Adjectives in Middle English The situation in Middle English: a brief discussion of the literature

cases where the adjective is nominalized
But men seen anoþer sterre the contrarie to him (CMMANDEV,119.2926)

(13) cases where the adjective is preceded by so/as/such ( or where so/such by itself is counted as an adjective) followed by a clause introduced by as/so/that (frequent!)

(a) Þer is no gyft so holy as is þe gyft of lofe (CMKEMPE,49.1100)

(b) 'Ther nys no myght so greet of any emperour that longe may endure (CMCTMELI,224.C1.279)

(c) … he makeþ his miracles zuiche [such] ase behoueþ to þe dyeule (CMAYENBI,56.1017)

(14) cases of misreading of the adjective by the corpus analysts

(a) and for þe kyng was I-lette [stopped] by his deþ yvel [happened] þat he mite nout it ful-fille (CMPOLYCH,VI,5.24)

[here, yvel is not ‘evil’ but ifel i.e. ‘it happened’]

(b) Þer byeþ Monekes þet uor claustres/ and uor strayte cellen, wel moche/and clyerer þanne þe zonne: habbeþ wonynges. Vor blake and uor harde kertles/ huyter þane þe snaw. … cloþinge habbeþ an (CMAYENBI,267.2634)

‘There are monks who instead-of cloisters and narrow cells, have houses larger and clearer than the sun. Instead-of black and rough habits, [they] have clothes on whiter than the snow

[note that the postnominal adjectives do not depend on the nouns which immediately precede them, cellen and kertles (it is thus analysed in the corpus), but on wonynges and cloþinge]

(15)