Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Emotion verbs with to-infinitive<br />
complements<br />
From specific to general predication<br />
Thomas Egan<br />
Hedmark University College<br />
This paper traces <strong>the</strong> evolution of to-infinitive complement constructions with <strong>the</strong><br />
emotion matrix verbs like, love, hate and prefer over <strong>the</strong> past two hundred years.<br />
It proposes that when <strong>the</strong> matrix verb is not preceded by a modal auxiliary <strong>the</strong>se<br />
constructions should be analysed in Present-day English as encoding general<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than specific predications. In Late Modern English, on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand,<br />
<strong>the</strong>se same constructions were widely used to encode specific predications. Using<br />
data <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> BNC and <strong>the</strong> Corpus of Late Modern English Texts, <strong>the</strong> chapter<br />
demonstrates how <strong>the</strong>se constructions have become increasingly restricted to<br />
encoding general predications over <strong>the</strong> past two hundred years. This development<br />
is related to <strong>the</strong> parallel expansion of -ing complement constructions and of toinfinitive<br />
complement constructions with modalised matrix verbs.<br />
1. Introduction<br />
This study traces <strong>the</strong> evolution of non-finite verbal complement constructions<br />
with <strong>the</strong> emotion matrix verbs like, love, hate and prefer, over <strong>the</strong> past two hundred<br />
years. In particular, it shows that <strong>the</strong> construction type with a non-modalised<br />
matrix verb and a to-infinitive complement (as in ‘I like to swim’) is becoming<br />
more specialised in <strong>the</strong> sense that it is being increasingly restricted to encoding<br />
general ra<strong>the</strong>r than specific predications. Two of <strong>the</strong> matrix verbs investigated,<br />
like and love, encode a positive attitude on <strong>the</strong> part of <strong>the</strong> matrix verb subject; one,<br />
hate, a negative attitude; and <strong>the</strong> fourth, prefer, a comparative attitude. The reason<br />
for restricting <strong>the</strong> discussion to just four verbs is <strong>the</strong> relative paucity of examples<br />
of constructions containing o<strong>the</strong>r comparable emotion matrix verbs in historical<br />
corpora. In Section 2, I introduce <strong>the</strong> constructions under investigation and<br />
contrast to-infinitive complement constructions with non-modalised matrix verbs<br />
1. By ‘comparable emotion verbs’ I mean verbs that encode same-time predications by means<br />
of gerund complement clauses. Excluded are thus forward-looking verbs like want, wish, fear<br />
and dread, <strong>the</strong> complements of which are always located in <strong>the</strong> projected future, irrespective of<br />
complement form.