Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/257

 The Functions of Old English GeweorVan 251 have determined the choice of form in a number of passages. This applies e.g., to Andr. 550 b : hold gewurde, 167 b : fia sio stefn geweard / gehered, Crist 1182 b : unrot geweard, Jul. 156 b : min geweorpe, Gubl. 64 b : pat us neah geweard, Met. Boeth. 11.39 b : eft gewiordan, Par. Ps. 73.7.3 a : />otf pinum naman geweard, 101.5.5 s : gelice 1 gewearfi, 118.67.1 b : hean gewurde, etc. Sweet, whose observations on Old English usage always deserve careful attention, says (Ags. Dictionary, p. 204): "geweorpan [is used] in all the meanings of weorpan, especially the first group [i.e., happen, be made, be fulfilled, etc.], very rarely as auxiliary." A closer examination seems to show somewhat more definitely that certain general principles or tendencies were, after all, influential factors in regulating the distribution of the forms weorftan and geweorfian. 1. As an auxiliary verb with past participles, weordan retains its unquestioned leadership. Types: weard / feasceaft funden, Beow.6; Denum eallum wearfi /. . . willa gelumpen, ib. 823. The exceptions occurring in poetical texts are so few and inconclusive as to become negligible. 2 An instance wrongly cited by Grein under geweorpan is Beow. 1303 f.: cearu was geniwod, / geworden in wicun, since geworden should be consid- ered coordinate with geniwod. Besides, of course, the form geworden, which may be referred theoretically either to weorVan or geweor'dan, is to be left out of the discussion. 3 Even in a late example like the following from Wulf stan : of eorpan gewurdan cerest geworhte pa fie we sylfe ealle of coman, (and to eorpan we scylan ealle geweorpan), 5.12, it seems quite possible that gewur- dan preserved in a measure its independence, geworhte being added to reinforce the meaning of the verb. 2. weorfian, in the main, holds its own in combination with predicative nouns and adjectives. Types: pat we das morfires meldan ne weorfien, El. 428; ond pa cearwylmas colran wurfiap, Beow. 282. 1 Obviously, gelice is an error for gelic. 2 The most prominent case, Beow. 3061 has been quoted before. In Andr. 167, 804, GutSl. 64, Par. Ps. 73.7., 108.13 the exigencies of the meter furnish a sufficient excuse. As an interesting translation may be mentioned #a he wear's gedofen, Mat. 14.30 ( = cum coepisset mergi). 3 The peculiar use of w as geworden, weard geworden, in place of a preterite, cannot be taken up here.