Eric Hoekstra en Sjoerd Siebinga

Exploring the distribution of word aeng, the Old Frisian counterpart of Modern English any, Modern Dutch enig.

NB This is the pre-final version. The final version features many mainly stylistic changes.

Abstract.

Old Frisian regularly features a word which is etymologically related to the word any in Modern English, and to enig in Modern Dutch. The purpose of this explorative article is to make a beginning with the description of the distributional properties of this word aeng in old Frisian. We will show that this word, like its Modern English counterpart any, behaves like a negative polarity item. An attempt is made to characterise the range of syntactic / semantic contexts in which it may appear.

1. Introduction.

This article explores the distribution of the word aeng in Old Frisian. We base ourselves on the text archive presented at the site of the Deutches Rechtswörterbuch, http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/frameset.htm. This text archive is the largest Old Frisian text archive currently accessible through the internet. It contains the following Old Frisian texts, based on the edition of Buma & Ebel (1963-77) :

· Brokmer Recht

· Emsiger Recht

· Fivelgo Recht

· Hunsingo Recht

· Rüstringer Recht

· Westerlauwers Recht

Actually, the word aeng appears in various spellings: aeng, eng, enig, enich; for practical reasons, we subsume all the variant spellings under the form aeng. Of course, these forms may be inflected depending on their specification for the morpho-syntactic features of case and word, as in forms like aenge, aegne, engne, and so on. Forms like enich can be straightforwardly related to modern English any, modern Frisian iennich and modern Dutch enig. The Old Frisian forms in which the vowel of the second syllable has been elided, aeng, eng, are not easily accounted for. It is not clear what process is responsible for elision of the vowel i, nor how the resulting consonant cluster 'ng' is to be pronounced. However, the purpose of this article is not to discuss this phonological problem.

Below a set of syntactic contexts will be presented in which the word aeng (and it spelling variants) may occur. After explaining what a negative polarity item is, we go on to show that aeng behaves like a negative polarity item, as it also does in Modern English. Basing ourselves on the theory of negative polarity put forth in Ladusaw (1980), Zwarts (1981, 1986), we suggest that the environments featuring aeng can be characterised partially by the feature .

2. Contexts featuring Old Frisian aeng.

2.1. Verb-first contexts.

The context in which the word aeng is most easily found involves verb-first clauses, that is, clauses introduced by the tensed verb. The tensed verbs can be preceded at most by a sentence connective like ac "also". A number of such such examples has been given in Appendix I. The examples have been alphabetised on the word following aeng, which is usually a noun. Particularly interesting are the examples involving thing "thing" under (l), of which two have been given. In English, this combination has developed into a fixed combination "anything" which behaves as a negative polarity item. The negative polar character of anything in Modern English is illustrated by the following pair of sentences:

(1a) * I saw anything
(1b) Nobody saw anything

The NPI anything cannot be used in a simple affirmative sentence like (1a). Instead, it needs something 'negative in some sense' in its syntactic environment. Later on we will provide a more exact characterisation of the notion "negative in some sense". Verb-first sentence will turn out to also be subsumed under this characterisation of 'negative in some sense'.

2.2. Clauses introduced by if.

Clauses introduced by if regularly feature the word aeng, as shown in Appendix II. This is not surprising since the two clause types, Verb-first clauses and clauses introduced by if, have the semantics of conditionals. Unlike the Verb first clauses we examined, the collection of if-clauses in Appendix II feature two examples of aeng used independently, that is, not as an adjective but as a nominalised adjective that was followed by a genetive phrase. Two such examples have been given in appendix II under (a). Otherwise, we found examples of aeng followed by nouns such as mon, which we had also found in Verb-first clauses.

2.3. Clauses introduced by hwersar.

The word aeng is also repeatedly found in clauses introduced by hwersar, or, hwersa. It can roughly be translated by "whenever". The meaning of hwersar clauses is very similar to that of if-clauses and verb-first clauses. Indeed, the question is whether they can be distinguished semantically at all. In fact, Appendix VI presents an example of a coordination of Verb-first and hwersar-clauses, apparently used indiscriminately, indicating that the two types are semantically very similar. Both types can be subsumed under the semantic label of involving conditional semantics. One of the hwersar-clauses also involved independent use of aeng followed by a genitive. The other examples involves adjectival usage of aeng followed by nouns like erwa, mon and thing.

2.4. Relative clauses.

The word "aeng" can also be found in relative clauses following the combination of the quantifier alle + noun. This is illustrated by two examples given in Appendix IV.

2.5. Comparatives.

The word aeng can also be found after comparatives, as shown by the examples in Appendix V. In both cases, the comparative item is diurra.

2.6. Summary and problem

We have seen that the word aeng is found in Old Frisian in three types of contexts:
* conditional clauses (subsuming Verb-first, if and hwersar-clauses)
* relative clauses following the word alle
* after a comparative element
What do these three types of clauses have in common?

3. Downward entailing contexts

In fact, the environments summed up in the previous section have a lot in common according to a semantical theory proposed by Ladusaw (1980), Zwart (1981, 1986) and others. Contrary to simple affirmative sentences, these environments are all downward entailing (also referred to as "monotone decreasing"), whereas simple affirmative sentences are upwards entailing or monotone increasing. Consider first the concept of “upwards entailment”. A sentence is upwards entailing if it [note 1] is closed under supersets. An example is the following. The VP dreams restlessly is part of the superset dreams. The truth of the sentence John dreams restlessly is preserved under supersets: if it is true that John dreams restlessly, then it is also true that John dreams. Thus, the simple affirmative sentence John dreams restlessly is upwards entailing. Conversely, it is not the case that simple affirmative sentences are downwards entailing. Take the sentence John dreams. Now, even if it is true that John dreams, it is not necessarily true that John dreams restlessly. Truth is not preserved under VP-subsets; hence John dreams is not downwards entailing.

The reverse state of affairs obtains if we take as a subject the NP quantifier nobody. The sentence Nobody dreams entails the sentence Nobody dreams restlessly. Thus it passes the test for downward entailment: truth is preserved under subsets, with restlessly dreaming being a subset of dreaming. However, Nobody dreams restlessly fails the test for upward entailment, as Nobody dreams restlessly does not entail Nobody dreams.

Why is this relevant? In present-day English, words like anything characteristically occur in downwards entailing environments. This explains the contrast in (1), which we repeat for the sake of convenience:

(1a) * I saw anything
(1b) Nobody saw anything

Words like anything require an environment which is 'negative in some sense'. Work in generalised quantifier theory (Ladusaw 1980, Zwarts 1980, 1986, and others) has shown that the environment can be partially characterised by the mathematic notion of downwards entailment (or monotone decrease). Words like anything, which require a downwards entailing context, are commonly referred to as "negative polarity items".

Modern Dutch also features several negative polarity items. One of them is ook maar iets. Like its English counterpart, it can only occur in environments which are downwards entailing, as is shown by the following sentences:

(2a) * Ik heb ook maar iets gezien
I have anything seen

(2b) Niemand heeft ook maar iets gezien
nobody has anything seen

Interestingly, the environments in which we found Old Frisian aeng all seem to be downwards entailing. To show this, we will inspect the entailments in those contexts which feature aeng in Old Frisian, that is: conditional clauses, comparative clauses and relative clauses following the universal quantifier alle.

(3) Entailments conditional clauses

(3a) If John dreams restlessly, he will be bad-humoured in the morning.
(3b) If John dreams, he will be bad-humoured in the morning.

Suppose (3a) is true. Then it does not follow that (3b) is true. Thus (3a), notably the if-clause, fails the test for upwards entailment. Suppose (3b) is true. It follows from (3b) that (3a) is also true. Thus, (3b), notably the if-clause, passes the test for downwards entailment. Furthermore, if the if-clause is downwards entailing, then a negative polarity item should be acceptable in it. This turns out to be correct for both Dutch and English:

(4) If anything happens, phone the police.

(5) Als er ook maar iets gebeurt, moet je de politie bellen.
If there anything happens, you must phone the police
"If anything happens, you must phone the police."

Thus it may safely be concluded that conditional clauses, which characteristically feature aeng in Old Frisian, are downwards entailing.

Relative clauses following the universal quantifier all can similarly be shown to be downwards entailing. [note 2] Consider the following pair of sentences:

(6a) Alle jongens die rusteloos dromen moeten zich melden bij de schoolpsycholoog
all boys who restlessly dream must themselves report at the school psychologist
“All boys who dream restlessly must report to the school psychologist.”
(6b) Alle jongens die dromen moeten zich melden bij de schoolpsycholoog
all boys who dream must themselves report at the school psychologist
“All boys who dream must report to the school psychologist .”

The inference to supersets, from (6a) to (6b), does not hold. Thus the relative clause in (6a) is not upwards entailing. However, the inference from (6b) to (6a) holds. Thus the relative clause in (6b) is downwards entailing. Hence we expect that a negative polarity item may show up there, and this expectation is correct:

(7) Alle jongens die ook maar iets gezien hebben moeten zich melden.
All boys who anything seen have must themselves report
“Anybody who saw anything must report himself.”

Thus relative clauses governed by the quantifier alle, which also featured aeng in Old Frisian, are downwards entailing (or downward entailing) as well.

Finally, consider the comparative construction, as illustrated in (8):

(8a) Coffee is more expensive than black tea.
(8b) Coffee is more expensive than tea.

If (8a) is true, (8b) need not be; perhaps green tea is very expensive, for example. Hence, what follows the word than is not upwards entailing. Conversely, if (8b) is true, then (8a) must also be true. Hence, what follows than appears to be downward entailing. We therefore expect that the negative polarity item anything can occur after than:

(9) I love you more than anything

As the song line in (9) shows, this expectation is correct.

4. Conclusion

An exploratory investigation of the Old Frisian word aeng yielded the result that it was found in three contexts:

· conditional clauses

· relative clauses following the universal quantifier alle

· comparative contexts

These contexts are all three of them downward entailing. This strongly suggests that aeng was a negative polarity item in Old Frisian, like its Modern English counterpart anything or Modern Dutch ook maar iets.

Some odd facts are possibly related to the problem discussed above. In English, any can be used with a following noun, but it also occurs in fixed combinations like anybody and anything, analogous to everybody and everything. Modern Frisian has one phenomenon which is remotely reminiscent of this. The universal quantifier alle, which normally only takes plural antecedents if they are countable, can be used in the singular in case it is following by ding, the reflex of English thing:

(10a) Countable: alle famkes “all girls”, * alle famke “* all girl”
(10b) Not countable: alle bûter “all butter”
(10c) Exceptional behaviour of ding: alle ding “all thing => everything”

It is unclear why Frisian exceptionally allows alle to be followed by the singular count noun ding 'thing' to the exclusion of other singular count nouns. Another pertinent observation is that Modern Frisian lacks the negative polarity item “ook maar iets”, which Dutch features. Thus, although Frisian possesses the equivalents of the three words “ook”, ek, “maar”, mar, and “iets”, eat, the combination ek mar eat is decidedly not Frisian. These two observations could be an interesting starting-point for further research into the properties of negative polarity items in Old Frisian and Modern Frisian.

Notes

* The authors' names are in alphabetical order. The paper was presented at the meeting of the Society for Research on Old-Germanic ('Vereniging van Oudgermanisten'), Gent, 22 april 2006. We would like to thank the audience for their comments and discussion.

1. We speak of sentences being upwards entailing or being closed under supersets. This is a simplification for expository reasons, as we should say that the semantic denotation of the sentences is montone increasing, and so on.

2. Because of some complications involving so-called free-choice any (Horn 1972 and later work) we take our facts from Dutch.

Bibliography

Buma, W.J. & W. Ebel (1963-77) (eds) Altfriesische Rechtsquellen. Texte & Übersetzungen. Vol. 1: Das Rüstringer Recht; 2: Das Brokmer Recht; 3: Das Emsiger Recht; 4: Das Hunsingoer Recht; 5: Das Fivelgoer Recht; 6: Westerlauwerssches Recht. Jus municipale Frisonum. 2 vols. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen.

Horn, L. (1972) On the Semantic Properties of Logical Operators in English. UCLA dissertation, reprinted by Indiana U. Linguistics Club, 1976.

Ladusaw, W. (1980) Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations. Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington.

Zwarts, F. (1981) Negatief polaire uitdrukkingen. Glot: Tijdschrift Voor Taalwetenschap, vol. 4 (1), 35-132.

Zwarts, F. (1986) Categoriale Grammatica En Algebraïsche Semantiek: Een Onderzoek Naar Negatie En Polariteit In Het Nederlands. Dissertatie, Universiteit van Groningen.

Appendix I. Verb-first clauses.

a) and naut lessa; and skether eng brond inare wic ettere missa fon enre iechtegere case and thi redieua thet onlet, sa ielde mane mith thrim ieldum, and thet ingod beswere thi hana and wite selwa thene hauding;
(BrokmerR. 054 § 65 (= Rq. § 74, 75))

und nicht weniger; und bricht da in der Wik während der Handelsmesse infolge einer offenkundigen Schlägerei ein Brand aus, und bestätigt das (die Tatumstände) der Redjeve, so büße man den (Brand) mit dreifachem Gelde, und der Kläger beschwöre den (Wert des verbrannten) Hausrats und nenne selbst unter Eid den Haupttäter;

b) and sketh ther aeng daddel, sa nime tha redieua ene hageste merc
(BrokmerR. 036 § 29 (= Rq. § 42))

und geschieht da irgendein Totschlag, so sollen die Redjeven eine höchste Mark dafür nehmen

c) Spreth teth aeng fach and frethelas mon, thet him thiu faijthe vriewen se, and sine fiund spreke na, sa meij hi tha vrieft biprowia and wer makia mith sine prestere and mith [sine] rediewa, mith tuam fogethem and mith triuwe burem and sa skel thi vrieft elle festa stonde.
(EmsigerR. 140)

Sagt irgendein befehdeter und friedloser Mann, daß ihm die Fehde erlassen sei, und sagen seine Feinde "nein", so darf er die Vergebung mit seinem Priester und mit seinem Redjeven, mit zwei Kirchenvögten und mit glaubwürdigen Dorfgenossen beweisen und dartun, und dann soll die Vergebung unverbrüchlich Bestand haben.

d) Ac sterft hir eng Fresa oppa Saxlonde, ther fon seken fri se, sa agen tha erwa sin god to fagiane vmberawad.
(EmsigerR. 150 (32))

Und stirbt da im Sachsenland irgendein Friese, der von Ansprüchen frei ist, so sollen seine Erben sein Gut unangefochten in Besitz nehmen.

e) wel hir aeng liudamon thene prestere halda inna lene, sa geie hi mith achta mercum.
(BrokmerR. 098 § 168 (= Rq. § 177))

will hier(zulande) irgendein Volksgenosse den Priester in seinen Diensten halten, so büße er mit acht Mark.

f) Vrwaxt hir aenge monne sin hei, thet hine rediewa berne er tha riuchta dei, sa resze hi achta merc.
(BrokmerR. 030 § 16 b (= Rq. § 27))

Überwältigt hier einen Mann sein Zorn, so daß er (das Haus des) Redjeven vor dem gerichtlich bestimmten Tage niederbrennt, so zahle er acht Mark.

g) Skether aeng raf, sa skel thi redieua thet wita, and efter skel thi huswerda thet biswera;
(BrokmerR. 040 § 36 (= Rq. § 47))

Wird etwas geraubt, so soll der Redjeve das bezeugen, und danach soll der Hauswirt das beschwören;

h) Slitter aeng rediewa er tha riuchta dei auder wach ioftha rhoof, sa resze hi achta merc.
(BrokmerR. 030 § 16 a (= Rq. § 26))

Trägt da ein Redjeve vor dem gerichtlich bestimmten Tage (der Wüstung) entweder Wand oder Dach ab, so zahle er acht Mark.

i) and dether aeng liudamon tha rediewa engne skatha, sa felle hit a tuira wegena,
(BrokmerR. 022 [§ 6 b (= Rq. § 5))

und fügt ein Volksgenosse dem Redjeven irgendwelchen Schaden zu, so büße er es doppelt,

j) werther eng sogenath and hir ne se nen thing eketh, hwet sa ther sketh, sa se hit enfaldech. (BrokmerR. 038 § 30 (= Rq. § 43))

findet irgendeine Versammlung statt und ist da kein Gericht angesagt worden, so sei die Buße einfach, was immer da geschieht

k) Hwerther aeng stenhus hagra rvocht sa tuelf ierdfota hach andre thivcke and szelner vr tua feke andre thiuchke, sa geie mith achta mercum thi, thert ach;
(BrokmerR. 090 § 150 (= Rq. § 159 a))

Wird irgendein Steinhaus höher gebaut als zwölf Rutenfuß hoch im Geviert, und ein Keller über zwei Hausfächer im Geviert reichend, so büße der, dem es gehört, mit acht Mark

l) vrliust hi clathar ieftha eng thing, and thi redieua alsa rede, sa ielde math mith thrium ieldum;
(BrokmerR. 040 § 37 (= Rq. § 157))

büßt er (dabei) Kleider ein oder irgendwelche (anderen) Sachen, und bestätigt dies der Redjeve, so bezahle man das mit dreifachem Betrage;

Jst thet mar eng ting on achte, sa ach thi fiarde panneng of te fallane.
(EmsigerR. 152 (5))

Falls man dafür (doch) irgendwelche Ware nach Abschätzung in Zahlung gibt, so soll der vierte Teil (des Wertes) abgezogen werden.

k) And deth thi talemon aenge monne eng vnriuth, sa riuchte thet sine sithar bi tha brewe, and thene thictega vprivchte hi, and achta merc retze hi, and sin hus ne berne ma naut.
(BrokmerR. 026 [§ 9 g (= Rq. § 16))

Und tut der Talemann jemandem ein Unrecht, so sollen seine Amtsgenossen darüber nach dem (Rechts)brief richten, und für die Bezichtigung leiste er Schadenersatz und zahle acht Mark, und sein Haus verbrenne man nicht.

Appendix II. Clauses introduced by if.

a) Thiu othere kere: ief there soghen selonda aeng vrherath vrde auder fon tha suther sareda ridderum jeftha fon northeska wigandum, thet tha sex tha soghenda hulpe, theth hit alsa wel machte sa there sexa hoc.
(EmsigerR. 096)

Die zweite Küre: Wenn irgendeines der sieben Seelande entweder von den im Süden gerüsteten Rittern oder von nordischen Kriegern verheert würde, so sollten die sechs dem siebenten helfen, damit es ebenso stark bliebe wie jedes der sechs.

Thiu thredde kera: ief thera soghen selonda aeng welde liude raweia ieftha morth sla, [thet] tha sex thet soghenda bithunghe, theth hit elle riuchte fore.
(EmsigerR. 096)

Die dritte Küre: Wenn irgendeines der sieben Seelande Leute berauben oder umbringen wollte, so sollten die sechs das siebente dazu zwingen, völlig gerecht zu verfahren

b) Hwersa thi redieua of tha werve gengt and tha ofledene withseith, iof tha fiund thenna aenge case makiath, sa felle thit, ther tha dede deth.
(BrokmerR. 040 § 34 (= Rq. § 46 a))

Wenn der Redjeve von der Warf geht und den Fehdezug untersagt, so soll, falls die Feinde dann irgendwelche Schlägerei anfangen, derjenige die Buße zahlen, der die Wunde schlägt.

c) Alle keddar se en ier weldech, buta talemonnum; iof hir aeng mon wel weldech wesa leng sa ier, sa geie hi mith achta mercum.
(BrokmerR. 026 § 10 a (= Rq. § 17))

Alle Kedden sollen ein Jahr Amtsgewalt haben, außer den Talemannen; wenn hier jemand länger als ein Jahr Amtsgewalt ausüben will, so büße er mit acht Mark.

Jef aeng mon eng bethera wiste, theth mathet lichtere lette and ma theth bethere helde.
(EmsigerR. 096)

Wenn irgend jemand ein besseres (Recht) wüßte, sollte man das weniger richtige aufgeben und das bessere befolgen.

Appendix III. Clauses introduced by hwersar.

a) Hwersa Thi mon wergat sin wif, ieftha thi hera ieftha thiu frowe ieftha thi sviaring ieftha thiu snore, aeng thira wirgat thene otherne, and hira sziwe se burkuth, and tha redia se thria clagad, sa ielde ma se mith thrim ieldum
(BrokmerR. 102 § 173 (= Rq. § 181))

Wenn der Mann seine Frau umbringt, oder der Schwiegervater oder die Schwiegermutter oder der Schwiegersohn oder die Schwiegertochter einer den andern umbringt, und ihr Streit dorfkundig ist, und beim Redjeven dreimal Klage erhoben ist, so büße man sie mit dreifachem Wergeld

b) Hwersar send tuene tamar teijn, and thetter fon there thama other eng erwa sterwe, and thetter bira othere sida knape and fonna se, sa mughen tha knapa mitha fonnem kniaija witha halfsibbe
(EmsigerR. 164 (54))

Wenn da zweierlei Nachkommen gezeugt sind, und von der einen Nachkommenschaft irgendein Erbe stirbt, und auf der anderen Seite Jungen und Mädchen sind, so dürfen diese Jungen mit den Mädchen gemäß der Halbsippe ihre Verwandtschaft geltend machen

c) Hwersa thi broder slaijt ene orne jefta thi sune thene fether ieftha aeng mon anne mon slaijt, ther lawa lewe skele, sa ne skel nanen bona nena lawa fagia, wara thi, ther olra nest knia is.
(EmsigerR. 162 I)

Wenn ein Bruder den anderen erschlägt, oder der Sohn den Vater, oder wenn irgend jemand einen Mann erschlägt, der eine Erbschaft hinterlassen wird, so soll kein Totschläger eine Erbschaft erhalten, sondern derjenige, der (nach dem Totschläger) der nächste Verwandte (des Erschlagenen) ist.

d) Hwersa thi mon bernt fon owene ieftha fon herthe ieftha fon thera, and him bitigie ma, thet hi binna wagum hebbe clathar hewed ieftha gold ieftha aeng thing, sa ne thur hi ther mith nanene onszere aienstonda, bihalwa tham alena, ther beden is ieftha lened;
(BrokmerR. 088 § 145 (= Rq. § 153))

Wenn jemand durch (Entzündung von) Ofen oder Herd oder Darre abbrennt, und man ihn damit belastet, daß er Kleider oder Gold oder irgendeine (andere) Sache (eines anderen) im Hause gehabt habe, so braucht er dafür keine Verantwortung zu übernehmen, außer für das, was er bitt- oder leihweise erhalten hat.

Hwersa mon bernt fon sijn aijne fiur ant him bitigie ma, thet hi hebbe binna waghen heud clather iefta gold iefta eng thing, sa ne thur hi mith nanene onzere agenstonda bihala tham, ther him lend is;
(EmsigerR. 158 (33))

Wenn jemand durch sein eigenes Feuer abbrennt, und man ihn damit belastet, daß er in seinem Hause Kleider oder Gold oder irgendeine (andere) Sache (eines anderen) gehabt habe, so braucht er dafür keine Verantwortung zu übernehmen, außer für das, was ihm geliehen ist.

Appendix IV. Relative clause accompanied by alle + noun.

Thervmbe vnhante wi se alsa, thet wij in alle tichtighen, ther eng tsiwe iefta kase fon ewesen hede, weta weke fon there werde thes gastlike riuchtes and wij metlike hnige tnre seftechhed there nethe.
(EmsigerR. 144 (8))

Deshalb nahmen wir sie so an, daß wir in allen Klagen, über die irgendwelche Streitigkeit oder Schlägerei stattgefunden hatte, ein wenig von den Satzungen des geistlichen Rechtes abweichen und mit Maßen zur Milde der Gnade neigen sollten.

Appendix V. Comparative clauses.

Thet fereste lith thes thuma thrimene diurra tha thera othera fingra eng.
(EmsigerR. 58 (81))

Das vorderste Glied des Daumens (ist) um die Hälfte teurer als eines der anderen Finger.

Thera thrira finghera andera ferra hond trimene diurra tha thera othera eng umbe tha seinenga, ther ma ther [mithe] dua scel withene diuuel.
(EmsigerR. 58 (85))

Das Abschlagen) der drei Finger der rechten Hand (ist) wegen der Kreuze, die man damit gegen den Teufel schlagen soll, um die Hälfte höher als einer der anderen (Finger zu büßen)

Appendix VI. Mix of hwersar and Verb-first clauses.

Hwersar is en alderlas erwa and hi se mitha werandstewe and thet god se naut edeled, sprech ther aeng mon fon there federsida ieftha fon there modersida binna tha thredda, and hia clagie fore thene alderlasa erwa, sa skel thi, ther tha lawa heth, en riuth del dela witthene alderlasa erwa.
(BrokmerR. 064 § 91 (= Rq. § 101))

Wenn da ein elternloser Erbe ist und er unter einem Vormund steht und das Gut (noch) nicht geteilt ist, und da jemand von der Vaterseite oder von der Mutterseite (des Erben) innerhalb des dritten (Verwandtschaftsgrades) sich beschwert und sie für den elternlosen Erben Klage erheben, so soll derjenige, der den Nachlaß (in Besitz) hat, eine rechtmäßige Teilung mit dem elternlosen Erben treffen.