Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:06:39.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

People didn't used to speak like that: on the reanalysis of used to in English

Is used sometimes an adverb?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2015

Robert Cirillo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

English control verbs take infinitival complements that include the particle to:

  1. (1)

    1. a. She tried to read one book each week.

    2. b. She promised to read one book each week.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 11 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brinton, L. J. & Traugott, E. C. 2005. Lexicalization and Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cambridge Grammar of English. 2006. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Christophersen, P. & Sandved, A. O. 1969. An Advanced English Grammar. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Collins Cobuild English Grammar, 3rd edn. 2011. Glasgow: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dirven, R., Pütz, M. & Jäger, S. (eds.) 1989. A User's Grammar of English: Word, Sentence, Text, Interaction (Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 4). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fischer, O. (2003) ‘The development of the modals in English: Radical versus gradual changes.’ In Hart, D. (ed.), English Modality in Context (Linguistic Insights. Studies in Language and Communication 11). Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 17–32.Google Scholar
Foley, M. & Hall, D. 2004. Advanced Learners' Grammar. Essex: Pearson Education (Longman).Google Scholar
Fowler, H. W. 1965. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd edn.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
The Oxford English Grammar. 1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hantson, A. 2005. ‘The English perfect and the anti-perfect ‘used to’ viewed from a comparative perspective.’ English Studies, 86(3), 245–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, E. 1988. ‘Used to (+ infinitive).’ English Studies, 69(4), 348–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroch, A. & Taylor, A. 2000. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English (PPCME2). CD-ROM, 2nd edn.Philadelphia, PA: Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Kroch, A., Santorini, B. & Delfs, L. 2004. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English (PPCEME). CD-ROM, 1st edn.Philadelphia, PA: Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. 1977. ‘Syntactic reanalysis.’ In Li, C. N. (ed.), Mechanisms of Syntactic Change. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 57–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, D. H. 1960. Women in Love. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books (first published 1921 by Martin Specker).Google Scholar
Leech, G., Cruickshank, B. & Ivanič, R. 2012. An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage, 3rd edn.Essex: Pearson (Longman) (first published 1989).Google Scholar
Lightfoot, D. W. 1974. ‘The Diachronic Analysis of English Modals.’ In Anderson, J. & Jones, C. (eds.), Procedures of the First International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Edinburgh, 2–7 September 1973. Vol. I: Syntax, Morphology, Internal and Comparative Reconstruction. Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 219–49.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, D.W. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 3rd edn. 1995. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Los, B. 2005. The Rise of the To-Infinitive. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagle, S. J. 1985. ‘Lexical change and the history of used to.’ SECOL Review: Southeastern Conference on Linguistics, 9(2), 161–9.Google Scholar
The Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
OED Online. Oxford University Press (Accessed December 17, 2014).Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Swan, M. 2005. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, S. & Lawrence, H. 2005. ‘I used to dance but I don’t dance now: The Habitual Past in English.’ Journal of English Linguistics, 28(4), 323–53.Google Scholar