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Cool Breeze Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Swing low, sweet chariot

0 It's a basic grammatical rule that a gerund is to be used after a preposition. Why is 01font00an infinitive02font00 used after 01b01i00for02i02b00 in this song? Is it correct English?02br
02br
01i00Swing low, sweet chariot, coming 01b00for02b00 01font00to carry02font00 me home.02i02br
02br
00CB0-
  

Top answer

0 01blockquote 01cite 10Cool Breeze12cite 10It's a basic grammatical rule that a gerund is to be used after a preposition. Why is 11font 10an infinitive12font 10 used after 11b 11i 10for12i 12b 10 in this song? S.

— Philip

  • 0 01blockquote 01cite 10Cool Breeze12cite 10It's a basic grammatical rule that a gerund is to be used after a preposition.
  • Why is 11font 10an infinitive12font 10 used after 11b 11i 10for12i 12b 10 in this song?
  • S.
  • They had no education, so their English was normally nonstandard, if not a second language in the first place.
  • It is "folk" English.
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16 Answers
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Cool Breeze12cite10It's a basic grammatical rule that a gerund is to be used after a preposition. Why is 11font10an infinitive12font10 used after 11b11i10for12i12b10 in this song? Is it correct English?12br
12br
11i10Swin
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0 There is a similar structure in the song "Oh, Susanna":02br
02br
01i00Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,02i02br
01i00I'm going to Louisiana, my true love 01b00for to see02b02i02br
01i00It rain'd all night the day I left, the weather it was dry02i02br
01i00
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Yankee12cite10There is a similar structure in the song "Oh, Susanna":12br
12br
11i10Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,12i12br
11i10I'm going to Louisiana, my true love 11b10for to see12b12i12br
12blockquote
10
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1i00"to-infinitive" expressing purpose is common with phrasal verbs:02i02br
02br
05002br
02br
0510250hrefhttp://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:uxCqU1sndiwJ:www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4044791+%22for+to+see%22+site:bbc.co.uk&hl=tr&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=trchere251hrefhttp://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:NEgRVRQHzX0J:www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/s
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0 Hi CB02br
02br
00To me personally, it's only "very common" in certain songs. 050010id1
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0<188,000 hits>02br
02br
00 Yes, but ...02br
02br
00 Most of them are from lyrics of ballads and songs that are at least 150 years old, or from the Bible.02br
02br
00Dickens highlights this structure in 01i00David Copperfield02i00, and there we see it as a feature of an idiosyncratic kind of English, alre
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Cool Breeze12cite10It's a basic grammatical rule that a gerund is to be used after a preposition. Why is 11font10an infinitive12font10 used after 11b11i10for12i12b10 in this song? Is it correct English?12br
12br
11i10Swin
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0
0 01blockquote
01cite10Stannum12cite10This song uses a technique mastered by Mark Twain.12blockquote
10Have you ever heard of Stephen Foster, Stannum? Was "mimic" the technique you were referring to? 050010id5
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Yankee12cite11blockquote
11cite20Stannum22cite20This song uses a technique mastered by Mark Twain.22blockquote
20Have you ever heard of Stephen Foster, Stannum? Was "mimic" the technique you were referring to? 15012br
12blockquote
10G'day
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0 Hi Stannum02br
02br
00Since I lived and worked for many years in Germany, I also enjoy Twain's various observations about the German language. 050010id1
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