The Rise of the To-Infinitive

by Los, Bettelou

• ISBN13: 9780199208739
• ISBN10: 0199208735
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction

The to-infinitive as GOAL

The Expression of Purpose in Old English

The to-infinitive as GOAL-argument

The to-infinitive as THEME

Intention

Commanding and Permitting

Commissives

Syntactic Status

The Category of the to-infinitive

The Changing Status of Infinitival to

Changes in Middle English

The Rise of to-infinitival Exceptional case-Marking

Innocent Bystander: The Loss of the Indefinite Pronoun man

Summary and Conclusions

Summary and Conclusions

Appendix

References

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.