88
Middle English Whilom
such as the following, where whilom is indeterminate between adverbial and
adjectival readings:
(12) a. “I, wrecche, which that wepe and wayle thus,/ Was whilom wyf to kyng
cappaneus” (1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT A.Kn. 932– 33)
‘I, miserable creature, who weeps and wails thus, was former wife to King
Cappaneus OR formerly wife to King Cappaneus’
b. A markys whilom lord was of that lond,/ As were his worthy eldres hym
bifore (1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT E.Cl. 64– 65)
‘A marquis former lord of that land OR formerly lord of that land, as were
his worthy elders before him’
c. that the Burgundians whilom slaues to the Romaines, shoulde now be lordes
ouer them (1574 Bale, The pageant of popes [EEBO])
‘that the Burgundians former slaves to the Romans OR formerly slaves to
the Romans should now be lords over them’
d. The whilome powerful Kingdom of Hungary (1656 Earl of Monmouth tr.
Boccalini, Ragguagli di Parnasso (1674) II lxi.213 [OED])
‘The formerly powerful kingdom or Hungary OR the former, powerful king-
dom of Hungary’
e. On sloping mounds, or in the vale beneath, Are dome where whilome kings
did make repair (1812 Byron, Childe Harold: Cantos I & II I.xxii.19 [OED])
‘where formerly kings did repair OR where former kings did repair’
The development of whilom can thus be represented as in Figure 3.3.
3.4 Accounting for the Change
The last stage in the development of whilom , from freely occurring temporal
adverb to highly restricted attributive modifi er, would not seem to be as eas-
ily explained as the previous steps. Considered again in respect to Lehmann ’s
parameters ( 2002b ), this step shows condensation in the scope of whilom ,
which changes from a more wide- scope modifi er of the verb phrase or sentence
to a more narrow- scope modifi er of the noun within the noun phrase, and fi x-
ation , as it comes to occupy a fi xed slot, pre- nominally, compared to the adver-
bial form which is relatively mobile syntactically. Hopper ’s ( 1991 ) principle of
adverb hwı ̄lum
‘at times, sometimes’
adverb whilom
‘formerly, once’
correlative conjunction
whilom ... whilom
‘sometimes ... other times’pragmatic marker whilom
‘once upon a time’adjective whilom
‘former (of a role)’Figure 3.3 Development of whilom (2)