198 ORIGIN OF CONSTRUCTIONS OF INFINITIVE IN ANGLO-SAXON. 
Professor March, fleon gewat first meant “ he went (in order) to fly,” or “ he 
tended to fly,” and finally merely “ he flew.” How close the border line is 
between the final infinitive and the predicative infinitive after verbs of motion 
in Anglo-Saxon, and how easily the former may pass into the latter, may be made 
clear by a few illustrations, I believe. Take this sentence from the Lceceboc, 
edited by Dr. Leonhardi, 68.29: Sume alwan leaf sella8, Sonne mon wile slapan 
gan; or this from Beowulf, 239: 8us brontne ceol ofer lagustrcete Icedan cwomonf 
or these from Genesis: — 1774: Da com leof gode on 8a eSelturf idesa Icedan; 
1746: Gewit 8u nu feran y 8ine fare Icedan, ceapas to cnosle; 1767: Him 8a 
Abraham gewat cehte Icedan on Egipta eSelmearce. The infinitive in each of 
these sentences may be considered either as final or as predicative, though it 
now seems to me to lean slightly more to the former use in the passages in 
question. But, in most of the examples cited as predicative in Anglo-Saxon, 
the final sense has well nigh completely faded away from the infinitive; the 
infinitive seems to carry the chief idea in the verb phrase; and the principal 
verb seems to have become a mere auxiliary; for which reason it has seemed to 
me best to call this the predicative use of the uninflected infinitive after a verb 
of motion which has paled into an auxiliary, as has long been the habit in char¬ 
acterizing the infinitive after ( w)uton . This seems more nearly in accord with 
the facts than to consider that the infinitive has paled, and that the finite verb 
carries the sense of the verbal phrase, as do those who call the infinitive pleonas¬ 
tic; or than to consider that neither finite verb nor infinitive has paled, as ap¬ 
parently do those who call the infinitive either modal or co-ordinate. 
This development of the verb of motion into an auxiliary and of the final 
infinitive into a predicative infinitive, here postulated as a fact for the Anglo- 
Saxon, is supported by what we learn of similar constructions in the kindred 
languages, especially in the Germanic languages. Thus, the infinitives OUw 
and tjxev, cited from Homer by Dr. Steig and by Dr. Shearin, are considered 
final by Goodwin, in his Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, 
§ 772. Grimm’s numerous examples prove that such may have been the 
evolution in High German with verbs of rest; and Dr. Wiilfing holds that such 
has been the case in Low German as a whole after verbs of motion, a fact 
already illustrated in this section for Old Saxon. Again, this explanation is 
in line with Grimm’s explanation of the High Germanic kam gelaufen. 1 For 
further details as to the idiom in the Germanic languages, see Chapter XVI, 
section v. 
More than this: as we have tried to show, this theory comes nearest to 
explaining the numerous infinitives after verbs of motion in Anglo-Saxon 
poetry and prose, whether final or predicative. It corresponds to the well 
nigh universally accepted belief that the infinitive after ( w)uton in Anglo- 
Saxon was originally final in sense, but early in Anglo-Saxon times became 
predicative, as will be seen in the chapter on this idiom. It tallies with the 
development of the infinitive with to in Modern English after verbs of motion, 
as in I went to sleep = 1 1 slept,’ etc. 
Finally, that the Latin had no influence in the development of this use, is 
evident from the fact that, in the very few examples of the predicative infini¬ 
tive after verbs of motion in the Anglo-Saxon translations, no such infinitive 
occurs in the Latin original. 
1 See Grimm, l. c., IV, p. 9. 
