11 - Non-finite complements

Summary

Introduction

The rivalry between infinitival and gerundial constructions is a widely recognized phenomenon in the grammatical system of the English language, probably because the gradual implementation of a verbal -ing form since late Middle English is unique among the European languages.

Large-scale analyses of historical as well as present-day electronic text corpora reveal that, in processes of linguistic change involving variable non-finite verb complementation, American English (AmE) has sometimes been lagging behind the parent variety while very often it is British English (BrE) that has been more conservative. The examples in (1) illustrate a case where AmE appears to be further advanced than BrE:

1. (1) a. We cannot stand seeing our own tactics displayed so obviously in another woman. (Guardian 1994)

2. b. … teachers digging into their own pockets because they cannot stand to see their students go without essential learning tools. (Los Angeles Times 1995)

Since Old English times, a series of linguistic processes has resulted in a reorganization of the entire system of sentential complementation. In Middle English, to-infinitives began to replace that-clauses after many verbs that had previously been confined to a finite clause (see Fischer 1997a: 268). In the area of non-finite complementation, gerunds increasingly took over the function of unmarked infinitives after certain verbs (see Fischer 1997a: 267, 1997b: 127, 2003: 454).