The predicative passive infinitive

Gaaf, W. van der

doi:10.1080/00138382808596532

Cited by 24 publications

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“…"and he may never be baptised again" (AELS (Ash Wed) 141) (Fischer 1991: 143) Other infinitival constructions containing passive infinitives in Present-Day English are found with active inflected infinitives in Old English, however, as for example in purposive adjunct clauses, A.C.I.-constructions, and as a complement of the verb to be, as in, for example, þas þing sint to donne (Fischer 1991: 147) (Callaway 1913: 97;Van der Gaaf 1928a). For the constructions studied here, some examples, such as (9), can also be used with a passive infinitive in PDE.…”

Section: The Rise and Spread Of The Passive To-infinitivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…the predicative to be to-construction 13 (see section 4.1). This construction expressing obligation or necessity 14 also came to be used with a passive to-infinitive in the Late Middle English period ( Van der Gaaf 1928a;Fischer 1991: 146-151), giving, for example, PDE these things are to be done for OE þas þing sint to donne (Fischer 1991: 147 (9a)). It should be noted, though, that unlike in the case of necessary with infinitive, the passive infinitive became the established form with semimodal be due to the typological shift to SVO-order (see section 4.1), "except in a few idiomatic phrases like he is to blame, the house is to let" (Fischer 1992: 337).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Activity-oriented and characteristic-oriented constructions

linden

2008

ETC

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This paper is a diachronic study of post-adjectival infinitive constructions with adjectives denoting goodness, fitness, or necessity. Traditionally these constructions are analysed astough-constructions. They can be divided into two semantically and syntactically distinct types, viz. activity-oriented and characteristic-oriented constructions. This distinction can be used to explain the variation in clausal voice type that is found with the post-adjectival constructions from the Late Middle English period onwards. In addition, a distinction needs to be made between adjectives expressing necessity, which only occur in activity-oriented constructions, and those expressing goodness or fitness, which may occur in the two construction types. Voice variation is only meaningful for the latter type of adjectives: in characteristic-oriented constructions they tend to be construed with an active infinitive, whereas in activity-oriented constructions they appear with a passive infinitive. As such, the distinction between these construction types helps to explain formal properties of the post-adjectival infinitive construction.

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Section: The Rise and Spread Of The Passive To-infinitivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity-oriented and characteristic-oriented constructions

linden

2008

ETC

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AGR in Old English to-infinitives

Kageyama¹

1992

Lingua

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Active and passive tough-infinitives

Haumann

2018

Studies in Language Companion Series

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This paper probes into the determinants of the long-term grammatical variation of active and passive tough-infinitives, as well as into the factors that ultimately led to the decline of passive tough-infinitives. It is argued that, throughout their coexistence, the active and the passive tough-infinitive are functionally equivalent and that the demise of the passive tough-infinitive is a concomitant of the extensive and rapid spread of the passive infinitive governed by be expressing deontic modality. It is further argued that, due to the surface similarity of the passive infinitive governed by be and the passive tough-infinitive, deontic modality percolates into the passive tough-infinitive, which expresses dispositional modality. Thus, the obsolescence of the passive tough-infinitive is driven by a clash in modality.

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The predicative passive infinitive

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Activity-oriented and characteristic-oriented constructions

Activity-oriented and characteristic-oriented constructions

AGR in Old English to-infinitives

Active and passive tough-infinitives

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