Note-taking

Note-taking
Author: Samuel Swayze Seward
Publisher:
Total Pages: 104
Release: 1910
Genre: Note-taking
ISBN:

Select Essays ...

Select Essays ...
Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay
Publisher:
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1891
Genre:
ISBN:

An Annotated Bibliography of Nineteenth-century Grammars of English

An Annotated Bibliography of Nineteenth-century Grammars of English
Author: Manfred Görlach
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 405
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027237522

In the 19th century, education became accessible to much wider circles of society in a great number and variety of schools and the teaching of grammar came to be obligatory from 1870/72 with the advent of general education. Whereas these general trends of the 19th century are well-known to scholars working in different disciplines of social history, and the history of education in particular, it is still true that major sections of the evidence are largely uncollected. This is especially so for school books: there is virtually a gap between the 18th century and the present grammatical tradition. This bibliography lists some 1930 works on English grammar published in the 19th century, mainly in Britain and the US, half of which are accompanied by short descriptions of their physical make-up, content and affiliation.

The Rise of the To-Infinitive

The Rise of the To-Infinitive
Author: Bettelou Los
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2005-01-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191534501

This book describes the historical emergence and spread of the to-infinitive in English. It shows that to + infinitive emerged from a reanalysis of the preposition to plus a deverbal nominalization, which spread first to purpose clauses, then to other nonfinite environments. The book challenges the traditional reasoning that infinitives must have been nouns in Old English because they inflected for dative case and can follow prepositions. Dr Los shows that, even as early as Old English, the to-infinitive was established in most of the environments in which it is found today. She argues that its spread was largely due to competition with subjunctive that-clauses, which it gradually replaced. Later chapters consider Middle English developments. The author provides a measured evaluation of the evidence that to undergoes a period of degrammaticalization. She concludes that the extent to which to gains syntactic freedom in Middle English is due to the fact that speakers began to equate it with the modal verbs and therefore to treat it syntactically as a modal verb. The exposition is clear and does not assume an up-to-date knowledge of generative theory. The book will appeal to the wide spectrum of scholars interested in the transformation from Old to Middle English, as well as those studying the processes and causes of syntactic change more generally.