Subjectless infinitive complements of periphrastic causative verbs in Middle English and possible reasons for the loss of the construction

Abstract

The article presents selected facts concerning two kinds of analysis of Subjectless Infinitive Complements (ØI) of Causative Verbs in Middle English. One of them is the Indefinite Object Deletion Analysis (hence IOD), which can be considered natural in terms of the Object Deletion principles. The other one is the Verb Raising Analysis (hence VR) which provides some interesting facts about the history of English causatives. Among others, the article addresses the auxiliary-like behaviour of causative verbs in Middle English and says that the very loss of ØI can be accounted for reasonably by postulating that the existence of ØI and passive aci constructions are mutually exclusive. In addition, one should also remember about the double application of IOD and VR, which yielded unclear and semantically complicated structures, as possible factors in the loss of ØI constructions in English.