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Paco2004 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Fronted bare infinitive phrases

Hello Teachers

I have another question about the use of bare infinitives.

One of my grammar books (which is written by Japanese scholars) says that [1] below is acceptable but [2] is unacceptable. Is it true?
[1] Turn her father against her stepmother, that's what Mary wants to do.
[2] Turn her father against her stepmother, that's what Mary tried to do.
paco
  

Top answer

I'm not aware of any papers written on the subject, but maybe someone else is. In the meantime all I can say is that both seem equally clumsy (but equally acceptable) to me. They certainly are not the most common ways of expressing oneself in English!

— CalifJim

  • I'm not aware of any papers written on the subject, but maybe someone else is.
  • In the meantime all I can say is that both seem equally clumsy (but equally acceptable) to me.
  • They certainly are not the most common ways of expressing oneself in English!
  • CJ
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3 Answers
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I'm not aware of any papers written on the subject, but maybe someone else is.
In the meantime all I can say is that both seem equally clumsy (but equally acceptable) to me. They certainly are not the most common ways of expressing oneself in English!
CJ
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Yes; they both seem acceptable to me, too. The construction is still current in British English; though it does have an air of stage Cockney.

MrP
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Stage Cockney!

I knew it had a familiar ring to it. That's precisely how it sounds. Well spotted!

In fact it could almost be Dickens.
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