THE N1 V (N2) (TO-)INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH IN VIEW OF THE CLOSENESS IS STRENGTH OF EFFECT METAPHOR

Abstract

The paper analyses the examples such as I helped them to carry the load / I helped them carry the load, I knew it to be untrue / I've not known anything like this happen in the College before, I saw him to be obnoxious / I saw him cross the street, etc., namely those in which one and the same main lexical verb, as well as, in some cases, the N2 element, are followed by either a full or a bare infinitive, with a consequent change in meaning (cf. also I helped them to carry the load by having my secretary get them a cart and *I helped them carry the load by having my secretary get them a cart). While this change in meaning has been aptly analyzed in sources such as Wierzbicka 1988, Dixon 1991 [2005] or Duffley 1992, the paper puts forward the view that those analyses, all of which employ a meaning-based approach to syntax (just as this paper does), may also felicitously and insightfully be approached via the CLOSENESS IS STRENGTH OF EFFECT metaphor posited in Lakoff / Johnson 1980, i.e. in terms of a metaphor that attempts to make a link between the form of a sentence as it is conceived of spatially, on the one hand, and its meaning, on the other hand.

Key words and phrases: to-infinitive, bare infinitive, meaning-based approach to syntax, conceptual metaphor, metaphor giving meaning to linguistic form.