Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

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