Adverbial Clauses
These cover a wide variety of meanings, such as place, time, cause, purpose, concession, comparison, etc. Accordingly the number of conjunctions introducing such clauses is considerable. Here we find pær 'where', pa 'when', ponne 'when', oppæt 'until', for 'because', peahpe 'though', and others.
Clauses of Place
Such clauses are rather rare. They are usually introduced by the adverb pær, e.g. Hwearf pa hrædlice, pær Hropʒar sæt 'he turned quickly to where Hrothgar sat’.
Temporal Clauses
These are introduced by various conjunctions: pa, ponne, panne 'when', sippan 'since', ær, ærpæmpe 'before', penden 'while', oppæt 'until'.
E. g.: pa he pa pas andsware onfenʒ, pa, onʒan he sona sinʒan 'when he had received this answer, he soon began to sing'; ponne he ʒeseah pa hearpan him nealæcan, ponne asras he for sceome fram pæm symble 'when he saw the harp approach him, he rose for shame from the feast'; heold, penden lifde, ʒatnol ond ʒup-reow,ʒlæde Scyldinʒas 'ruled, while he lived, old and battle-famous, the Scildings so that they were glad'; næfre him deap scepep on pam willwonʒe penden woruld stondep 'never will death harm in the wonder garden while the world stands'; pær se eadʒa mot .. . wunian in wonʒe, oppæt wintra bip pusend urnen 'there the blessed one can ... live in the garden, until a thousand years have elapsed'; ʒewat pa neosian sippan niht becom, hean huses 'started then, when night fell, to approach the high house'.
Clauses of Cause
Clauses of cause are introduced by the conjunctions forpæm (pe), for, e. g. pa cirdon hieup-ip on pa ea, for-pæm hie ne dorston forp bi pære ea siʒlan for unfripe; for-pæm pæt land wæs eall ʒebun on opre healfe pære eas 'then they turned into the river, because they didnot dare to sail on past the river, for unrest, as the land was all inhabited on the other side of the river'; wæs. seo hwil micel, twelf wintra fid torn ʒepolode wine Scyldinʒa, weanna ʒehwylcne, sidra sorʒa, forðam syððan wearðylda bearnum undyrne cuð, ʒyddum ʒeomore, pætte ʒrendel wan hwlle wip Hropʒar 'the time was long, twelve years didthe Scildings' friend suffer rage, every woe, great sorrows, because later it became known to children of men, sadly in songs, that Grendel had long made war on Hrothgar'.
Clauses of Purpose
These are introduced by the conjunction pæt and contain a verb in the subjunctive mood. E. g. swa sceal ʒeonʒʒuma gode ʒewyrcean, fromum feoh-ʒiftum on fæder ærne, pæt hine on ylde eft ʒewunien wil-ʒesiðas, ponne wiʒ cume, leode ʒelæstetn, 'thus shall a young warrior well achieve, by generous gifts in his father's house, that willing companions should be with him in his old age, when a war comes, people should follow him'.
If the clause of purpose expresses an action to be avoided it is introduced by the conjunctional locution py læs (pe), e. g. forpon ic leof werud læran wille æ-fremmende, pæt ʒe eower hus ʒefæstiʒen py læs hit ferblædum windas toweorpan 'therefore I want to teach my dear people, law-abiding, that you should fortify your house, lest winds should destroy it by sudden gusts'.
Clauses of Result
These clausesareintroduced by the conjunction pæt, which may be preceded by the adverb swa 'so' in the main clause.
E.g.: swa clæne hlo wæs opfeallenu on Anʒelcynne, ðæt swipe
feawa wæron behionan Humbre, ðe hiora ðeninʒa cuðen understondan
on enʒlisc. oppe furdum an ærendʒewrit of lædene on enʒlisc
awendan 'so cleanlywas it (learning) decayed in England, that very
few were on thisside of theHumber — those who could understand
theirservice in English or even translate one message from Latin
IntoEnglish';eode ellen-rof, pæt he for eaxlum ʒestod Deniʒa freʒan
'stepped the glorious one, so that he stood near the Danes' lord'.
This latter clause can also be interpreted as a temporal clause:
'. . . until he stood'.
Conditional Clauses
Theseare introduced by a conjunction ʒif ‘if’ or sometimes næfne ‘unless’: he me habban wille dreorefahne,ʒif mecdeað nime 'he will have me bloody if death takes me'; nis pæt seld-ʒuma wæpnum ʒ eweorðad, næfne his wille leoʒe, ænlie ansyn 'this is not a lower man, worthy of weapons, unless his face lies; his unique countenance'.
Clauses of Concession
These are introduced by the conjunction peah (pe), e. g. pone sið fæt him snotere ceorlas lyt-hwon loʒon, peah he him leof wære 'this voyage clever men somewhat blamed on him, though he was liked by them'.
Clauses ofMannerand Comparison
These are introduced by the conjunctions swa and ponne: wearde heoldon in pam fæstenne, swa pam folce ær ʒeomormodum ludip behead 'they kept watch in the fortress, as Judith had ordered the people, before sad'; nalæs hi hine Iæssan lacum teodan, peodʒestreonum, ponne pa dydon, pe hine set frumsceafte forð onsendon ænne ofer yðe umbor-wesende 'they did not adorn him with lesser treasures, with folk-gifts, than those did who_at his birth sent him forth alone over the sea, being a baby'; næfre ic maran ʒeseah eorla ofer eorðan, ponne is eower sum cecʒ on searwum 'never did I see a greater of earls on the earth, than is one of you, warrior in arms'.
We also find in OE texts some clauses of a generalizing character, introduced by generalizing pronouns or adverbs. Thus, the object clause in the following example has a generalizing character: …swa pætte, swa hwæt swa he of ʒodeundum stafum purh boceras ʒeleornode, pæt he æfter medmiclum fæce ...in enʒliscʒereord wel ʒeworht forp brohte ' ... so that he, whatever he had learnt from divine books through books, in a_ short time ... in English well told pronounced'; hy ʒedop pæt æʒper bip oferfroren, sam hit sy sumor sam winter 'they do it (so) that both are frozen, whether it be summer or winter'.
Parenthetical Clauses
These are sometimes found in OE texts, e. g. pa wæs him eallum ʒeseʒen, swa-swa hit wæs, pæt him were from drihtne sylfum heofonlic ʒiofu forʒifen 'then it became clear to all of them, as it was, that a heavenly gift had been granted him from God himself.
Combined Clauses
Of course different types of clauses can combine with one
another in various ways, and the number of such variations is prob-
ably unlimited. Here we give a few examples illustrating these possi -
bilities: forðy me ðyncð betre, ʒif iow swæðyncð, ðæt we eac sumæ bec, ða ðe niedbeðearfosta sien eallum monnum to wiotonne, ðæt we ða on ðæt ʒeðeode wenden, ðe we ealle ʒecnawan mæen (ond ʒedon swæwe swiðe eaðe maʒon mid ʒodes fultume, ʒif we ða stilnesse habbað), ðætte eal sio ʒioʒud, ðe nu is on Anʒelcynne, friora monna, ðdra ðe ða speda hæbben, ðæt hie ðæm befeolan mæʒen, sien to liornunʒe oðfæste, ða hwile ðe hie to nanre oðerre note ne mæsʒen, oððone first, ðe hie wel cunnen enʒlisc ʒewrit arædan 'therefore it seems better to me (if it seems so to you) that we should also translate some books, which it is most necessary for all men to know, that we should translate them into the language that we all can know (and do so we very easily can with God's help, if we have peace), that all the youth that is now in England, of free men, who have property, that they may apply to it, that they may be firmin learning, while they are not eligibleto any other useful work, until the time when they can easily read an English writing'.
2.2.3. Mixed Sentences
A sentence may contain both co-ordination and subordination, and this again in different combinations.
We will only consider here one example of a sentence of this mixed type: ond ic bebiode on ʒodes naman,ðæt nan mon ðone æstel from ðære bec ne do ne ða hoc from ðæm mynstre: uncuð, hu lonʒe ðær ðwæʒelærede biscepas sien, swaæ nu (ʒode ðonc!) wel hwær siendon, forðy ic wolde, ðætte hie ealneʒæt ðære stowe wære, biiton se biscep hie mid him habban wille oððe hio hwær to læne sle oððe hwa oðre bl write 'and I order in God's name that nobody should take the bookmark away from the book nor the book fromthemonastery: it is unknown, how longthere willbe such learnedbishopsas now (thank God!) there are everywhere because I wantthem(thebooks) to be always on the spot, unless the bishop wants it to be with him or it may be somewhere lent, or somebody may make a copy of it'.
In the sphere of syntax there is a great difference between various documents of the OE period. Thus, while the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle hashardlyany complex sentences, limitingitselfto simple andcompound ones, in other texts, such as, for example, kingAlfred's preface to his translationofCura Pastoralis, we find an elaborate system of complex sentences, with different types of subordinate
clauses and many subordinating conjunctions to introduce them. Thus, it would be completely mistaken to argue due to the almost complete absence of subordinate clauses in theChronicle, that there were no complex sentences in OE. This absence is due not to the non-existence of subordination in OE but to a certain stylistic tradition preserved by the chroniclers. From this point of view it is most instructive to compare passages from the Chronicle with those from king Alfred's preface.In theChronicle we read:Anno 851. Her Ceorl aldormon ʒefeaht wip hæfiene men mid Defenascire æt Wicʒanbeorʒe
ondpærmicelwælʒesloʒonondsiʒenamon. On py ilcan ʒeare AEpelstan cyninʒond Ealchere dux micelne here ofsloʒon æt Sondwic on Kent, ond IX scipu ʒefenʒun ond pa opre ʒefliemdon, ond hæpne men ærest ofer winter sæton 'In this year Ceorl the alderman fought with the heathen men in Devonshire at Wembury, and they killedmany enemies and obtained victory. And in the same year King Ethelstan and alderman Ealchere killed many enemies at Sandwich in Kent, and captured nine ships, and put the other ones to flight, and heathen men for the first time spent the winter there'. At about the same time kingAlfred wrote in his Preface to his translation of Gregory I's Pastoral Care:AElfred cyninʒ hateðʒretan Wærferðbiscep his wordum luflice ond freondlice ond ðe cyðan hate, ðæt me com swiðe oft on ʒemynd, hwylce wiotan iu wæron ʒiond Anʒelcynn æʒðer ʒe ʒodcundra hada ʒe woruldcundra, and hu ʒesæliʒlica tida ða wæron ʒiond Anʒelcynn, ond hu ða cyninʒas, ðe ðone onwald hæfdon ðæs folces, ʒode ond his ærendwrecum hiersumedon, and hie æʒðer ʒe hiora sibbe ʒe hiora siodo ʒe hiora onweald innanbordes ʒehioldon and eac ut hiora eðel rymdon, ond hu him ða speow æʒðer ʒe mid wiʒe ʒe mid wisdome; ond eac ða ʒodcundan hadas, hu ʒiorne hie wæron æʒðer ʒe ymb lare ʒe ymb liornunʒa ʒe ymb ealle ða ðiowotdomas, ðe hie ʒode scoldon, ond hu man utanbordes wisdom ond lare hieder on load sohte, ond hu we hie nu scoldon ute beʒietan, ʒif we hie habban sceoldon 'Alfred king sends his greetings to Warferth the bishop with his words in a friendly and loving way and I tell you that it very often came on my mind what scholars there were formerly in England, both of the religious and the lay orders, and what blessed times were then in England, and how the kings, who had power over the people, served God and his apostles, and they kept both their peace and their morals and their power inside the country, and enlarged their possessions, and how they succeeded then both in war and in culture, and also the religious orders, how eager they were both about teaching and about learning and about all the duties which they owed to God, and how people from abroad sought culture and learning here in this country, and how we now have to get them from outside if we are to have them'. This sentence contains a number of subordinate clauses of different degrees both subject, object, attributive and conditional ones.