The rise of the to-infinitive / Bettelou Los.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Los, Bettelou.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Middle English, 1100-1500--Infinitive.

English language.

English language--Old English, ca. 450-1100--Infinitive.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (352 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book describes the historical emergence and spread of the to-infinitive in English. It shows that to + infinitive emerged from a reanalysis of the preposition to plus a deverbal nominalization, which spread first to purpose clauses, then to other nonfinite environments. The book challenges the traditional reasoning that infinitives must have been nouns in Old English because they inflected for dative case and can follow prepositions. Dr Los shows that as earlyas Old English the to-infinitive was established in most of the environments in which it is found today. She argues that its spread

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations and Symbols; Part I. Introduction; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 The traditional view of the status of infinitives in Old English; 1.3 The two infinitives in competition; 1.4 Problems with Callaway's classification; 1.5 The rise of the to-infinitive: an outline; 1.6 Some methodological decisions; Part II. The to-infinitive as Goal; 2 The expression of purpose in Old English; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Purpose adjuncts in Gothic and Old English; 2.3 Bare 'final' infinitives in the literature

2.4 Bare infinitives after verbs of motion and rest2.5 Syntactic options for the analysis of the bare infinitive; 2.6 The emergence of the to-infinitive as purpose phrase; 2.7 Conclusions; 3 The to-infinitive as GOAL-argument; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 The conatives; 3.3 The verbs of persuading and urging; 3.4 Competition between the three frames; 3.5 Conclusions; Part III. The to-infinitive as THEME; 4 INTENTION; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The distribution of the to-infinitive in Old English; 4.3 Models for the distribution of the to-infinitive; 4.4 The ginnan-verbs; 4.5 Conclusions

5 Commanding and permitting5.1 Introduction; 5.2 The verbs of commanding and permitting; 5.3 Reanalysis from adjunct to argument; 5.4 The status of the AcI; 5.5 AcIs and NP to VP-constructions; 5.6 Conclusions; 6 Commissives; 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Membership and subcategorization frame; 6.3 Three types of promises; 6.4 Modals and subjunctives; 6.5 Conclusions; Part IV. Syntactic Status; 7 The category of the to-infinitive; 7.1 Introduction; 7.2 The Old English to-infinitive is not a prepositional phrase; 7.3 The Old English to-infinitive is a clause

7.4 That-clauses and to-infinitives in competition7.5 Conclusions; 8 The changing status of infinitival to; 8.1 Introduction; 8.2 The rise of the to-infinitive; 8.3 The status of to in Old English; 8.4 To as a non-finite modal; 8.5 To moves overtly to T[sup(ο)] in Middle English; 8.6 The emergence and subsequent loss of for to; 8.7 The grammaticalization and degrammaticalization of to; 8.8 Conclusions; Part V. Changes in Middle English; 9 The rise of to-infinitival Exceptional Case-Marking; 9.1 Introduction; 9.2 The analysis of to-infinitival ECMs in Present-day English

9.3 The ECM after want-verbs9.4 The ECM after believe-verbs; 9.5 Conclusions; 10 Innocent bystander: the loss of the indefinite pronoun man; 10.1 Introduction; 10.2 Traditional accounts of the loss of man; 10.3 The four environments of man in Ælfric; 10.4 Man in main clauses; 10.5 Man in subjunctive that-clauses: competition from arbitrary PRO; 10.6 Man in other subclauses; 10.7 Conclusion; Part VI. Summary and Conclusions; 11 Summary and conclusions; 11.1 Introduction; 11.2 Origin of the to-infinitive; 11.3 Competition between subjunctive clause and to-infinitive

11.4 The categorial status of the to-infinitive

Notes:

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--1999.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-332) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-920873-5

9786610843961

1-280-84396-9

0-19-153450-1

1-4356-2314-2

OCLC:

742333460