The aim of this monograph is to contribute to the existing literature by modelling the variation in relation to a selection of verbs that govern to- and bare-infinite complements in the recent history of American and British English.

"This monograph deals with morphological, syntactic, semantic/pragmatic, discursive and textual variation between to- and bare-infinite (BI) verbal complementation in English. It investigates the reasons that lead certain verbs (specifically, dare, need and help) to opt for one solution or the other in the recent history of English. Non-finite complementation is a highly productive area of research (see Fanego 1996, 1998, 2004; Mair 2003: 329; Taeymans 2004 a, b, 2006; Schlüter 2005; Cuyckens and De Smet 2007; Loureiro-Porto 2009, 2010; Lohmann 2011; van der Auwera and Diewald 2012: 131; Levshina 2018). While there are numerous studies examining to-infinitive vs BI complementation from a syntactic, semantic or cognitive perspective (see Section 1.2), this volume is an attempt to provide a comprehensive analytic analysis of the possible grammatical, structural, semantic/pragmatic, processing, genre, period and identity-avoidance factors affecting to-infinitive/BI complement alternation"--

This volume features new and groundbreaking research on recent changes in the English verb phrase.

This book offers a new and compendious account of important verbal patterns in present-day English. Serving as a central source of data, it updates and refines earlier research contributing to the syntactic and semantic description of English. Rudanko establishes an original framework, and systematically analyzes patterns of complementation using the tool of case grammar. The examination of Control, or EQUI, is a common theme and an important problem for transformationalists, and English syntacticians will value Rudanko's work on infinitive complements.

While earlier treatments of English verb syntax from a diachronic perspective exist, this book breaks entirely fresh ground with its focus on the detailed study of English predicate complementation over the past three centuries. It draws data from an unprecedented combination of authoritative sources, including computer corpora and H. Poutsma's unpublished dictionary, and offers novel systematizations of predicates and discussions of alternation. By giving ample evidence of both change and continuity in the language over the past three hundred years, the book opens up a new research field in the study of the English language.

This book examines the nature of the interface between word meaning and syntax, one of the most controversial and elusive issues in contemporary linguistics. It approaches the interface from both sides of the relation, and surveys a range of views on the mapping between them, with an emphasis on lexical approaches to argument structure. Stephen Wechsler begins by analysing the fundamental problem of word meaning, with discussions of vagueness and polysemy, complemented with a look at the roles of world knowledge and normative aspects of word meaning. He then surveys the argument-taking properties of verbs and other predicators, and presents key theories of lexical semantic structure. Later chapters provide a description of formal theories and frameworks for capturing the mapping from word meaning to syntactic structure, as well as arguments in favour of a lexicalist approach to argument structure. The book will interest scholars of theoretical linguistics, particularly in the fields of syntax and lexical semantics, as well as those interested in psycholinguistics and philosophy of language.

This is a series which aims to meet the need for books on modern English that are both up-to-date and authoritative. The texts are ideal for the scholar, the teacher, and the student, but especially for English speaking students in overseas universities where English is the language of instruction, or advanced specialist students of English in foreign universities. Although English is probably the most studied language in the world, this is one of the first systematic comparisons of infinitives with and without the use of "to". Patrick Duffley examines these uses adopting the semantic approach, which shows that the two infinitive forms each have a basic meaning which is capable of explaining all of their particular uses. The author has carried out detailed research for this book, examining over 24,000 occurences of the infinitive, as well as taking into account the observations of previous grammarians. The book challenges old assumptions that grammar is independent of meaning and should be dealt with in purely formal terms. It also fulfils a need for literature on an area of English grammar which has sometimes been presumed to be chaotic and unsystematic. The text is aimed specialists in linguistics and advanced students of English as a second language.