Abbreviations -- PART ONE. The grammar of Old English subjectless predicates -- Introduction -- 1. Aim -- 2. Subjectless constructions -- 2.1 Previous research -- 2.2 The data base for the present study -- 2.3 The theoretical status of the data base -- 3. The methodological and theoretical framework -- 3.1 A first grammatical characterization -- 3.2 Goals, methods, and data -- 3.3 An outline of the descriptive framework -- 3.4 List of texts -- CHAPTER I. Subjectless constructions with sentential complements -- 1. The OE paradigm -- 2. The basic form of the construction -- 2.1 Word order -- 2.2 Constituent structure -- 3. Grammatical relations and semantic roles -- 3.1 The syntactic functions of the animate-NP -- 3.2 Semantic role properties of the animate-NP -- 4. The OE RUE class -- 4.1 Semantic NP roles associated with RUE verbs -- 4.2 Syntactic occurrence properties of RUE verbs -- 4.3 Operational tests and paraphrase evidence for semantic roles -- 5. The OE PLEASE/DESIRE class -- 5.1 Semantic NP roles associated with PLEASE/DESIRE verbs -- 5.2 Syntactic occurrence properties of PLEASE/DESIRE verbs -- 6. The OE BEHOVE class -- 6.1 Semantic NP roles associated with BEHOVE verbs -- 6.2 Syntactic occurrence properties of BEHOVE verbs -- 7. The OE HAPPEN class -- 7.1 Semantic NP roles associated with HAPPEN verbs -- 7.2 Syntactic occurrence properties of HAPPEN verbs -- 8. The OE SEEM class -- 8.1 Semantic NP roles associated with þyncan -- 8.2 Syntactic occurrence properties of þyncan -- 9. Summary -- 9.1 The complete occurrence paradigm -- 9.2 The functional aspect -- 10. Towards an integrated basic structure -- 11. A dynamic view of OE subjectless grammar -- CHAPTER II. Subjectless constructions with nominal complements -- 1. Preliminary remarks -- 2. Type N -- 2.1 The semantic framework -- 2.2 The syntax of type N.

2.3 The occurrence of subjectless predicates in type N -- 2.4 A synopsis of type N -- 3. Two variant constructions entered by subjectless predicates -- 3.1 Variant type I -- 3.2 Variant type II -- 4. Summary -- PART TWO. The development of subjectless grammar -- Introduction -- 1. Aim -- 2. Theoretical aspects -- CHAPTER III. The history of subjectless predicates until the Early Modern English period -- 1. The RUE class -- 1.1 RUE verbs in construction with sentential complements -- 1.2 RUE verbs in construction with nominal complements -- 2. The PLEASE/DESIRE class -- 2.1 liken -- 2.2 listen (OE lystan) -- 2.3 longen (OE langian) -- 3. The BEHOVE class -- 3.1 BEHOVE verbs in construction with sentential complements -- 3.2 BEHOVE verbs in construction with nominal complements -- 4. The HAPPEN class -- 4.1 HAPPEN verbs in construction with sentential complements -- 4.2 HAPPEN verbs in construction with nominal complements -- 5. The SEEM class -- 6. Summary -- CHAPTER IV. Linguistic change within a restrictive framework -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The 12th century -- 3. The 13th century -- 4. The 14th century -- 5. The 15th century -- 6. The 16th century -- Appendix: Translation of OE examples -- References -- Index.