The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

. Accusative and infinitive (AcI) or ECM constructions 1I expect you to be bright and cheerful.ii. passive infinitives, other than after modals:a. after adjectives and nounsShe is likely to be chosen as our next president.b. after semi-modal ‘to be’This is to be understood as follows.c. after main verbsIf my son dies, let him be buried beside me.iii. subject-raising constructions:Daniel seems to have full control of the matter.iv. infinitival relatives:He is a person to avoid.Changes in infinitival constructions 213Various causes for the rise of (3i–iv) have been suggested in the literature,both internal and external to the grammar. Since many of the constructionsin (3) are grammatically related, it is tempting to try and interpret theirappearance in Middle English as the result of one fundamental change, andattempts have indeed been made to do so. In this chapter, we will only be concernedwith the new structures under (3i–ii), i.e. with the infinitives with alexical subject and the new passive infinitives. We will argue that the rise ofthese new constructions can be related to the word order changes in MiddleEnglish, in particular to the change to uniform (S)VO order dealt with inchapter 5.In the work of Lightfoot (1991: 82–94), the new structure given in (3iii) isalso connected to the constructions in (3i–ii). Lightfoot argues that all threeare due to a parameter change that to has undergone, which involves the coalescenceof to with the governing verb, enabling to to transmit certain propertiesof government. Similarly, Kageyama (1992: 92, 125) assumes a linkbetween (iv) and (i–ii), explaining their origin with reference to a change in thestatus of to, this time involving the loss of certain properties that to had in OldEnglish due to its being in the AGR position. It is not clear, however, whetherthe change that to has undergone in their view, is the cause of the newconstructions or the result; or whether, more likely perhaps, both are part of1AcI constructions are new in English after the so-called verba declarandi et cogitandi.Infinitival constructions with a lexical subject do occur in Old English after causativesand perception verbs, but these can be shown to have a different structure, seealso below and Fischer (1989).