Re: "To run is good exercise"?!

Nathan Sanders wrote:
> In article <1113902982.801459.167100@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> martinphipps2@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Grammar books make it clear that a gerund is a noun and not a verb,
> > that "running", "writing", "swimming" and "collecting stamps" are
> > activities, abilities, passtimes and hobbies but some non-natives
think
> > the same can be said of an infinitive: they'll argue that when a
person
> > says "I love to swim" that "to swim" is the object of the verb
"love"!
>
> If it's not the "object", what is it?

Well, I would say that in the sentence "I love to eat apples" that
"apples" is the object of the verb phrase "love to eat". After all, I
could say "I have to eat apples" and "I must eat apples". When I was
in school, I learned that "have to eat" and "must eat" are both verbal
phrases. Indeed, I was taught that "must" was a kind of auxilary verb,
a modal. I don't see why "to eat apples" would be considered to
objects of the verb "have" if "eat apples" when "eat apples" is not
considered the object of the verb "must".

> Note: "objects" (by which I mean "complements" in the traditional
> syntactic sense) don't have to be nouns (or noun phrases). They can
> be prepositional phrases:
>
> (7) I resorted [to watching Oprah].
>
> tensed clauses:
>
> (8) I know [John watches Oprah].
>
> or as we have already seen, untensed (infinitive) clauses (4b,6b).
>
> Do you have a clear definition of "object" in mind which classifies
> "to swim" as not an object in "I love to swim"? Is this a syntactic
> definition, a semantic one, or what? What sort of linguistic tests
> will consistently classify something as "object" and "not object" in
> the way you suggest?
>
> And more important, is your definition more useful than a linguist's
> definition of complement? (Or at minimum, equally useful?)

I thought that "compliment" was loosely defined as whatever followed
the verb or verb phrase.

> > Does anybody know of any grammar books that clarify this issue for
the
> > sake of students and teachers here who, for some reason, won't take
the
> > word of a native speaker? It could be hard to find such a
reference
> > because a native speaker would never say "To run is good exercise":
> > nobody would think to write a rule to correct an error that nobody
> > would be expected to make.
>
> Since sentences can start with infinitives, and infinitives can be
> equated with nouns, I'm not sure there is a nice general rule to
> describe the type of error you're describing. The infinitive and the

> gerund aren't completely synonymous: in some cases they can be
> interchanged with no significant change in meaning, but in many
cases,
> they cannot.
>
> To believe otherwise is a mistake.

But I stand by my original belief. To start a sentence using an
infinitive sounds awkward to me. Starting a sentence with a gerund
sounds better, I think. There could be three reasons for this: 1)
starting a sentence with an infinitive sounds archaic (as in "To err is
human") and the fact that the gerund is preferred in the sentence
"Running is good exercise" represents a change in the language that has
yet to fully take hold, let alone appear in grammar books, 2)
infinitives and gerunds can convey different meanings so one should
take care not to use them interchangably or 3) as English is an SVO
language it really does sound odd to start a sentence with a verb.
Does this sound reasonable?

Martin

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "To run is good exercise"?!
    ... >>> Grammar books make it clear that a gerund is a noun and not a verb, ... Indeed, I was taught that "must" was a kind of auxilary verb, ... >> syntactic sense) don't have to be nouns. ... >> Since sentences can start with infinitives, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: possessive needed?
    ... althetes beginning their season. ... "Beginning" is cast as a transitive verb. ... functions as a noun. ... In that sentence "beginning" is a gerund. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: "Your being a hobogoblin is fine with me."
    ... terms of English/grammar usage. ... from a verb, but it is not itself a verb, it is a noun. ... construction (like a gerund phrase, ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: possessive needed?
    ... althetes beginning their season. ... "Beginning" is cast as a transitive verb. ... functions as a noun. ... In that sentence "beginning" is a gerund. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: The use of -ing form as an object of the verb Help
    ... infinitives or with just an object. ... "Thinking of the word mother not as a noun but as a verb ...
    (alt.usage.english)
Quantcast