Old English "hwrnt" revisited: a cognitive approach

b. In combination with the 2-nd person pronoun: hwst +_5u when the speaker shares knowledge with the addressee:

2. Hwwt befealdest du folmum dinum brodor dinne «Why hast thou felled thy brother with thy hands?» Cd. 48;

c. The speaker uses hwst + we to attract the addressee's attention:

3. Hwffitwe nu gehyra^ ah! now we learn, Cd. 45; Th. 57, 36; Gen. 939.

From a morphological and word-formational point of view in Aelfric's Grammar there are thus at least four groups: (1) morphologically simple primary interjections: la, hui(g); (2) morphologically simple secondary interjections: wa; (3) morphologically complex interjections, which can be subdivided into (a) combinations consisting of primary interjections: eala, haha / hehe, hilahi, wellawell, and (b) combinations consisting of secondary and primary interjections (afsstla, wala); (4) full and condensed phrases: wa is me; wamme [13, p. 171-172].

Bothworth and Toller define hwwt: (i) neut. of hwa, used as an adv. or interj. Why, what! ah! (ii) adj. Quick, active, vigorous, stout, bold, brave ; (iii) adv. or interjection. Add:I. in direct questions; (iv) adj. Add Hust, huet, huaet licidus, lucidus. Brian A. Shaw writes that the hero of Beowulf made 15 speeches interrupted by interjections on the part of the author. The first seven occurred either before or directly after the battle with Grendel, the eighth speech introduces the continuation of evil in the person of Grendel's mother. The remaining seven speeches build up to the dragon fight and the outcome of that contest. [14, p. 86-87]. George Walkden says that hwst, as well as being the nominative/accusative neuter singular of the interrogative pronoun, was able to perform an extra role in OE [18, p.469], as in the first line of Beowulf:

4. Hwst we Gardena in geardagum- «hwat we Spear-Danes.(GEN) in year-days.

(DA) ^eodcyninga ^rym gefrunon nation-kings (GEN) power. (ACC) heard hu 5a s^elingas ellen fremedon- how then/those. (NOM) princes.(NOM) valour performed [Beowulf, lines 1-3].

So far we have seen the traditional view of hwst as an adverb or interjection (Bosworth & Toller,1898) outside the clause and potentially extrametrical, possibly serving as a `call to attention' (Mitchell & Robinson 1998), suffers from a number of problems, many already noted by Grimm (1837) and Stanley (2000): (a) Hwwt must usually be analysed as being unstressed; (b) no punctuation between hwwt and the following clause is ever found; (c) a contemporary grammarian did not analyse hwwt as an interjection;

d) hwwt is not exclusively found in texts connected to primary orality, and does not always serve to initiate speech. Frederik Visser provides several examples of what he considers to be SV word order with initial interrogative hwat [30, p. 1547], but as Bruce Mitchell points out, `these can all be taken as non-dependent exclamations' [9, p. 680]. Paul Hopper (1977) suggests that the hwat- construction is quasi-formulaic and may therefore be likely to have the `archaic' verb-final order, but does not go into any detail on this point. Likewise, Bruce Mitchell [9, p. 299-300, fn. 95] suggests that interjections like efne `lo!/behold!' and hwat may influence word order, but does not elaborate on this. More recently, within a generative framework, it has been observed that `verb-final root clauses in OE prose undergo some influence of style in the word order after the interjection hwat [18, p. 472]. Current and past analyses of exclamatives (Bolinger, 1972; Rett, 2009) have generally proposed that a key component of the interpretation of excla- matives is that their content must involve something related to degree/scalarity. According to the semantic proposal of Jessica Rett the following two restrictions on the content of exclamatives: the degree restriction - an exclamative can only be used to express surprise that the degree property which is its content holds of a particular degree. and the evaluativity restriction - the content of the exclamative must additionally be evaluative: the degrees it makes reference to are restricted such that they must exceed a contextual standard [11, p. 147, 155].

Laurel J. Brinton (1996) analyses hwat as a pragmatic marker, suggesting that its function is `very similar to that of you know in Modern English.' Her reserch reveals a range of functions for hwat: for instance, it may serve to introduce an insulting `verbal assault' on the addressee; `deference or solidarity'; `respect to the status of information it introduces'; `information to follow is common or familiar;' `renewal of interest in that information' and/or focus attention on its importance;' but it may also precede new information [8, p.187-8]. She also suggests hwaet undergoes `decategorialization' to a particle or interjection:

hwaet, hwy and where: interrogative in direct questions ^ complementizer in indirect questions ^ to pragmatic marker [9, p. 69-70].

We consider that in the framework of various linguistic theories the author differentiates between (a) morphological functions - pronominal, adjectival and adverbial; (b) communicative functions - attention-getting, connative, interrogative [see 18, p. 466] and interpersonal and (c) discourse functions - complementizing, cohesive and pragmatic [see 3, p. 202] that brought to a functional mix which needs a corpus analysis based on the numerous OE data. The type of interjections that Wierzbicka and Felix Ameka [212; see also1] have defined as emotive or expressive interjections lead the hearer to embed a proposition they accompany under a propositional-attitude description, enabling the hearer to comprehend the attitude expressed toward the proposition communicated. When an interjection appears as an independent utterance without an accompanying proposition, it provides (Cruz, 2009) the hearer with a vague idea of the speaker's feelings or emotions. Henri Weil writes that the initial position in the sentence is occupied by a unit which referent is familiar to the speaker to start his/her speech further on, i. e. in modern terminology he writes on the `topic/ comment' [19, p. 21]. In the following illustrations hwat is recorded in the `pre-sentence position as an independent sentence itself:

e. HW^T (EXCLAMATIVE) = AN INDEPENDENT SENTENCE. In terms of constituent order, clauses introduced by hwat in Old English and Old Saxon generally pattern statistically with subordinate clauses (including dependent questions and free relatives), rather than with root clauses as would be expected if hwat were a free-standing interjection [18, p. 474]. Peter S. Baker notes that a justly famous Old English hwat usually begins many poems and Beowulf as well is sometimes interpreted (Baker, 2012) as a call for attention and sometimes as a signal what follows is in an elevated style: 4. (A). Hwat! We Gardena ingeardagum,peodcyninga, prym gefrunon, hu da apelingas ellen fremedon. (B) «LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!» (C) Listen! We - of the Spear-Danes in the days of yore, of those clan-kings - heard of their glory how those nobles performed courageous deeds. MODEL of RENDERING: Old English hwat ^ Modern English «lo» or «listen».

Matt Garley et al note that hwat is a marker employed in the representation of spoken discourse. It occurs a total of five times in Beowulf, once as the first word of the poem - a part of the «narrator's» text. The other four instances all occur in the discourse of the characters, twice as the opening of their speech [13]: 5. (A)529-532. Beowulf ma^elode bearn Ecg^eowes: «Hwat!pu worn fela, wine min Unferd, beore druncen ymb Brecan sprace, sagdest from his side». (B) What a deal hast uttered, dear my Unferth drunken with beer, of Breca now. In this instance as well as in other four others hwst occurs in the discourse of the characters. In two instances it is used as the opening of their speeches (l. 530, 1652). MODEL of RENDERING: Old Ebglish hwat ^ Modern English «what», «listen» or «hey» 1651-1654.

5. (A) Beowulf ma^elode, bearn Ecg^eowes: «Hwat! we pe pas salac, sunu Healfdenes, leod Scyldinga, lustum brohton tires to tacne, pe pu her to locast». (B) BEOWULF spake, bairn of Ecgtheow: «Lo, now, this sea-booty, son of Healfdene Lord of Scyldings, we've lustily brought thee, sign of glory; thou seest it here». (C) Beowulf spoke, the son of Edgetheow: 'Listen, we you these sea- spoils, son of Half-Dane, lord of the Scyldings, gladly brought as token of glory, which you look at here». MODEL of RENDERING: Old Ebglish hwat ^ Modern English «lo (now)» or «listen».

f. HW^T (EXCLAMATIVE) = AS A PART OF A CLAUSE: There is a paradox in syntax: an interjection as an initial part of the sentence is not considered to be a part of this sentence. J. Grimm notes that it always stands at the beginning of a clause, and that it often serves to introduce speech, or even a whole poem as in the case of Beowulf. His conclusion is that it is `purely an exclamation, albeit in a very moderate sense (Grimm, 1837). Brinton (1996) analyses hwat as a pragmatic marker, suggesting that its function is `very similar to that of «you know» in Modern English:

6. (A) 1774-1778. Hwat, me pas on eple edwenden cwom, gyrn after gomene, seopdan Grendel weard, ealdgewinna, ingenga min; icpare socne singales wag modceare micle. (C) «Listen, to me in the homeland for that a reversal came, sorrow after joy, since Grendel became an old contender, invader of mine,»...

MODEL of RENDERING: Old Ebglish hwat ^ Modern English «lo» or «listen».