North Carolina gave me the option today either to "swear" on a Bible
invoking God or else to "affirm" without Bible and without invoking God. I
did not have the option to "swear" Bible-free and godlessly. I wonder why
swearing isn't an option for non-believers. Nothing inherently sacred in
the word, which is derived from Proto-IndoEuropean root *swer- "to speak,
say."
Dick
On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dick,
> One thing not mentioned yet, believe it or not, is that it was the Society
> of Friends and similar radicals of the 17th Century that we have to thank
> for the addition of "affirm" to the legal oaths. For many the New
> Testament injunction to "swear not at all" was to be observed religiously.
> Many even avoided any kind of dealings with the courts and other
> institutions of civil law.
> Bruce
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> From: Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:01:27 -0500
>
> Interesting coincidence. At this moment I am sitting in a jury pool and
> was just asked to swear or affirm "...so help you God or is this your
> solemn affirmation?" Glad I had this discussion to prepare me
> historically, syntactically, pragmatically, and semantically.
>
> Dick
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 23, 2013, at 10:57 PM, "Stahlke, Herbert" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Bruce,
>
> I was struck by the comma you inserted before "God." That, of course,
> makes "God" vocative, and I think in the formula, as well as the Old
> English and Early Middle English forms "God" was nominative, as one would
> expect with a subjunctive verb.
>
> Herb
>
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask]
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Bruce Despain [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 23, 2013 5:41 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
>
> Herb & Dick,
> I can see how the literal meaning has been "bleached" out, in that the
> "formula" or idiomatic nature of language has hidden the syntax. This very
> thing has happened with the word "please," which is often simply an adverb
> and only rarely a transitive verb. Still its context is restricted in ways
> that reflect its origin. I think that there is not much about God's
> punishment in the thoughts of the godless. There are many "blasphemous"
> uses of God's titles that can be for little more than emphasis. The
> context of "so help me, God" seems still to be restricted to the sentence
> adverb function of denoting the relative certainty in the author's mind of
> the performance of the speech act. Thank you for clarifying the "change of
> meaning" for me.
> Bruce
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> From: "Stahlke, Herbert" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:38:00 +0000
>
> I was thinking of the semantic shift in terms of the bleaching that
> happens as a phrase becomes a formula.
> The meaning "God please help me to keep this oath" to something more like,
> at least in modern terms, "I really mean this." It is in this sense that
> many people who have no particular religious convictions can use this
> formula.
>
> Herb
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask]
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:01 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
>
> Bruce,
>
> Semantic shift because the early citations were requests for help whereas
> the modern sense (as I read it) is quite different. One attests to one's
> truthfulness by staking one relationship with God on it. It's not "help me
> to tell the truth" so much as "punish me if I lie." Do you read it
> differently?
>
> Dick
>
>
> On Jan 23, 2013, at 11:09 AM, Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Herb,
> Now I am puzzled by the assumption that there was a change in meaning in
> the verb "help." For me the earlier citations certainly have the meaning
> of "provide aid or succor", but how is this lost in the "formulaic" VOS
> word order? In the first case the possibility of God's aid is expressed,
> whereas in the later case God is directly implored for aid. Providing aid
> or succor is present in both forms. Maybe the conception of God for the
> modern mind is not personal enough to make him an addressee (vocative).
> For me what is changing in the meaning is conveyed by the syntax, word
> order, not the verb.
> Bruce
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> From: "Stahlke, Herbert" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:37:14 +0000
>
> Dick,
>
> Back to the OED Online. The meanings for "help," "provide aid or succor,"
> predate the oath formula. The former meaning goes back to the earliest Old
> English citations the OED uses, the 9th c. The oath formula does not
> appear till 1175, Early Middle English. Here are the first few citations:
>
> *c*1175 *Lamb. Hom.* 33 Ah swa me helpe drihten, že ilke mon že wule
> fulien alle his sunne lustes..ne kimeš he nefre inne heoueneriche.
> *a*1325 (1250) *Gen. & Exod.* (1968) l. 2528 He šat šise lettres
> wrot, God him helpe, weli mot, And berge is sowle fro sorge & grot Of helle
> pine.
> *c*1369 Chaucer *Bk. Duchesse* 550, I wolde as wys god helpe me soo
> Amende hyt yif I kan or may.
> ?1507 W. Dunbar *Tua Mariit Wemen* (Rouen) in *Poems* (1998) 45, I
> hait him with my hert, sa help me our Lord.
>
> As the first two show, the Old English word order option of putting the
> verb last, especially in non-assertive clauses, continues to work. The
> Chaucer citation shows something more like modern word order, but the 1507
> citation shows the older, more formulaic form. Looking at the other
> meanings of "help" and the citations under them, the VOS order does not
> seem to occur after the 14th c., and so I'll hazard a guess that by the
> late 14th c. the expression "so help me God," with the older word order had
> become formulaic. In terms of meaning change I would suggest that this
> split in word order represents a semantic bleaching of "help" in the oath
> formula.
>
> Herb
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask]
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 22, 2013 6:32 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
>
> Bruce,
>
> Can you clarify this for me? Does this respond to my puzzlement about how
> a phrase whose literal meaning paraphrases as "May God help me" has come to
> have the sense "I swear this assertion is true"?
>
> Dick
>
> On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 5:21 PM, Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dick,
> The performative of an oath is replaced by a declarative assertion by
> Avery. The performative meaning would be:"I assert that I did not, so help
> me God" so that the performance needing authority from God is the
> assertion, not the deed.
> Bruce
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> From: Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Analyzing "so help me God"
> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:02:18 -0500
>
>
> In the future, when I need information on any language question, I will
> simply write, "So help me, Herb!" Thanks, all who replied, for your erudite
> responses.
>
> A follow-up: Since the phrase literally means "May God help me in this," I
> find it curious that it has come to signify "I swear I am telling the
> truth" ("Asked if he raped the man accusing Engelhardt and Shero, Avery
> said: 'I did not. So help me God'." [reference<http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/So-Help-Me-God-Ex-Priest-Recants-Plea-187354151.html>]),
> which has nothing to do with asking for divine assistance. If anything, the
> intent is "May God punish me if I lie."
>
> Dick
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 10:53 PM, Stahlke, Herbert <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
> Dick,
>
> The OED Online gives the following as the third entry under "help, v."
>
> *c.* In *subj. pres.*, in invocations and oaths: *esp.* in so help me God,
> the customary formula in a solemn oath; and in God help him (them, etc.) ,
> often a parenthetical exclamation of pity for the helpless condition of the
> person spoken of. Also ellipt. so help me, and as a variant so help me bob
> ."help," then, would be, as the OED says, present subjunctive, hence no
> agreement. The subject verb inversion would, I think, be due to the
> initial adverb "so." We get such inversion regularly with negative
> adverbs, as in "Never had I seen one before," but it feels a bit archaic
> with "so," and I think it is archaic. What's odd is that the SVI also
> moves the subject "God" beyond the object "me." I don't have an
> explanation for that.
>
> Herb
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask]
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Monday, January 21, 2013 1:16 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Analyzing "so help me God"
>
> Starting with FDR, presidents have appended "so help me(,) God" to the
> end of the inaugural oath. Can someone parse the phrase for me? When people
> say, "So help me!" they mean something like "I swear to God" or "May God
> punish me if I am not telling the truth." They don't seem to mean a
> supplicative "May God help me."
>
> I would be grateful for an informed analysis of how the actual words
> signify the phrase's meaning.
>
> Dick
>
>
>
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