one exception is 
found only in the translations. 
In object clauses, the infinitive phrase usually follows the principal verb, as 
in Bede 156.21: Da gehyrde he sumne bara brobra sprecan bset etc. = 130.19: 
audiret unum . . . disposuisse; but occasionally it precedes, as in Beow. 1346: 
Ic bset londbuend leode mine selersedende secgan hyrde, bset etc.; and occasion¬ 
ally it partly precedes and partly follows, as in Bede 190.1: bset he hine . . . 
herde secgan = 152.15: eum audierit . . . narrare. In subject clauses, the situa¬ 
tion is practically the same: see examples toward the end of this chapter. 
Whether in objective or subjective clauses, the infinitive that is active in 
form seems to me active in sense. Some hold, however, that, after verbs of 
commanding, of causing, and of sense perception, we sometimes have a predi¬ 
cative infinitive that, though active in form, is passive in sense. The grounds 
for the active interpretation have been given in Chapter II, pp. 29 ff.; where 
I have stated that to me the infinitive in examples of the sort there cited seems, 
not predicative, but objective, and the accompanying accusative, not sub¬ 
jective, but objective. 
I consider first the idiom in object clauses. 
AS OBJECT. 
A. THE ACTIVE INFINITIVE. 
I. UNINFLECTED. 
The active uninflected infinitive occurs as the quasi-predicate of an accusa¬ 
tive subject with the following groups of verbs: — 
1. Oftenest with Verbs of Commanding 2 and the like, of which group the 
chief representative is hatan, ‘ command/ ‘ order.’ The complete list of verbs 
belonging to this group is as follows: — 
bebeodan [bi—], command, order. forbeodan , 3 forbid. 
biddan, request, command. hatan, command. 
1 As is evident from this statement, I include Grimm’s ‘ non-genuine ’ as well as his ‘ genuine accusative 
with infinitive, — concerning which see Chapter XIV, section viii. 
2 Cf. Gorrell, l. c., pp. 371 ff.; Zeitlin.i l. c., pp. 55 ff. 3 Cf. Gorrell, l. c., p. 373. 
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