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

cases where the adjective is used meta-textually
þou sselt ywyte [shall know] þet þis word holy [‘this word “holy”’] is ase moche worþ (CMAYENBI,106.2066)

(16) cases where the adjectives present a clear ‘list’ or enumeration

But it is to wite that holy scripture hath iiij. vnderstondingis, literal, allegoric, moral, and anagogic. (CMPURVEY,I,43.1891)

As far as adjectival participles are concerned, they have only been included when they showed up in my query because the analysts of the corpus had marked them as adjectives (usually they show adjectival behaviour). Since participles which are clearly verbal still often follow the noun in Present-day English, this does not present a problem because I am most interested in the differences between Middle English and the present-day language. Postnominal adjectival constructions that have not changed, therefore, are of less interest. This also explains the exclusion of categories such as (9-10), (12-13), and (15-16) above, because these constructions are still in use⁸.

In my analysis of the complex APs in the B2 Corpus (see Appendix B), I have also left out the cases described in (9)-(16), and in addition cases of complex APs which were used as adverbials, as in clauses like, for he was