hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2026-02-07

■ #6130. 古英語 butan の逆接の等位接続詞の用法はあったか？ [but][conjunction][coordinator][subordinator][reanalysis]

　「しかし」の意味で逆接の等位接続詞として日常的に用いられる but は，古英語の接続詞 butan に遡る．しかし，古英語の butan は基本的には "except" に相当する従属接続詞として用いられるのが普通だった．A butan B のような文において，文脈によっては "A except B" のみならず "A but B" のようにも解釈できるケースがあったために，再分析 (reanalysis) により現代に連なる逆接の等位接続詞の用法が生じたのだとされる．
　OED によると，古英語での逆接の等位接続詞としての用法は稀だとしつつも，一応は存在を認めている．

III. In a compound sentence, connecting the two coordinate clauses; or introducing an independent sentence connected in sense, though not in form, with the preceding sentence.
   In a compound sentence the second clause may be contracted so as to omit constituents also occurring in the main clause, e.g. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God = 'Thou hast not lied unto men, but thou hast lied unto God'; John couldn't come to see me, but Mary could = 'John couldn't come to see me, but Mary could come to see me'.
   Rare in Old English; attestations are often interpreted as transitional from uses in sense C.II.7 (see further B. Mitchell Old Eng. Syntax (1985) §). In Old English coordinate clauses are usually connected by ac ac conj.

　参照されている Mitchell の OES (§3500) を訪れてみると，次のようにある．

§3500. Quirk (pp. 62--3) discusses a number of examples in which butan 'was not autonomously concessive but occasionally concessive-equivalent, combining its exception function with a concessive one'.
They include Bo 40. 8 . . . ne ic ealles forswiðe ne girnde þisses eorðlican rices, buton tola ic wilnode þeah . . . and (after a form of nytan) Bo 70. 26 ic nat humeta, buton we witon ꝥ hit unmennischlic dæd wæs and (Holthausen's 1894 text)

Pha 4 Nat ic hit be whihte, butan ic wene þus,
          þæt þær screoda wære gescyred rime
          siex hundred godra searohæbbendra,

for which J. R. R. Tolkien was wont to offer the translation 'I don't really know, but I rather guess . . .'. On such examples, see further §§3626 and 1773.

　従属接続詞 except と等位接続詞 but のいずれとも解釈し得る例があるために，"transitional" や "concessive-equivalent" という表現が用いられているのだろう．

　・ Mitchell, Bruce. Old English Syntax. 2 vols. New York: OUP, 1985.

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