Re: Negation raising (was: introduction)

Tristan McLeay scripsit:

> I'm probably wrong here, but is that in any way comparable to 'Meseems'
> and 'Methinks', from earlier 'to me it seems' and 'to me it thinks',
> meaning 'it seems to me' or 'I think'?
You are probably right.  Although "methinks" got frozen a long time ago,
Chaucer uses impersonal "think" freely with all persons and tenses: e.g.
_Troilus and Criseyde_ line 502:

        For whiche him thoughte he felte his herte blede.

i.e. "For which it seemed to him that he felt his heart bleed", or line 120:

        He seyde eek thus, `I woot, yow thinketh straunge,

i.e. "He also said thus: "I know it seems to you strange [that ...]".

Chaucer also knows the modern use of "think", though it is less common
in his work: line 1255:

        Lest he may thinke that ye him eschuwe.

i.e. "Lest he may think that you [pl.] eschew him."

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_