Re: Natlag: Middle English impersonal verbs

On 3/9/06, Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
> And the most famous, thinketh.  Survives into Shakespeare's day and later:
> The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Heh.   I was trying so hard to think of less obvious ones that I left
that one out of my list. :)  Heck, it survives to this day in
affectation; I use it nigh-daily (along with other archaisms like
"nigh" :)).

> I wonder if behoves was an impersonal verb that just hung in there.  It
> behoves me to write that letter of recommendation.
(Isn't that normally spelled "behooves"?)

It does seem to fit the impersonal mold; can't really substitute a
definite subject: *"Writing that letter of recommendation behooves
me".   Whereas you could say that with e.g. "pains", so that's not
really impersonal.


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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