46
Old English Hwæt
Cichosz (forthc.) examines the word order in all clauses containing inter-
jective hwæt (þa) in The York- Toronto- Helsinki parsed corpus of Old English
prose. Consistent with Walkden , she fi nds a signifi cantly high proportion of
verb- late/ - fi nal word order in these clauses, with only c50 percent showing
the expected verb- second word order of declarative main clauses. However,
in contrast to Walkden , she shows that main clauses with hwæt (þa) are not
like subordinate clauses introduced by hwæt (dependent questions, free rela-
tives), which show a much higher percentage of verb- fi nal orders (especially
than main clauses with hwæt þa ) and have the order non- fi nite – fi nite verb in
complex verbs. She argues that the higher percentage of verb- late/ - fi nal order
in hwæt (þa) clauses is the result of motivating factors that have been identifi ed
generally for verb- fi nal order (Bech 2012 ): givenness of the subject, heaviness
of the verb phrase, and punctual/ dynamic nature of the verb. Cichosz fi nds a
difference in word order between hwæt þa and hwæt- clauses, with the former
having a greater proportion of subject– verb inversion (especially when intro-
ducing a new subject).
2.3 Exclamatory Hwæt in Verse
Several Old English poems apart from Beowulf begin with the word
hwæt : Andreas, The dream of the rood, Exodus, Fates of the apostles,
Judgment day II, Juliana, Solomon and Saturn , and Vainglory. Upon close
examination, the uses of hwæt in Old English verse do not seem to be attached
to particularly emotive contexts, as would be expected of an interjection with
an expressive function, and while hwæt in these contexts may be very broadly
understood as “attention- getting” (and thus consonant with the conative func-
tion of interjections noted by Ameka 1992: 114), this description fails to
account for the apparently quite disparate uses that we fi nd. We must thus look
beyond the analysis of hwæt as an interjection. I will argue that the contexts
of use seem to fall into a number of semantically and pragmatically discrete
categories, as set out below, which are more suggestive of hwæt serving as a
pragmatic marker.
2.3.1 Contexts of Occurrence of Hwæt in Verse
The poet may indicate in the clause following hwæt how he (or she) has
acquired the information related. The poet may have heard it generally (1a),
heard it from certain people (1b), learned it through books (1c), learned it in a
dream (1d), acquired it in his travels (1e), or witnessed it (1f):
(1) a. Hwæt. We feor and neah gefrigen habað ... (Ex 1)
‘What. We have learned far and near ...’