"And have they fixed the where and when?": temporal clause placement in Ælfric's Lives of Saints

"And have they fixed the where and when?": temporal clause placement in /ClfHe's Lives of Saints When a writer can place a temporal clause (Temp) either before or after the head clause (HC), what influences his choice? What factors should be considered when we attempt to analyse clause order in his complex sentences? As these two sentences show, there is no difficulty about placing a "when" clause either before (in preceding or P position) or after (in following or F position) the H C it modifies, and it can (when the writer thinks it necessary) even be interpolated into the H C . This flexibility is not a new feature of English, for an early conscious stylist, AElfric, writing in the late tenth to early eleventh century, is only one of the Old English writers who place Temps in all three positions. An analysis of the placement of the Temp in relation to its H C in Lives of Saints, and a selective comparison of his usage with that of other early writers, throw some light on O E syntax in particular, and also on more general stylistic considerations, for the ordering of clauses controls the order in which we receive the information that the writer wishes to place before us. If the subordinate clause (SubCl) is placed first, before the H C , it acquires the inherent importance of initial position in the sentence, and the modification is already in our mind when we reach the H C ; the Temp influences what follows. If the SubCl follows the H C , even though the F position can give a Temp climactic force, it still acts as a brake on what precedes, slowing down the momentum achieved by the H C by modifying previously given information. Where the P Temp functions as part of a crescendo, building up to the main information of the H C , the F Temp creates more of a decrescendo, even when it completes the sentence with new information. These very general tendencies can be reinforced or counteracted by other features, just as they can also be exploited in their own right, though here the clash between form and function also plays a part, for a Temp formally signalled as being such by the introductory subordinator may function in such a way that the temporal meaning can be "blended" with or even subordinated to another meaning. This can be seen in a comparison of the two opening sentences above, where the initial "when" clause of the first sentence carries strong causal as well as temporal overtones, and could almost have "when" replaced by the more overtly causal subordinator "since"; the temporal element is much stronger in the second sentence, where it would be more difficult to replace the subordinator "when" with another without altering the meaning more radically (for example, with "if"). 1 Possible Placement Factors When Liggins considered the causal relationship as expressed in O E prose, she took into account as possible influencing factors for clause order 26 R. Waterhouse such features as the type of verb, and its aspect, as well as the general functioning of the clauses, and for Temps with a blend of causal function, she came to the conclusion that With nearly every form, the conjunct clause may stand either before or after its principal. When it stands in First Position, the sense of time is apt to be stronger than it is when the order is reversed. Also, the verb is likely to have a perfect aspect, while, when the conjunct clause stands second, the aspect of the verb is usually imperfect. Most of the temporal formulas are frequently associated with verbs and expressions of perceiving. When this is so, the conjunct clause, concerned with a definite, perfect action, usually precedes the principal, which states the event which followed upon, and was a result of, the act of perception. Sentences containing matter of this type are a special and important case of a further general tendency in temporal/causal constructions:A conjunct clause in First Position usually introduces a definite Reason, while one in Second Position is more likely to contain an Explanatory or a Defining statement. A verb expressing a...