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

2 6 Thomas Egan
the ‘would like to’ form gradually, but inexorably, replacing its non-modalised
‘like to’ counterpart.
The other context in which the non-modalised ‘like to’ construction is found
with specific complements in Present-day English is when the matrix verb is negated.
Although there has been an increase in the occurrence of general validity
predications in this context in the last two centuries, this increase is not statistically
significant. The fact that the non-modalised ‘hate to’ construction is still employed
with a similar meaning may be a factor influencing the resilience of ‘don’t
like to’ used in this sense in Present-day English.
The second matrix verb to exhibit a statistically significant increase in the
use of the non-modalised construction to encode general validity predications is
prefer. Recall that prefer differs from the other three verbs in that it occurred with
an -ing complement before it began to be used with a to-infinitive complement.
In the nineteenth century it was the only emotion verb to regularly encode general
validity predications by means of -ing rather than to-infinitive complements.
(4 )–(43) are cases where one would expect to find to-infinitive complements in
Present-day English.
(4 ) Mr and Mrs Murray generally thought it sufficient to show
themselves at church once in the course of the day; but
frequently the children preferred going a second time to
wandering about the grounds all the day with nothing to do.
(Brontë, Agnes Gray)
(42) They departed early in the morning before any one else was
down, except myself, and just as I was leaving my room, Lord
Lowborough was descending to take his place in the carriage
where his lady was already ensconced; and Arthur (or Mr.
Huntingdon as I prefer calling him, for the other is my child’s
name) had the gratuitous insolence to come out in his dressinggown
to bid his ‘friend’ good bye. (Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall )
(43) They generally prefer running against the wind; yet at the first
start they expand their wings, and like a vessel make all sail.
(Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle)
A third of the -ing complements of prefer in the CLMET 780– 850 are of this
type. There are some general validity predications encoded by ‘prefer -ing’ complements
in the BNC, as evidenced by (44) and (45). However, a search of the BNC
as a whole for prefer preceded by generally, normally or usually yielded 23 tokens
containing non-finite complements, of which the only two -ing complements