Open AccessFunctioning of Accusative and Infinitive construction in Early New English
Author(s) -
Т. В. Криворучко
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
fìlologìčnì studìï
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2412-2491
pISSN - 2311-2425
DOI - 10.28925/2311-2425.2018.11.3
Subject(s) - infinitive , verb , linguistics , transitive relation , mathematics , computer science , verb phrase ellipsis , modal verb , philosophy , combinatorics
The article outlines Accusative and Infinitive construction in Early New English. Different representations of Accusative and Infinitive construction, its structural and functional peculiarities in Early New English are covered. Accusative and Infinitive construction is controversial in nature. From the position of classical grammar it is problematic to distinguish sentences, each of which has an accusative verb group (Acc DP) followed by an infinitive verb group (Inf VP). The attention is dedicated to the possibility to distinguish Accusative and Infinitive construction from superficially similar cases of complex transitive predications. The main difference between raising and control verbs is that with the verbs of control, the accusative is semantically related to the main verb and is its argument, and with raising verbs, accusative is not related to the main verb. Functioning of the particle to in Accusative and Infinitive construction is analysed. Functioning of the particle to in Accusative and Infinitive construction should be accounted in relation to structure and semantics, which is determined by its original lexical and grammatical value. Merging of several grammatical categories demonstrates contact, which is carried out with the help particle to, indicating Forward-looking or Backward-looking actions. Also, frequency of usage of the construction on the basis of the Early New English texts is investigated.