Lecture 14-15 Grammatical Changes

Infinitive and Infinitive Constructions. The phrase " for to+infinitive" which arose in ME, is sometimes found in Shakespeare as well. Such an infinitive expresses sometimes purpose, as in which for to prevent, I have thus set it down: that these pirates ... had not o'erboard thrown me for to seek my mother: sometimes, again there is no meaning of purpose, as in : forbid the sea for to obey the moon ; here /acks but your mother for to say amen. Eventually this use of for to became obsolete.
In the 15th and 16th centuries use of the "objectiv+infinitive" continues to grow. Thus, in Regionald Pecock's The Reperession of Over Much B/aming of the C/ergy (1457) the following examples are found: a//awith ech of thi/ke weies to be grounded, but for that he knowith me admytte and a//owe the writings of Doctoures, therefore he makith agens me this assaut: he presupposith the gouernauncis ... to be before knowen of the same men: and trustist thi se/f to be a /eder of b/ynd men.
In the 17th and 18 th centuries the construction spread still wider. A number of verbs begin to combine with it, as in Jonathan Swift's sentences: and the
Emperor was so much de/ighted that he ordered this entertainment to be repeated several days; of destroying the Bing-Endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their aggs; in Samuel Richardson: was she so persecuted in favour of a very disagreeable man, one Solmes, as to induce her to throw herself into my protection?
In the 19th and 20th centuries the construction spread still further and become a typical feature of contemporary English.