GRAMMATICAL NATURE OF THE INFINITIVE. 1. Like the gerund, the infinitive is a substantival form of the verb, that is to say it has partly the character of a verb, partly that of a noun. a) It shows its verbal character by its capacity of: 1) taking the ordinary verb-modifiers, objects and adverbial adjuncts, e. g.: He promised to write the letter; He pretended to listen to me; He intended to rise early. Further discussion or illustration is not necessary. 2) showing, at least in part, the distinctions of tense and voice. It will be no crime to have been Cato's friend. ADDISON, Cato, IV 1 b) It shows its substantival character by its capacity of filling the same functions in a sentence as an ordinary noun. As such it largely varies with the gerund, one or the other being preferred or required in some cases, or either being applied without any appreciable distinction. In Ch. XVIII of my Grammar of Late Modern English the multifarious applications of the infinitive as an element of the sentence have been amply discussed. The area of incidence of the two rival substantival verbals have been submitted to close investigation in Ch. XIX. Under these circumstances there seems, therefore, to be no need to revert to these subjects in this place. In this connexion it should, however, he observed that the infinitive differs materially from the gerund in that, unlike the latter, it does not admit of being modified by adnominal modifiers. This distinctive feature of the gerund has been done full justice to in the following treatise. It is also worth mentioning that the above limitation does not attach to the infinitive in either Dutch or German. c) As will be shown in the following treatise (46 ff), the gerund is in many applications in no way distinguished from the noun of action. From what has been observed above, under b), it follows, therefore, that the infinitive also bears a strong affinity to the noun of action, substitution of the one for the other being, indeed, in many cases only prevented by require ments of idiom. Nay it would not be difficult to collect a goodly number of sentences in which either of the alternative forms would be admissible without much detriment to idiomatic propriety. We must confine ourselves to a few examples. He is desirous of being admired. MASON, Eng. Gram., § 397. (= of admiration, or to be admired.) To doubt his originality, in the creation of poetic phrases would be to show the extreme of poetical incapacity. A C. BRADLEY, Com. on Ten.'s In Me: moriam, Ch VII, 75. (= doubting his originality, or doubt of his originality.) Life alone at twenty-six is lonely. HOPE, Intrusions of Peggy, 44 ). (= living alone, or to live alone.) Similarly nouns denoting a state or quality are essentially Caution is not always good policy. W. PHILLIPS, Speeches, VI, 1399). Note. Although it has been shown to be highly probable that the In all other cases the verbal character prevails over the substantival to the extent that little or no trace of the latter is discernible, at least, in the English infinitive. THE USE OF TO BEFORE THE INFINITIVE. Introductory Observations. 2. The infinitive is now mostly preceded by the preposition to. An infinitive with to is called by SWEET (N. E. Gr., § 321) supine, by MASON (Eng. Gram.", § 196) gerundial infinitive. By some German grammarians it is called gerund. For reasons which hardly require comment, none of these terms can be pronounced to be particularly apposite, and since there ') JESPERSEN, Mod. Eng. Gram., 12.09. 2) MURRAY. is no need for any special name for the infinitive with to, not any of them will be used in the following discussions. 3. Obs. I. In Old English to was only used before a dative form of the in finitive ending in enne or anne (onne). It denoted chiefly a relation of purpose, as it still does in such sentences as I came to tell you. This house is to let. This meaning of to is distinctly discernible in: Sóðlice út éode se sáwere his sæd tó sáwenne. MATTH, XIII, 3. (Author. Vers.: Behold a sower went forth to sow.) Gadriað ærest pone coccel, and bindað scéafmælum tó forbærnenne') ib., XIII, 30. (Author. Vers. Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them) Éalá þu fréond, ne dó ic dé nænne téonan: hú, ne cóme þú tó mé tó wyrceanne wið ánum peninge ) id., XX, 13. (Author. Vers.: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny.) The dative form was mostly rigidly distinguished from the commoncase form, which ended in an. Nim þæt þín ys, and gá: ic wylle þysum ýtemestum syllan eall swá mycel swá þé. Matth., XX, 14). (Author. Vers.: Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last even as unto thee.) ða cwað sẽ Halend to hyre, ' Syle mẽ drincan. JoHs, IV, 7). (Author. Vers.: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.) The uninflected infinitive without to seems to have been used occa sionally where the dative infinitive with to would be expected. Thus in: Heofona ríce ys gelic þám híredes ealdre, be on ærnemergen, út éode ȧhýrian wyrhtan on his wíngeard. MATTHEW, XX, 1') (Author. Vers. : The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.) Compare also CURME, E. S., XLV, III, 375. In the Middle English period the suffixes gradually wore off, with the result that the dative infinitive and the common-case infinitive became identical. Thus to writenne (or writanne) > to writene > to writen > to write; and writan > writen > write. There appear to be no instances in any period of the English language of the infinitive being placed in the genitive, corresponding to the practice represented in Dutch by such formations as prijzens, waardig, levensmoe or the German liebenswürdig. II. "In process of time (the) obvious sense of the preposition became ') SWEET, Anglo-Saxon Reader3, 51 f. 1) SWEET, Anglo-Saxon Reader3, 51 f. relation was so vague as scarcely to differ from that between a transitive verb and its object. This was especially so when the verb was construed both transitively and intransitively. There were several verbs in Old English in this position, such as onginnan (to begin), ondrædan (to dread), bebéodan (to bid), bewerian (to forbid, prevent), zeliefan (to believe), þencan (to think, etc.); these are found construed either with the simple (accusative) infinitive, or with tó and the dative infinitive. From these beginnings, the use of the infinitive with to in place of the simple infinitive, helped by the pho netic decay and loss of the inflexions, and the need of some mark to distinguish it from other parts of the verb and from the cognate substantive, increased rapidly during the late Old English and early Middle English period, with the result that in Modern English the infinitive with to is the ordinary form, the simple infinitive surviving only in particular connexions where it is intimately connected with the preceding verb. To a certain extent, therefore, i e. when the infinitive is the subject or direct object, to has lost all its meaning, and has become a mere 'sign' or prefix of the infinitive. But after an intransitive verb, or the passive voice, to is still the preposition. In appearance there is no difference between the infinitive in he proceeds to speak and he chooses to speak; but in the latter to speak is the equivalent of speaking or speech, and in the former of to speaking or to speech. In form to speak is the des cendant of Old English tó specanne; in sense, it is partly the representative of this and largely of Old English specan." MURRAY, s. v. to, B, History. According to ONIONS (Adv. Eng. Synt., § 157, 4, Obs.) to is not found with the Nom.-Acc. form (i. e. the common-case form) of the Infinitive before the twelfth century. III. When it had become usual to put to before the infinitive irrespective of its grammatical function, the want may have been felt for another expedient to express the notion of purpose. This may have given rise to the use of for to before the infinitive. MURRAY's earliest instance of this practice is dated 1175. It appears to have been quite common in Middle English, in which it seems to have served the same purpose as the Dutch om te and the German um zu. But it soon came to be used before an infinitive also when no notion of purpose was implied, in like manner as in colloquial Dutch om te is often used in the same connexion, where there is no occasion for it. The use of for to before the infinitive, either with or without a notion of purpose, was still vigorously alive in Early Modern English, but has been constantly losing ground since. In Present English it survives only in dialects and in the language of the uneducated. For discussion see also Ch. XVIII, 24, Obs. IV; and compare STOF., Stud., A, VII, 48 ff; CURME, Hist. of the Eng. Ger., E. S., XLV, 376; STOETT, Middelned. Spraakk., § 283. i. And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The holy blisful martir for to seke. CHAUC., Cant. Tales, A, 15—17. Vertue gives her selfe light, through darkenesse for to wade. SPENSER, Faery Queene, I, I, XII. We will solicit heaven and move the gods | To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs. SHAK., Tit. Andr., IV, 3, 51. For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues. Bible, Mark, III, 10. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him his disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. ib., Acts, XX, 1. You've not come here for to make me suppose he wants to marry her. THACK., Van. Fair, I, Ch. XXIV, 244. Miss Arabella wondered why he always said he was going for to do a thing. G. ELIOT, Scenes, I, Ch. II, 14. You needn't come for to give such advice to any girl of mine. FLOR. MARRYAT, A Bankrupt Heart, II, 45. T. You see I cannot get started on a speech without saying things like, 'In rising for to make a few remarks'. J. M. BARRIE, What Every Woman knows, I, (13). My cousin Thorolf wouldn't go for to kill a man. MASEFIELD, The Locked Chest, (56). ii. And if you lyketh alle; by oon assent, | Now for to stonden at my jugement. CHAUC., Cant. Tales, A, 779. Hir othes been so greete and so dampnable, | That it is grisly for to here hem swere. ib., C., 473. We'll teach you for to drink ere you depart. SHAK., Haml., I, 2, 175. (The Folios have: to drink deep.) It is not lawful for to put them (sc the silver pieces) into the treasury. Bible, Matth. XXVII, 6. By the laws, mamma, you make me for to laugh. GOLDSMITH, The Stoops, III, (201). We don't choose for to part with her. FANNY BURNEY, Evelina, Ch. XV, 48. Sir, you don't dare for to breathe a word against my Lady Maria. THACK., Virg., Ch. XXXIV, 407. I did'nt think for to get married so soon. MRS. GASK., Cranf., Ch. XIV, 262. I could put them into the Ecclesiastical Court, if I chose for to do so. G. ELIOT, Scenes, I, Ch. III, 29. I'm afraid you didn't intend for to go and see your mother, Peter. JACOBS, Odd Craft, A, 17. In the following quotation the use of for to + infinitive after for + pronoun strikes us as particularly clumsy: There's no need for you for to put in your oar. FANNY BURNEY, Evelina, XIV, 45. It will be observed that the infinitive in other Germanic languages, Dutch, German, Danish, differs from that in English in that in these languages it admits of being preceded by other prepositions besides the ordinary te, zu and til. |