ウィクリフ派聖書におけるMay について

概要

論文の詳細を見る
This study seeks to identify the morphological, syntactical and semantical features of the modal auxiliary verb 'may' in Middle English. For this study, the data is chiefly collected from `The Wycliffite Bible' (WB). The text we use is Forshall,J. and Madden,F. (eds.), The Holy Bible, Containing The Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, In the Earliest English Versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, Oxford University Press, 1850 (reprinted in 1982). WB consists of two parts: the Early Version and the Later Version. The Later Version is mainly used in this study. In order to compare the usage and meanings of WB with those of contemporary writings, passages from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (CT) are frequently extracted. As a result of the current study, several unique characteristics of may are identified in WB. Some of the characteristics are as follows: (i) The suffixes were bound for the levelling of inflections. The first and third person singulars showed the same morphological form may with that of Present-day English. (ii) May in WB was used not only as an auxiliary verb, but also as a verb. Therefore, may in WB had the syntactic characteristics of both the auxiliary verb and the main verb. (iii) The syntactical behavior of may, especially in the infinitive form of mow(e) resembled that of be able to in Present-day English. (iv) May in WB retained the meaning of 'be able to' but had begun to assume the meaning of permission or desire which Present-day English may possesses. (v) The meaning and the usage of be mighty to in WB was unique. The collocation had almost the same meaning of may in WB, but it co-occurred only with the subjects which had the meaning of the divine power.
2005-01-31

著者

寺田正義
聖学院大学人文学部欧米文化学科

ウィクリフ派聖書におけるMay について

スポンサーリンク

概要

著者

関連論文

スポンサーリンク