156 Epistemic Parentheticals
to use this verb as a simple introductory expression like the Modern English
‘you know ’.”^23 Moreover, there are clearly no examples of medial or fi nal par-
entheticals with know - verbs in Old English.^24
The only constructions in Old English resembling parenthetical know -
verbs are syntactically complete clauses following þæs (þe) and swa :
(23) a. “Habbað we to þæm mæran micel ærende,/ Deniga frean, ne sceal þær dyrne
sum/ wesan, þæs ic wene .” (Beo 270– 72)
‘We have for the famous lord of the Danes a great errand; nor shall anything
there be secret, so I think’
b. se hæfde ænne sunu nu for þrym gærum, & se wæs, þæs þe ic wene , V
wintre (GDPref and 4(C) 19.289.3– 4)
‘he had one son now for three years, and he was, so I know, fi ve winters old’
c. Petrus cwæð: “ þæs þe ic ongyte , þes wæs mycel wer utan on þam mægnum
þe he worhte, & eac he wæs mara innan in his erdmodnesse.” (GD 1(C)
5.47.14– 16)
‘Peter said, “as I know, this was a great man on the outside in the strength
which he wrought and also he was greater on the inside in his humility” ’
d. “Næfre ic sælidan selran mette,/ macræftigran, þæs ðe me þynceð ,/ rowend
rofran, rædsnotteran,/ wordes wisran.” (And 741– 44)
‘Never did I meet a better seafarer, mightier, as seems to me, a stronger
rower, cleverer, wiser in words’
e. “Hine halig god/ for arstafum us onsende,/ to Westdenum, þæs ic wen
hæbbe ,/ wið Grendles gryre.” (Beo 381– 84)
‘Holy god sent him to us, the Westdanes, as assistance, as I have knowledge,
against the horror of Grendel’
f. Forþam on þisum earde wæs, swa hit þincan mæg , unrihta fela ... (HomU
25 (Nap 27) 19)
‘therefore on this earth there was, as it may seem, many injustices ...’
The bolded clauses in (23) are interpretable as adverbial clauses (glossed ‘so/
thus I think’), where þæs (þe) functions as an adverbial connective (derived
from an original demonstrative) meaning ‘the measure in/ the extent to which.’
Fischer ( 2007a : 104, 2007b : 302) fi nds thirty- six such clauses with þæs (þe) in
DOEC; López- Couso and Méndez- Naya ( 2014c : 203) fi nd four with þæs (þe)
and seven with swa with impersonal think in the OE section of the HC. Fischer
sees such clauses as the ancestors of clauses introduced by as , so , therof , and
that in Middle English.^25
23 Fischer ( 2007a : 108) agrees with Gorrell about the existence of “parenthetic” clauses in Old
English, but see below.
24 One does fi nd true fi rst- person parentheticals in Old English with verbs of speaking, e.g., ic
cweðe, ic bidde. These may be interspersed in both direct and indirect discourse (Mitchell
1985 , II: 11, 30; also Gorrell 1895 : 349).
25 Fischer ( 2007a , 2007b : 302– 303) rightly corrects my interpretation (in Brinton 1996 ) of these
clauses as relative clauses.