106
Modern English Only and If Only
‘Only the intellect, without more, that dwelled in his heart sick and sore,
began to fail when the heart felt death’
c. if.i. did that ill. ill byfall me. anly perfi t men may say this: but for i. did it
noght (a 1500 [c1340] Rolle, The psalter or Psalms of David 25 [HC])^6
‘if I did that ill, ill befall me. only perfect men may say this, but for I did
not do it’
The Middle English examples of conjunctive uses cited in the OED and MED
dating from the late fourteenth century would thus seem to be very early uses.
Note that one is followed by an elliptical clause (13a), one by an imperative
(13b), and only one by a declarative clause (13c).
(13) a. be she weddid to whom she wole; oonly in the Lord (c1384 WBible (1) 1
Cor. 7.39 [MED])
‘be she wedded to whom she will; only in the Lord’
b. Britheren ʒ e ben clepid in to fredom: oonly ʒ eue ʒ e not fredom in to occa-
sioun of fl eisch (a1398 Trev. Barth. 328b/ a [MED])
‘Bretheren, you are called into freedom; only give yourselves not freedom
into sin of the fl esh’
c. Þerfore of propretees of nombres be þis ynough at þis tyme; oonliche we
schal wite þat in nombres it is hard to fynde þe myddil (1425 WBible (2) Gal.
5.13 [MED])
‘therefore, of the properties of numbers is this enough at this time; only we
shall know that in numbers it is hard to fi nd the middle’
Of course, but is used in Middle English as an adversative conjunction, but it is
interesting that we fi nd it already in the “internal” sense – i.e., as a pragmatic
marker – in denoting an adversative relation within the discourse context:
(14) a. but for to tellen yow of his array (1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT A.Prol. 73)
‘but to tell you of his dress’
b. But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe (1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT
A.Prol. 462)
‘but thereof it is not necessary to speak now’
c. But now is tyme to you for to telle/ How that we baren us that ilke nyght
(1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT A.Prol. 720– 21)
‘But now it is time to tell you how we conducted ourselves that same night’
d. But , sooth to seyn, I noot how men hym calle (1387– 1400 Chaucer, CT
A.Prol. 284)
‘but, truthfully, I do not know what men call him’
These examples are cited by Donaldson ( 1981 ) as “illogical” adversative uses
of but ; however, he recognizes that they frequently occur with a metastate-
ment in which the narrator breaks off the narrative in order to perform some
6 This is one of two examples of initial only out of a total of 142 examples of only in the Middle
English section of the Helsinki Corpus.