The Rise of the To-Infinitive

This book describes the historical emergence and spread of the to-infinitive in English. The exposition is clear and does not assume an up-to-date knowledge of generative theory. The book will appeal to the wide spectrum of scholars interested in the transformation of Old to Middle English as well as to those studying the processes and causes of syntactic change more generally.

Bettelou Los is a Lecturer in Linguistics at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1986 and has since held teaching and research positions at the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit, the University of Nijmegen and other colleges of higher education. She participates in the research program The Diachrony of Complex Predicates in West Germanic, and has published several papers on diachronic syntax. She contributes with Wim van der Wurff to the morphology and syntax section of The Year's Work in English Studies and with Ans van Kemenade is co-editing The Blackwell Handbook of the History of English.

Acknowledgements

xi

List of Abbreviations and Symbols

xiii

Part I. Introduction

1

(24)

Introduction

3

(22)

Introduction

3

(1)

The traditional view of the status of infinitives in Old English

4

(5)

The two infinitives in competition

9

(3)

Problems with Callaway's classification

12

(5)

The rise of the to-infinitive: an outline

17

(3)

Some methodological decisions

20

(5)

Part II. The to-infinitive as Goal

25

(46)

The expression of purpose in Old English

27

(18)

Introduction

27

(1)

Purpose adjuncts in Gothic and Old English

28

(3)

Bare `final' infinitives in the literature

31

(3)

Bare infinitives after verbs of motion and rest

34

(5)

Syntactic options for the analysis of the bare infinitive

39

(1)

The emergence of the to-infinitive as purpose phrase

40

(2)

Conclusions

42

(3)

The to-infinitive as GOAL-argument

45

(26)

Introduction

45

(1)

The conatives

46

(5)

The verbs of persuading and urging

51

(17)

Introduction

51

(1)

Persuading versus commanding in Old English

52

(4)

Membership and subcategorization

56

(4)

The distribution of the three frames

60

(4)

From adjunct to Goal-argument

64

(4)

Competition between the three frames

68

(2)

Conclusions

70

(1)

Part III. The to-infinitive as Theme

71

(80)

Intention

73

(28)

Introduction

73

(2)

The distribution of the to-infinitive in Old English

75

(3)

Models for the distribution of the to-infinitive

78

(10)

The dative or genitive noun phrase

78

(1)

The prepositional phrase

79

(1)

Reanalysis of adjunct to argument

80

(2)

The bare infinitive

82

(3)

The subjunctive clause

85

(3)

The ginnan-verbs

88

(10)

Conclusions

98

(3)

Commanding and permitting

101

(38)

Introduction

101

(1)

The verbs of commanding and permitting

102

(15)

Membership and subcategorization frames

102

(7)

Dual membership

109

(7)

Dative + genitive verbs

116

(1)

Reanalysis from adjunct to argument

117

(7)

The status of the AcI

124

(8)

AcIs and NP to VP-constructions

132

(5)

Conclusions

137

(2)

Commissives

139

(12)

Introduction

139

(1)

Membership and subcategorization frame

140

(3)

Three types of promises

143

(3)

Modals and subjunctives

146

(3)

Conclusions

149

(2)

Part IV. Syntactic Status

151

(80)

The category of the to-infinitive

153

(38)

Introduction

153

(2)

The Old English to-infinitive is not a prepositional phrase

155

(16)

The evidence from etymology

155

(2)

Evidence from conjoined structures

157

(4)

Evidence from nominal behaviour of Middle English infinitives

161

(1)

Infinitival to inseparable from the infinitive

162

(1)

The behaviour of the infinitival inflection

163

(1)

Evidence from internal structure

164

(3)

Positional evidence against a PP-analysis

167

(3)

Conclusions

170

(1)

The Old English to-infinitive is a clause

171

(8)

Introduction

171

(1)

The distribution of the to-infinitive

171

(3)

Positional evidence from objects

174

(1)

Evidence from to-infinitival relatives

175

(2)

Scrambling: evidence against CP status?

177

(1)

Conclusions

178

(1)

That-clauses and to-infinitives in competition

179

(10)

Evidence from two manuscripts of Gregory's Dialogues

179

(6)

Evidence from a quantitative study

185

(4)

Conclusions

189

(2)

The changing status of infinitival to

191

(40)

Introduction

191

(1)

The rise of the to-infinitive

192

(11)

The category change from noun to verb

192

(5)

The category change from prepositional phrase to noun phrase

197

(6)

The status of to in Old English

203

(5)

To as a non-finite modal

208

(3)

To moves overtly to T in Middle English

211

(9)

The emergence of to V and V

211

(4)

The OV/VO change

215

(3)

The lexicalization of T

218

(1)

Conclusions

219

(1)

The emergence and subsequent loss of for to

220

(5)

The grammaticalization and degrammaticalization of to

225

(4)

Conclusions

229

(2)

Part V. Changes in Middle English

231

(64)

The rise of to-infinitival Exceptional Case-Marking

233

(42)

Introduction

233

(2)

The analysis of to-infinitival ECMs in Present-day English

235

(4)

The ECM after want-verbs

239

(13)

Introduction

239

(1)

Reanalysis of object control to ECM

240

(3)

No direct competition between new ECM and old AcI

243

(2)

The want-verbs in the Paston Letters

245

(4)

Thematic differences between commanding and persuading persist

249

(3)

Conclusions

252

(1)

The ECM after believe-verbs

252

(21)

Restrictions on to-infinitival ECM with believe-verbs

252

(4)

The expression of unmarked themes after the loss of verb-second

256

(3)

Virus Theory

259

(5)

ECM and the Small clause

264

(2)

The to-infinitive as predicate after wesan

266

(5)

Unaccusatives in the wesan-construction

271

(2)

Conclusions

273

(2)

Innocent bystander: the loss of the indefinite pronoun man

275

(20)

Introduction

275

(1)

Traditional accounts of the loss of man

276

(1)

The four environments of man in Ælfric

277

(2)

Man in main clauses

279

(11)

Introduction

279

(1)

Man in SpecMP

279

(2)

The loss of V2 and information structure

281

(1)

Man clause-initial

282

(3)

Man as an ultra-indefinite

285

(4)

Conclusion

289

(1)

Man in subjunctive that-clauses: competition from arbitrary PRO

290

(3)

Man in other subclauses

293

(1)

Conclusion

294

(1)

Part VI. Summary and Conclusions

295

(12)

Summary and conclusions

297

(10)

Introduction

297

(1)

Origin of the to-infinitive

298

(2)

Competition between subjunctive clause and to-infinitive

300

(1)

The categorial status of the to-infinitive

301

(2)

The position of to

303

(1)

The value of extra-syntactic evidence

303

(4)

Appendix I: List of corpora used

307

(2)

Appendix II: Tables of complementation patterns

309

(4)

Appendix III: Functions of the to-infinitives in the C and H manuscripts of Gregory's Dialogues

313

(2)

References

315

(18)

Index

333

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The Rise of the To-Infinitive

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials