The rise of theto-infinitive: evidence from adjectival complementation

Abstract

This article presents a diachronic corpus-based study of the distribution of mandativethat- andto-clauses complementing deontic adjectival matrices in the extraposition construction, as inIt is essential to work upwards from easier workloads(CB). It shows that theto-infinitive encroaches on thethat-clause from Early Middle English onwards and comes to predominate in Late Middle English. It thus adduces evidence for Los's (2005) account of the rise of theto-infinitive as verbal complement: against the generally held view that theto-infinitive replaced the bare infinitive, Los (2005) shows that it spread at the expense of the subjunctivethat-clause in Middle English, e.g. after intention verbs and manipulative verbs. After considering various factors such as the distribution of theto-infinitive in the adjectival complementation system, the tense of the matrix of the adjectival constructions and the Anglo-Saxon versus Romance origin of the adjectives, I conclude that the rise of theto-infinitive with adjectival matrices in Middle English has to be explained by analogy between verbal and adjectival mandative constructions. In addition, this study shows that – unlike with the verbal constructions – theto-infinitive with adjectival matrices stabilizes at roughly a 3:1 ratio to thethat-clause from Early Modern English onwards. For these later periods, finally, it is proposed that the clausal variation may be motivated by lexical determination, discourse factors such as information structure, and stylistic preferences.