johnston - notes on french historical syntax

7/27/2019 Johnston - Notes on French Historical Syntax

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Linguistic Society of America

Notes on French Historical SyntaxAuthor(s): Oliver M. JohnstonReviewed work(s):Source: Language, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Jun., 1927), pp. 100-104Published by: Linguistic Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/408962 .

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NOTES ON FRENCH HISTORICAL SYNTAXOLIVER M. JOHNSTON

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

I. Avoir with a ReflexivePronoun in OldFrenchJustifying his statement that Jean Renart, the author of Le Lai del'Ombre, also wrote L'Escoufle and Guillaume de Dole, B6dier says:''Voici, a l'appui de notre opinion, une liste de quinze remarques'. Oneof the fifteen points discussed is as follows: 'Il se sot mout bien avoir.2Expression qui signifie "savoir bien tenir son rang". Elle reparait pardeux fois dans Guillaume de Dole (v. 570 et v. 2143). Il faut qu'ellesoit peu usuelle, puisque l'6diteur de ce roman a voulu corriger l'un

cdesdeux passages ofi' l la rencontrait.' The passage referred to in thelatter part of the quotation just given is as follows:Itels rois doit bien tenir terreQui se fet avoir et conquerreL'amor et le cuer de ses genz.(Guillaumede Dole, 469-71, ed. Servois, Paris 1893).In line 570 of this passage the manuscript reads: Qui si set avoir etconquerre. The editor has changed set to fet, either because he misunder-stood the meaning, or because he was not familiar with the use ofavoir as a reflexive verb in the sense of se conduire.3The following examples will suffice to show that this construction

occurs much more frequently than has been supposed:Car bien afferoit A` stre entre tels seigneurs qu'il estoit, et mieuxs'y avoit sceil avoir que nuls autres. Froissart, Chroniques,6. 390 (deLettenhove: Bruxelles, 1870).Qui si vaillamment se savoit estre et avoir entre tous Seigneurs ettoutes dames. (Froissart, op. cit. 6. 326).1Le Lai de l'Onbre, p. xi, Paris, 1913.- Le Lai de l'Ombre,v. 71.

Avoirwith a reflexivepronoun was also used in the sense of se tenir, se mouvoir:Si convenra sieuvir tout a piet, car il y a tant de vignes que cheval ne s'y poroientavoir. (Froissart, Chroniques5.406). For examples of se ravoir (= se retirer, sesauver), compare Burguy's Grammairede la langue d'oil 2.257, Berlin, 1853.100


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NOTES ON FRENCH HISTORICAL YNTAX 101Et sont ensi comme gent sauvage, qui ne se seventavoir. (Froissart,op. cit. 10. 336).

Vous m'i ver6s entre les sagesBellement avoir et deduire.(Froissart, Podsies,4 ed. Scheler 2. 36. 1215.)Les estoires ensegnent comment on se doit avoir el siecle et en Diu.(La vie Carlemaine, B. N. 2168, fo. 198 c.)Belle estoit et jolie et bien ce sout avoir. (Le Mariage des Sept Artset des Sept Vertus,by Jehan le Teinturier, Pub. by P. Paris, in Le CabinethistoriqueXIII [1867], 108).Cele ki biele n'est, si sace biel parler el courtoisement et se sace bienavoir. (Li Hystore de Julius Cesar, by Jehan de Tuim, ed. by F.Settegast, Halle, 1881, 169. 28).5 Celes qui pluz estoient beles Etqui miex avoir se savoient. (Der Roman von Escanor von Gerard vonAmiens, ed. by H. Michelant, Tubingen, 1886, 23183.)Vous vous savez mult bien avoir. (Jongleurs et Troveres, publ. by A.Jubinal, Paris, 1835, 154.)Bel et bien se sorentavoir,Car moult ot en aus de savoir. (Li Roumansde Cleomades,Bruxelles, 1865, 16607.)

Franchois, qui bien s'en seut avoir. (La vie Saint Franchois nachmanuscrit francais 19531 der Nat. Biblioth. in Paris.)Je te vueil monstrer comment tu te dois avoir. (Le Menagier deParis,Paris, 1846, 1. 222.)The French dictionary in vol. 7 of Du Cange's Glossarium mediaeinfimae latinitatis contains two examples of s'avoir in the sense of secomporter.With reference to the use of the construction under consideration inmedieval Latin, Du Cange says:6 'Habere se, Gerere se, Gall. seComporter. Laurentius Bizinius de Origine belli Hussitici ann. 1421.apud Ludewig, tom. 6 Reliq. MSS. p. 171: TentabantquatenusPragensesHaberentSe ad defendendum. Bartholomaei Scribae Annal. Genuens. lib.6 ad ann. 1244. apud Murator. tom. 6 Col. 509: Qui ad defensionemexercitus Mediolanensis et offensionem exercitus domini Friderici Semirabiliter Habuerunt. Lanfranci Pignoli Annal. Genuens. lib. 7 adann. 1266 ibid. Col. 539. Quia vero dictus Admiratus et consiliarii et

4 For another example of this construction in Froissart, see his Poesies 2. 141.4764.6Compare the same text 170.8.6 See opus cit., under habere.


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102 OLIVER M. JOHNSTONcomiti ejus male Se Habuerunt, adeo quod praesumptum fuit eos fuisseproditores.'

The examples given above show that the use of avoir as a reflexiveverb was well klnownin medieval French and Latin. The fact that thisconstruction occurs both in Le Lai de l'Ombreand in Guillaume de Dolehas slight value therefore as an argument supporting the statement thatthese poems were written by the same author.II. French Conditional Sentences Introduced by qui

The question of these sentences is raised by Crossland in her treat-ment of the text of Guibert d'Andrenas, 11.1086-91, which she printsas follows:'

'Seigneur', fet il, 'veez quel pasturaje!Qui onques vit si riche bestiaje!Qui le porroit conquerre par barnajeMalooit gr6 la pute jent sauvaje,En ferons nous bruir nostre charnaje,Que molt est granz la proie.'In explanation of her reading she remarks: 'The construction of thispassage is not clear in any of the MSS. We have taken the reading ofC. D. En ferons nous bruir(e) nostre charnage in preference to that ofA. B. En ferions no bruit et no charnage.' I wish to call especial atten-tion to her adoption of ferons for ferions in 1. 1090, which can not bedefended. The correct reading is ferions.9 Ferons is grammatically

impossible, the future never being found in hypothetical sentences ofthis type. When qui (= whoever, f any one) is followed by the condi-tional, the conditional is also used in the clause expressing the conclusion.In such cases the condition refers to the future from the point of viewof the present. This usage is illustrated in the following passages:

Ki purreit faire que Rollanz i fust morz,Dunt perdreitCarles le destre braz del cors.(La Chansonde Roland 596)Qui me donroit tot le tresor Pepin,Ne tendroie Narbonne.(Aimeri de Narbonne 397-8.)

7Guibertd' Andrenas, Chanson de Geste, ed. by Jessie Crossland, London, 1923.8See p. 86.9This is the reading adopted by J. Melander in his edition (Paris, 1922),1.1119.


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NOTES ON FRENCH HISTORICAL SYNTAX 103Mais qui le porroit si tolirQu'ele n'en estuest morir,Cou m'est a vis plus bel seroit.(Floire et Blancheflor,ed. by Du Meril, Paris, 1856, 309-11.)Many more examples of this construction might be cited. It occursfrequently in Old French and even up to the end of the seventeenthcentury."' It will be observed that qui in the examples cited above isused without an antecedent and serves to introduce a condition, beingequivalent to a protasis. In such cases the conditional is used in theapodosis, if it occurs in the clause following qui. This type of condi-tional sentence refers to the future and hence it represents the conditionas being possible. The same construction occurs in Latin," where it isintroduced by qui and the subjunctive is used in both clauses: Qui hocdicat, erret; cf. Haec qui videat, nonne cogatur confiteri deos esse.12In Hale and Buck's Latin Grammar?580 this construction is illustratedfrom Quint. 1. 5. 50: 'Qui dicat pro illo "ne feceris", "non feceris", inidem incidat vitium.'It will be of interest to note here the frequent use of qui introducinga future condition from the point of the past. In this construction the

subjunctive occurs both in the clause expressing the condition and in theconclusion.Qi li veist son maltalent vengier,Destre et senestre les rens au branc serchier,Et bras et pis et ces testes tranchier,De coardie nel detist blastengier. (Raoul de Cambrai, 2565-8.)Qi li veist son escu manoier,Destre et senestre au branc les rens serchier,Bien li menbrast de hardi chevalier. (Ibid., 2707-09.)

This type of conditional sentence is also found in Latin: Quivideret, urbem captam diceret, Cicero, Verr. 4. 23. 52; Miraretur quitumrnerneret, Livy, 34. 9. 4 (258).A third type of conditional sentence introduced by qui in Old Frenchis that referring to the present. In such cases qui is followed by thepresent indicative and the clause expressing the conclusion may contain10 See A. Haase, Syntaxe frangaise du XVII siBcle,translated by Obert, Paris,1898,p. 89. A survival of this usage is found in the modern French phrase comme

qui dirait.11See Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar,revised and enlarged by Gildersleeve andLodge, New York, 593.2.'1 Cicero, De Natura Deorum,2.12.


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104 OLIVER M. JOHNSTONa verb in the present or future indicative, or in the present subjunctivewith the force of an imperative:

Qui s'amour en un seul leu livreN'a pas son cueur franc ne delivre.(Langlois' edition of Le Roman de la Rose, 13161-2.)Qui l'en creit chier le comparra. (Ibid, 13035.)Qui nou set a clerc le demandeQui leu l'ait e qui l'entende. (Ibid, 17735.)The hypothetical sentences under consideration are derived directlyfrom the Latin as indicated above. They may refer to the present orto the future. They are never of the contrary to fact type, the condi-tion expressed always being possible.

johnston - notes on french historical syntax

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