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31 Interrogatives: Forms and Uses

Questions in Old French can be marked by intonation, cf.:

		il vos mescroit de moi forment
		et j'en tendrait le parlement?
		(Bér., Trist. 169-170, Lesson 5)
		'he suspects you strongly because of me and I would talk about it?'

Inversion is also found, cf.:

		Sire cumpain, faites le vos de gred?' (CdR 2000)
		'Sir companion, do you do this of free will?

In addition a series of interrogative elements are used. The Old French interrogative pronoun qui, ki traces back to Latin quis 'who' (fem. quae, and neuter quod). The paradigm in Old French is as follows:

Interrogative Pronoun, qui 'who?', que 'what?', 'which?'

		Masc/Fem.		Neuter
Nom. Sg/Pl.		qui, ki		que, ke
Nom. Sg/Pl. (str.)				quoi, coi
Dir. Obj. Sg/Pl.		que, ke		que, ke
Dir. Obj. Sg/Pl. (str.)		cui		quoi, quei
Indir. Obj.		cui

Examples:

· qui nominative masculine and feminine:

		E ki serat devant mei en l'ansguarde? (CdR 748)
		'and who will be in front of me in the vanguard?'

· que direct object animate and neuter nominative and direct object, cf.:

		que fereient il el? (CdR 1185)
		'what would else would they do?'

· cui functions as a strong direct object (e.g. with a preposition) and as indirect object, cf.:

		de ço qui calt? (CdR 1806)
		'to whom is it of importance?'

This example also shows that qui and cui often are confused.

As the strong form of the neuter interrogative, quoi may be used in isolation (quoi? 'what?'), but it typically combines with prepositions, cf.:

		Pur quei me portez ire? (CdR 1723)
		'why are you angry with me?'
		de quei avez pesance? (CdR 832)
		'what hurts you?'

In addition, Old French has an interrogative element quant meaning 'how much, how many':

Declension of quant 'how much', 'how many'

		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
Nom. sg.		quanz		quante		quant
Obl. sg.		quant		quante		quant
Nom. pl.		quant		quantes		-
Obl. pl.		quanz		quantes		-

And an element quel 'which, what', which has the following paradigm:

Declension of quel 'which', 'what'

		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
Nom. sg.		quels		quel(s)		quel
Obl. sg.		quel		quel		quel
Nom. pl.		quel		quels		-
Obl. pl.		quels		quels		-

NB: -l- may vocalize before -s, which will give: queus

Examples:

		Par quele gent quiet il espleiter tant? (CdR 395)
		'for what people is he pretending to accomplish such things?'
		En quel mesure en purrai estre fiz? (CdR 146)
		'in what circumstances can I trust it?'

The reader will have noticed that interrogative elements tend to occur in clause-initial position and therefore trigger subject inversion when they do not convey subject function, cf.:

		que fereient il el? (CdR 1185)
		'what would else would they do?'

· with an interrogative adverb, cf.:

		U estes vos, bels niés (CdR 2403, Lesson 2)
		'where are you, beloved cousin?'
		U est vostre espee? (CdR 1363)
		'where is your sword?'
		cum le purrum nus faire? (CdR 1698)
		'how should we do it?'

32 Relative Pronouns: Forms and Uses

The paradigm for the relative pronoun is almost identical to that of interrogatives, cf.:

Relative Pronoun, qui 'who', que 'that, which'

		Masc/Fem.		Neuter
Nom. Sg/Pl.		qui, ki		que, ke
Nom. Sg/Pl. (str.)				quoi, coi
Dir. Obj. Sg/Pl.		que		que, ke
Dir. Obj. Sg/Pl. (str.)		cui		quoi, quei
Indir. Obj.		cui

Other elements that are used in relative clauses are:

· dont, originally an adverb of place and often used as an interrogative or relative, meaning 'from where, whence'. It may also refer to animate nouns, 'of whose'.

· lequel 'which', which spread from the 13th century onwards.

· ou, originally a relative and interrogative. It refers to animate and inanimate nouns, meaning 'where, in which, in whom'.

32.1. Function of qui as impersonal. On the whole the uses of the relative pronoun correspond to the regular functions of the cases. Yet there are a few important phenomena. One of them is the use of subject qui conveying generalizing value, often tending toward 'if one ...', 'whoever'. Cf.:

		Ki l'unt oïd remainent en grant dute (Al. 300)
		'those who heard it remain very frightened'

Many proverbs in Old French include a generalizing qui:

		qui tout tient tout pert
		'who keeps it all to himself, will lose it all' >
		'if one keeps it all to one's self, one will lose it all'

32.2. Cui is used in Old French primarily as indirect object, but is also found in the function of a direct object, a genitive, or a prepositional complement.

32.3. Regular use of relative pronouns includes the occurrence of an antecedent, cf.:

		N'i ad castel ki devant lui remaigne (CdR 4, Lesson 1)
		'there is no castle that resists him'

The physical distance between the antecendent and the relative pronoun may be rather lengthy:

		Li reis Marsilie la tient, ki Deu nen aimet (CdR 7, Lesson 1)
		'Marsilie holds it, who does not love God'

The antecedent ce is often deleted, cf.:

		ne sai jo que face (CdR 1982)
		'I do not know what to do'

32.4. Deletion of relative pronoun. The relative pronoun is quite often deleted after a negation, cf.:

		Ja mais n'ert hume plus volenters le serve (CdR 2254)
		'there will never be a man who will serve him more readily'

33 On

While Latin nouns that survived in Old French originally were accusatives, a few nominatives made it into (Old) French as well, cf. the difference between modern sire and seigneur, which trace back to the nominative and accusative respectively. Similarly two forms of the Latin noun homo survive, one goes back to the nominative, one is the former accusative, cf. La. homo, which survives as on 'one', and La. hominem which survives as modern French homme 'man'. We therefore observe that in the history of Old French the nominative form homo survived and grammaticalized into a pronoun; the accusative form survived as a regular noun and did not undergo a process of grammaticalization.

Grammaticalization is a type of change whereby a lexical element develops into a grammatical element: in this instance the noun homo developed into a pronominal element in French. Similarly the Latin noun mente developed into a derivational suffix in adverb formation in Romance (see Grammar Point 26). It is also possible that a grammatical element develops a stronger grammatical profile. This happened when Latin demonstratives -- with deictic value -- developed into definite articles (see Grammar Point 13).

The fact that Old French (l')on is a grammaticalized personal pronoun does not mean that the original element no longer is used as noun. The noun in question had the following declension pattern:

Declension of (l')ome

		Sg.		Pl.
Nom.		(l') (h)om,		(li) (h)ome
		(l ) on
		(l') uem
Obl.		(l') (h)ome		(les) (h)omes

Nominative singular forms, with or without definite article, occur with the generalizing meaning of 'one' from early texts onward, cf.:

		iluec paist l'um del relef de la tabla (Al. 247, Lesson 3)
		'there they feed him on the scraps of dinner'
		que l'an ne l'apialt recreant (Yv. 2563, Lesson 6)
		'so that one will not call him a coward'

The nominal origin of the element is reflected in the occurrence of the definite article. Since the element refers to an undetermined person or undetermined persons, on may be rendered by in translations by 'one', general 'they', or passive constructions.

In the glosses instances of (l')on have been identified as third person personal pronouns because the grammaticalization process has reached that stage in Old French.

34 Agreement

In Old French we find several processes of agreement:

· Agreement between subject and finite verb. When there are several subjects in a clause, the verb agrees with the subject that is closest, cf.:

		Karles l'oït e ses cumpaignes tutes (CdR 1757, Lesson 2)
		'Charles hears it and all his troops' >
		'Charles and all his troops hear it'

For collective subjects there is variation: sometimes the finite verb is singular sometimes it is plural:

		Quan Rollant voit la ... gent,
		ki plus sunt neirs que ... (CdR 1933-1934)
		'when Rollant sees the ... people who are more black then ...'

· Agreement between noun and adjective. The patterns in Old French are not different from those in Indo-European. A remarkable phenomenon is the declension of adjectives that are used as adverbs (see Grammar Point 26), but continue to be marked for agreement, cf.:

		tote sui sole en ceste terre (Bér., Trist. 153, Lesson 5)
		'I am completely alone in this country'

· Agreement between nouns and their determiners: there is agreement marking for case, number, and gender, cf.:

		cest mien anel (Yv. 2603)
		'this ring of mine'

· Agreement between noun and perfective participle. Agreement patterns depend on the auxiliary used in these contexts. A perfective participle that combines with the auxiliary estre 'be' will agree in case, number and gender with the subject of the clause, cf.:

		fut presentede Maximiien (Eul. 11, Lesson 4)
		'she was brought before Maximian'
		morz est Rollant (CdR 2397, Lesson 2)
		'Roland has died'

When the perfective participle combines with the auxiliary avoir 'have', it may agree in case, number and gender with the direct object, independently of its relative position to the participle, cf.:

		ço dist li reis que sa guere out finee (CdR 705)
		'the king says that he had finished his war'
		Rollant ad l'enseigne fermee (CdR 707)
		'Roland has attached the standard'
		Cordres ad prise e les murs peceiez (CdR 97, Lesson 1)
		'he has taken Cordres and smashed its walls'
		proïe avez la duchesse
		'you have robbed the duchess'

When the direct object is masculine, agreement is especially manifest when the participle follows, cf.:

		Charles li magnes ad Espaigne guastede
		les castels pris, les citez violees (CdR 703-704)
		'Charlemagne has devastated Spain,
		taken castles and violated towns'

Conversely when the direct object -- masculine or feminine -- follows the participle, there may be no agreement:

		j'ai creü vostre parole
		'I believed what you said'

The perfective participle may also agree with the direct object of an infinitive or with a direct object that is not explicit in the clause. Neuter elements (pronouns) do not feature agreement. Along these same lines, there is no agreement in compound tenses including impersonal verbs.

35 Brace Constructions

In a so-called brace construction, the finite verb and the perfective participle are separated by the direct object, cf.:

		Li empereres out sa raisun fenie (CdR 193)
		'the emperor had finished his speech'

In Grammar Point 17 it was noted that if word order in Old French already had strong SVO characteristics, there still are several archaic features, cf. for example the occurrence of SOV in subordinate clauses. Another archaism is the ordering of the direct object between the auxiliary and the perfective participle, as in:

		Li reis ad la culur muee (CdR 441)
		'the king had changed color'

This type of construction goes back to the original Latin construction in which a lexical verb 'have' combined with a direct object determined by a perfective participle, cf.:

		epistulas		scriptas		habeo
		letters-Acc.fem		written-Acc.fem.sg.		have-1sg.pers.
		'I have letters that are written'

		puer epistulas scriptas habet
		'the boy has letters that are written'

It would go too far to discuss the development of habeo into a Romance auxiliary, but it is clear that when habeo changed position, a so-called brace construction emerged, cf.:

		puer habet epistulas scriptas

In Old French:

		li gars a letres escrites

At later stages:

		le garçon a escrit(es) les letres

The brace construction survived in Old French for a long time: instances are still found in the 17th century. Yet in the Old French documents, one observed a gradual decline in occurrence.

Examples in Old French:

		ad sun tens uset (CdR 523)
		'he has finished his time'
		par tant teres ad sun cors travaillet (CdR 540)
		'he has burdened his body by all these countries'
		Guenes li fels ad nostre mort juree (CdR 1456)
		'Ganelon the traitor has sworn to our death'

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