Adverbial But in Some Elizabethan Writings

抄録

The present paper tries to clarify the usage of adverbial but meaning ‘only’ in some Elizabethan writings. First, with regard to the position in the sentence, it will be shown that but is of rare occurrence before noun phrases as subjects, especially when it introduces a sentence or a clause, and that it is of common occurrence before various constituents of predicate. Second, in terms of meaning, phrases or clauses collocated with but usually imply such negative ideas as smallness, shortness, low evaluation and the like, while sometimes the collocated unit with but is used without any negative implication of either smallness, shortness or low evaluation. Third, sometimes collocations of but are so used as to contrast with certain other expressions. For instance, in “though I be but a poore woman, I am a true woman, ” “but a poore woman” contrasts with “a true woman.”