Was the “Construction Infinitive without Subject” ever productive?












0















There's an answer about the grammatical quirk of make do, that gives an assertion about "make + [verb]" constructions




... identifies "make do" as falling into a category he calls "Incomplete Infinitival Nexus-Objects."



   In ModE the construction infinitive without S[ubject] is found chiefly in the common phrase *make believe [see there]




This strikes me as unusual and perhaps archaic. Few examples exist. Was this still productive in the 19th century, whence the oldest available evidence of to make do is dated, or earlier?



Further examples of the construction would be appreciated. I'm not aware of another way to validate the implied assertion.










share|improve this question























  • What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    23 hours ago
















0















There's an answer about the grammatical quirk of make do, that gives an assertion about "make + [verb]" constructions




... identifies "make do" as falling into a category he calls "Incomplete Infinitival Nexus-Objects."



   In ModE the construction infinitive without S[ubject] is found chiefly in the common phrase *make believe [see there]




This strikes me as unusual and perhaps archaic. Few examples exist. Was this still productive in the 19th century, whence the oldest available evidence of to make do is dated, or earlier?



Further examples of the construction would be appreciated. I'm not aware of another way to validate the implied assertion.










share|improve this question























  • What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    23 hours ago














0












0








0








There's an answer about the grammatical quirk of make do, that gives an assertion about "make + [verb]" constructions




... identifies "make do" as falling into a category he calls "Incomplete Infinitival Nexus-Objects."



   In ModE the construction infinitive without S[ubject] is found chiefly in the common phrase *make believe [see there]




This strikes me as unusual and perhaps archaic. Few examples exist. Was this still productive in the 19th century, whence the oldest available evidence of to make do is dated, or earlier?



Further examples of the construction would be appreciated. I'm not aware of another way to validate the implied assertion.










share|improve this question














There's an answer about the grammatical quirk of make do, that gives an assertion about "make + [verb]" constructions




... identifies "make do" as falling into a category he calls "Incomplete Infinitival Nexus-Objects."



   In ModE the construction infinitive without S[ubject] is found chiefly in the common phrase *make believe [see there]




This strikes me as unusual and perhaps archaic. Few examples exist. Was this still productive in the 19th century, whence the oldest available evidence of to make do is dated, or earlier?



Further examples of the construction would be appreciated. I'm not aware of another way to validate the implied assertion.







grammatical-structure historical-change






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked yesterday









vectoryvectory

2058




2058













  • What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    23 hours ago



















  • What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    23 hours ago

















What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

– Janus Bahs Jacquet
23 hours ago





What exactly is it that strikes you as archaic? The subjectless construction? Or the construction with a subject? Or the phrase make believe? There’s no obvious antecedent to this in the quote.

– Janus Bahs Jacquet
23 hours ago










0






active

oldest

votes











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f489774%2fwas-the-construction-infinitive-without-subject-ever-productive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























0






active

oldest

votes








0






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes
















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f489774%2fwas-the-construction-infinitive-without-subject-ever-productive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







Popular posts from this blog

Paul Cézanne

UIScrollView CustomStickyHeader Resize height generates problems when scroll is too fast

Angular material date-picker (MatDatepicker) auto completes the date on focus out