Book contents
- Adventures in English Syntax
- Adventures in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Additional material
- 1 an adventure in ambiguity with one fish two fish
- 2 exceptional students and teachers
- 3 Introduction to Language and Linguistics
- 4 a review of a book by two philosophers
- 5 Bob is certain to succeed.
- 6 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- 7 Does every politician who cheats instinctively lie?
- 8 Inferior defenses could then, as now, be tackled, as Vernon did at Porto Bello, Exmouth at Algiers, & Seymour at Alexandria.
- Glossary
- References
- Index
5 - Bob is certain to succeed.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2020
- Adventures in English Syntax
- Adventures in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Additional material
- 1 an adventure in ambiguity with one fish two fish
- 2 exceptional students and teachers
- 3 Introduction to Language and Linguistics
- 4 a review of a book by two philosophers
- 5 Bob is certain to succeed.
- 6 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- 7 Does every politician who cheats instinctively lie?
- 8 Inferior defenses could then, as now, be tackled, as Vernon did at Porto Bello, Exmouth at Algiers, & Seymour at Alexandria.
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
Extends discussion of infinitival syntax beyond relative clauses to constructions where the noun phrase interpreted as the subject of the infinitival predicate is pronounced the subject of a predicate that contains the infinitival clause, a syntactic phenomenon called “displacement”. Displacement also occurs with finite subordinate clauses, where the finite clause is interpreted as part of a predicate adjective phrase but is pronounced the subject of that predicate. Passive predicates also allow this type of displacement and the displacement of an infinitival subject to the subject position of the clause that contains it. In single clauses, passives require the displacement of a predicate object to subject position. This generalizes within a single noun phrase where the noun is either a derived nominal or a gerund. The utility of displacement is discussed, including the history of criticism against the use of passive voice, which is shown to be completely misguided, and the role of displacement in discourse via paragraph structure, examining how strong paragraphs can be rendered awful by eliminating displacement.
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- Information
- Adventures in English Syntax , pp. 94 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020