CHAPTER XVI. 
THE INFINITIVE IN THE OTHER GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
In this chapter I attempt to give a very brief conspectus of the Infinitive 
in the Germanic Languages other than Anglo-Saxon, primarily for the light 
thus to be derived for the Infinitive in Anglo-Saxon. I trust, however, that 
the preceding detailed discussion of the uses of the infinitive in Anglo-Saxon 
may enable me to throw some light on the construction in the kindred Germanic 
languages. The main authorities, aside from the standard grammars by 
Grimm and by Wilmanns (the latter still unfinished), are for Gothic: the Ele- 
mentarbuch by Streitberg and the special articles by Arthur Kohler and Otto 
Apelt; for the Scandinavian languages: the treatises of Falk and Torp, of 
Holthausen, of Kahle, of Lund, of Nygaard, and of Grimberg; for Old High 
German: the works of Apelt, Crenshaw, Denecke, Dietz, O. Erdmann, Gocking, 
K. Meyer, Mourek, Rannow, Rick, Seedorf, Seiler, and Wunderlich; for 
Middle High German: those of Paul, of Michels, and of Monsterberg-Muncke- 
nau; for New High German: those of Blatz, Curme, Herford, Thomas, Von 
Jageman, and Whitney; and for Old Saxon: those of Behaghel, Holthausen, 
Pratje, and Steig. It will not be considered improper, I trust, to add that, 
while the examples given below are borrowed from the aforementioned au¬ 
thorities, the interpretation thereof is my own. 
I. THE SUBJECTIVE INFINITIVE. 
In Gothic we find as subject both the simple infinitive and the prepositional 
infinitive (with du ): — Mk. 7.27: unte ni gop ist niman hlaif barne jah wairpan 
hundam = ov yap Icttlv KaXbv Xafieiv tov aprov tc5v tckvojv kcu fiaXdv rots Kvvapcois ; 1 
Rom. 7.18: unte wiljan atligip mis = to yap OeXecv TrapaKciTal poi ; 2 Mk. 10.24: 
hvaiwa aglu ist paim hugjandam afar faihau in piudangardja gups galeipan 
= 7 rcog SvctkoXov icrTL tovs 7r€7ro<,#OTas €7rt tois x prjpacnv eis ttjv ^aciXdav TOV Beov 
elo-eXOelv; 3 I. Cor. 11.6: ip jabai agl ist qinon du kapillon aippau skaban = d 8e 
alo-Xpoy yvvaud to KcipacrOai rj gvpao-QaL. 3 As is evident from the preceding ex¬ 
amples, the Greek articular infinitive is represented by both the simple infini¬ 
tive and the prepositional infinitive in Gothic. In Gothic itself the infinitive 
is at times preceded by the article, as in Philip. 1.29: izwis fragiban ist faur 
Xristu ni patainei du imma galaubjan, ak jah pata faur ina winnan = otc vplv 
ixapto-Or] to virep XpicrToi), ov povov to d<s avrov 7rurrev€LV, aXXa Kal to inrep avTov 
T-ao-xetv. 4 Worthy of note, too, is the tendency to use the prepositional in¬ 
finitive instead of the simple infinitive after the verb to be plus an adjective, 
but the tendency is not so strong as in Anglo-Saxon. Finally, it should be 
mentioned that Professor Streitberg, 2 1. c., § 318, considers as predicative infin- 
1 From Wright, 2 l. c., § 435. 
3 Ibidem, l. c., p. 434. 
231 
2 From Kohler, 2 A., 1. c., p. 421. 
4 From Bernhardt, 2 l. c., p. 111. 
