262 THE INFINITIVE IN THE OTHER GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
finitive: “ En elliptisk infinitiv bruges i spprsmaal og indignerede udraab: 
hvorfor ei Skaftet tage og dermed Hunden fra dig jage (Wess.); hvi dig omsonst 
umage (ib.); komme her og fortselle mig sligt. Ved tysk indflydelse ogsaa i 
bissetninger efter verbet ‘ vide : 1 jeg neppe veed for Fryd paa hvilken Fod at 
staae (Wess.); ligedan i engelsk, fransk, itaiiensk og spansk.” 
Concerning an apparent, not real, example of the absolute infinitive in Old 
High German, see above, p. 260, the quotation from Erdmann. Grimm, l. c., 
IV, p. 98, differs with Erdmann, and holds that the infinitive in both of the 
examples from Otfrid are absolute: “ Man kann sich einen ganz unabhangig 
gesetzten inf. denken. Jener imperativische (s. 87) ist ein solcher, wenn die schlep- 
pende erklarung durch ellipse nichts gilt. Es scheint, dass der inf. auch als aus ruf 
hingestellt wurde.” He then quotes Otfrid III, 20.163, and continues: “Es 
konnte auch fragweise gesagt sein,” but he gives no example of this type from 
Old High German. Of the imperative infinitive in asseverations he thinks we 
have an example in piladi quedan = verbi gratia. 
But examples are given from Middle High German and from New High 
German, not only of the interrogative type but also of the exclamative type: 
Ludw. Kreuzf. 7144: waz biten langer unt niht striten? Lessing 2.104: ich 
schworen f — Keisersb. Omeiss. 19 d : ja wol jetz bistumb aufgeben! Goethe 7.13: 
ich verreisen! ich dich nicht lieben! Grimm concludes: “infinitivische beteu- 
rung: mhd. friuntel machen, nimmer tuon (im munde eines thoren), Frib. Trist. 
5239, 5241; nhd. diesmal tanzen und nicht wieder! ahd. piladi quedan (verbi 
gratia), Graff 3.97, d. h. um ein beispiel zu sagen.” — See, further, concerning 
the idiom in Middle High German, Monsterberg-Munckenau, 1 l. c., pp. 98, 134. 
In Old Saxon I find no example. 
The absolute infinitive, in most of its uses, in the Germanic languages is 
probably, as in Anglo-Saxon, derived by ellipsis from the predicative infinitive 
after the verb to be, though occasionally it arises from the abridgment of a final 
clause into an infinitive phrase: see the list of examples illustrative of this 
evolution in Anglo-Saxon, given in Chapter XIV, section xii. 
Of the four adverbial uses of the infinitive treated in this chapter, then, 
one, that of specification with verbs, seems wholly due to foreign (Latin) in¬ 
fluence; one, that of cause, seems partly of native and partly of foreign origin; 
one, that of result, with adjectives, is wholly native, but with verbs is largely 
native but partly foreign; while the remaining use, the absolute, is wholly native. 
XIII. THE INFINITIVE WITH NOUNS. 
Both the uninflected infinitive and the inflected infinitive are found with 
nouns in the Germanic languages, but the latter the oftener. 
In Gothic we have both 1 infinitives, but oftener the prepositional. More 
frequently (a) the simple infinitive corresponds to the same in Greek, but oc¬ 
casionally to an articular or a prepositional infinitive; while ( b ) the prepositional 
infinitive more commonly corresponds to a Greek articular infinitive in the gen¬ 
itive or to a prepositional, though occasionally to a simple infinitive or to a 
preposition + a noun:—■ (a) Mat. 9.6: patei waldufni habaip sa sunus mans ana 
1 On p. 459 Dr. A. Kohler 2 seems to say that only the prepositional infinitive is found with nouns in Gothic, 
and Denecke, pp. 22, 70, was misled thereby; but what Kohler really says is that he is about to give a group of 
finite verbs + a substantive that are followed only by a prepositional infinitive. At other places he gives clear 
examples of a noun followed by the simple infinitive, as is evident from my citations. 
