PREDICATE ACCUSATIVE OF PRESENT PARTICIPLE. 
227 
— sittende, * sitting ’ (1): 134.31: <5eh <5e hie hiene mebigne on cneowum 
sittende metten = 135.18: fixo genu eatenus pugnavit. 
In Waerferth, however, the construction is somewhat more frequent than 
in Alfred, Waerferth having, in his one book (The Dialogues of Gregory), 27 
examples; of which number, 25 are in direct translation of Latin predicate 
accusatives of the present participle; 1 (169.7), of a Latin predicate past parti¬ 
ciple; and 1 (335.26), of a Latin accusative and infinitive. 
No examples have been found in the early part of the Chronicle, the earliest 
occurring in the year 1107, in the late manuscript E. Only three examples 
occur in all, and these belong, therefore, to Late West Saxon. 
Moreover, not only is the predicate accusative of the present participle with 
real verbal power rare in Anglo-Saxon poetry and in Early West Saxon prose, 
and, when occurring in either, is traceable to Latin influence, but we have un¬ 
mistakable evidence that the Early West Saxon translators constantly shunned 
rendering the Latin predicate accusative of the present participle by the 
corresponding construction in Anglo-Saxon. A reference to the Latin corre¬ 
spondents to the predicative infinitive with accusative subject after verbs of 
perception (sense and mental), given on pp. 206 f., shows that often the 
predicate participle is translated by a predicate infinitive. 
Once more: we find the idiom only sparingly used in the more original 
Anglo-Saxon prose, whether early or late; for the Chronicle has only three 
examples, all after the year 1100; and Wulfstan, only four; while the Laws 
and the Lceceboc have no example. 
As to other relatively early West Saxon works, the Prose Psalms shows 
only two examples, in one of which (34.14 c ) an Anglo-Saxon predicate parti¬ 
ciple = a Latin appositive participle, and in the other (41.10) a slightly verbal 
participle = a Latin genitive phrase; Benedict, three examples, in each of 
which the Anglo-Saxon predicate participle translates a Latin predicate parti¬ 
ciple; the Blickling Homilies, 17 examples; the prose Guthlac, two examples, 
in one of which (VI.9) the Anglo-Saxon predicate participle = a Latin apposi¬ 
tive participle, and in the other (1.16) the Anglo-Saxon predicate participle in 
the accusative = a Latin predicate participle in the nominative with a passive 
verb; the Martyrology, five examples; the A. S. Homilies and Lives of Saints II 
(non-^Elfrician), three examples; Apollonius, no example; and the Minor 
Prose, ten examples, distributed as follows: Nicodemus, 1; Napier’s Addi¬ 
tions to Thorpe (really, therefore, to be credited to vElfric), 4; Benediktiner - 
Offizium, 1; Chad, 2; Alexander, 2. 
But in Late West Saxon times the idiom is quite common, about 75 examples 
occurring in iElfric and 80 in the Gospels. Of these 80 examples, all except 
two 1 are in direct translation of a Latin predicate participle. Of A51fric’s 
familiarity with and his addiction to Latin idioms, especially those concerned 
with the participle, abundant evidence has been given in the present writer’s 
discussion of ASlfric’s frequent use of the absolute 2 participle and of the apposi¬ 
tive participle, 3 in which discussion were pointed out the chief Latin sources of 
1 The two exceptions are: Mat. 15.32: ic hig nelle fcestende forlcetan = dimittere eos jejunos nolo, in which a 
slightly verbal participle = a Latin adjective; Mat. 27.32: Sa gemetton hig aenne Cyreniscne mann cumende heom 
togenes = Exeuntes autem invenerunt hominem Cyrenaeum nomine Simonem, in which a predicate accusative 
participle is suggested by a Latin appositive participle. 
2 See The Absolute Participle in Anglo-Saxon, p. 28. 
3 See The Appositive Participle in Anglo-Saxon, pp. 297 ff. 
