Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

40 Peter Petré & Hubert Cuyckens
“And when he came/got in the fortress Libia, he then immediately asked
what it was really, why they sent him so suddenly after.”
(30) a. Gif ðu weorðest on wege rihtum up to ðæm earde, […] ðonne wilt þu secgan
and sona cweðan: ðis is eallunga min agen cyð, eard and eðel.
(c970. MetBo 24: 90.44)
“If you get on the way right up to that country, […] then will you call out
and immediately say: this is indeed my own home, soil and country.”
b. Se becom on wege to Prisce þam hæþnan gerefan þær he deofolgeldum geald.
(c 000. Mart 5 [Kotzor]:Se4, A.2. 639)
“He got on the way to Prisce, the heathen sheriff, where he worshipped
images of the devil.”
In addition to this similar use with locational complements, becuman had developed
an intransitive sense ‘happen, occur’ (possibly independently of weorðan), and a related
construction with a dative object, meaning ‘befall, happen to’. These extensions
from the original sense of becuman ‘arrive at’ result from applying the (well-known)
metaphor Time is Space (cf. Lakoff & Johnson 980; Traugott & Dasher 2002:
75–78). Taking these senses also into account clearly strengthens the initial similarity
between weorðan and becuman. Consider in this respect examples (3 )–(32):
(A) Intransitive, sense ‘happen, occur, arise’
(3 ) a. sona wearð micel eorðbyfung. (c 075. ChrodR : 4.2 )
“Immediately a great earthquake occurred.”
b. Þær becom þa on þære hwile mycel swetnysse stænc.
(a 50. LS 28 [Neot]: 0. 03)
“There arose then in that period a strong fragrance of sweetness.”
(B) With dative complement, sense ‘come upon, happen to, befall’
(32) a. Lyt sorgodon hwylc him þæt edlean æfter wurde. (c 000. Andreas: 227)
“They little cared what retribution might come upon/happen to them
afterwards.’
b. & hie gesecgað þæm men þe hie frineð, hwæt godes oþðe yfles him becuman
sceal. (c 000. Alex:32. )
“And they tell the men who ask them, what good or evil shall come
upon/befall them.”
In later OE, the initial similarity between becuman and weorðan caused becuman
to copy other functions of weorðan as well, which it may not have developed without
this model. As well, it sometimes adjusted its semantics in already existing
patterns to the abstract copularizing semantics of weorðan. For instance, the hespatial sense of becuman in the construction with a prepositional complement is occasionally
lost, resulting in becuman acquiring an abstract sense similar to the one
frequently found for weorðan + pp. Compare (33) with (3b):
(33) Gif sio adl biþ to langsum becymeþ þonne on wæterbollan.