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The rise of the to-infinitive as verb complement1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Bettelou Los
Bettelou Los
Affiliation:
Engelse TaalkundeVrije UniversiteitDe Boelelaan 11051081 HV AmsterdamThe Netherlandslosb@let.vu.nl
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Extract

In Old English we find considerable variation in the infinitival complementation patterns of verbs: some verbs take a bare infinitival complement, some verbs take a to-infinitival complement and some verbs can be complemented by either infinitive. This article evaluates two previous attempts to account for the distribution of the two infinitives and offers an alternative account; it also argues that the increase in the use of the to-infinitive occurred mostly at the expense of the finite complement clause rather than at the expense of the bare infinitive, which is the traditional view.

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English Language & Linguistics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 1 - 36
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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