THE OBJECTIVE INFINITIVE. 
187 
2. Verbs of Permitting. 1 
With this group, only two verbs (liefan and lofian in the sense of ‘ allow ’) 
are found with the objective infinitive. Liefan is not found in the poetry; in 
the translations it corresponds once {Mat. 19.8) to a Latin objective infinitive 
active, once {Mlf. Hept.: Num. 21.22) to a subjective infinitive, and once 
{Greg. 451.29) it has no Latin correspondent; the other example is found in 
Wulfstan. Lofian is found once, in the Chronicle. The infinitive with these 
verbs is probably of native origin. 
3. Verbs of Mental Perception. 2 
Of this group, only three verbs {adencan, mynnan, and witan [nytan]) are 
found with the inflected objective infinitive in the poems. The following 
fifteen are found in the Anglo-Saxon translations: hehatan, gehyhtan, geliefan, 
geswutelian, geteohhian, ge&encan, leer an, sirwan, smeagan [smean], tcecan, 
teohhian [tioh-\, Seahti(g)an, under standan, weddian, and witan; and have vari¬ 
ous Latin correspondents, as indicated below. The following occur in texts 
other than the poems or the translations: ceteowan, anbidian, bodian, cytSan, 
geceosan, tacan, and tellan. In all probability, therefore, the inflected infinitive 
as object with the verbs of mental perception as a whole is a native idiom. 
The Latin correspondents for the words above specified are: — for hehatan: objective 
active infinitive, 1; accusative and future active infinitive as object, 1; ut + the subjunctive 
in an object clause, 1; — for gehyhtan: objective active infinitive, 1; — for geliefan: accusa¬ 
tive and gerundial infinitive as object, 1; — for geswutelian: objective active infinitive, 1; — 
for geteohhian: objective active infinitive, 1; accusative and active infinitive as object, 1; 
co-ordinated finite verb, active, 1; subordinated finite verb, active, 1; substantivized past 
participle, 1; no Latin, 3; — for geSencan: objective active infinitive, 1; — for loeran: gerund¬ 
ive in the genitive, 1; gerundive in the accusative, 1; no Latin, 1; — for sirwan: final 
active infinitive, 1; — for smeagan [smean] : accusative and future active infinitive, 1; no 
Latin, 1; — for tcecan: co-ordinated finite verb, passive, 1;—for teohhian: objective active 
infinitive, 1; complementary infinitive to an auxiliary verb, 1; ut + a subjunctive, 2; gerun¬ 
dive in the predicate nominative, 1; no Latin, 3; — for &eahti(g)an: accusative and future 
active infinitive, 1; — for understandan: no Latin, 1; — for weddian: objective active infini¬ 
tive, 1; — for witan: no Latin, 1. 
4. Verbs of Beginning, Delaying, and Ceasing. 3 
The inflected infinitive as object with this group of verbs is not found in 
the poems. Except with three verbs found in this idiom only in iElfric {elcian, 
forwiernan, and gefon), it is represented in the Anglo-Saxon translations; in 
which, as my statistics below show, it answers most frequently to a Latin 
objective infinitive active or to various locutions made up of the Latin gerund 
or gerundive, and occasionally to other idioms. As the simplex, wiernan, and 
other compounds of fon occur in the translations, it is probable that, in the 
main, the infinitive in this group of verbs was due to the influence of the Latin 
originals. 
The Latin correspondents are: — for anforlcetan: objective active infinitive, 1; — for 
gcelan: co-ordinated finite verb, active, 1; — for ieldan [eldan, yldan ]: objective active in¬ 
finitive, 3; appositive participle, deponent, 1; — for onfon: gerundive in the accusative, 3; 
gerund in the genitive, 1; — for underfon: gerundive in the accusative, 2; ad + a gerund, 1; 
ut + a subjunctive of purpose, 1; no Latin, 2; — for wiernan: objective active infinitive, 1. 
1 Given in Chapter II, p. 37. 2 Given in Chapter II, p. 37. 
3 Given in Chapter II, p. 37. 
