The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English
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Thomas Egan
Abstract
This paper traces the development of the ‘fail to’ construction over the last three hundred years. In the eighteenth century, almost 95 percent of tokens of ‘fail to’ were negated. In corpora from the late twentieth century, on the other hand, fewer than 4 percent of all tokens of ‘fail to’ are negated. The nonLnegated ‘fail to’ construction may encode unsuccessful effort or neglect of duty on the part of the subject, or it may encode disappointment of the speaker’s expectations. It may even encode negation pure and simple. Special attention is paid to the growth in these uses of the construction in the nineteenth century. The question of whether or not ‘fail to’ is in the process of grammaticalizing is also addressed.
Abstract
This paper traces the development of the ‘fail to’ construction over the last three hundred years. In the eighteenth century, almost 95 percent of tokens of ‘fail to’ were negated. In corpora from the late twentieth century, on the other hand, fewer than 4 percent of all tokens of ‘fail to’ are negated. The nonLnegated ‘fail to’ construction may encode unsuccessful effort or neglect of duty on the part of the subject, or it may encode disappointment of the speaker’s expectations. It may even encode negation pure and simple. Special attention is paid to the growth in these uses of the construction in the nineteenth century. The question of whether or not ‘fail to’ is in the process of grammaticalizing is also addressed.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
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part iVerbal constructions
- “Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra” 11
- Tracking and explaining variation and change in the grammar of American English 29
- Prevent and the battle of the - ing clauses 45
- Prescription or practice? 63
- On the idiomatization of “ give + O + to ” constructions 79
- The clausal complementation of good in extraposition constructions 95
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part iiModality and (marginal) modals
- The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English 123
- The interplay of modal verbs and adverbs 143
- Current change in the modal system of English 165
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part iiiDevelopments in the English noun phrase
- Discontinuous quantificational structures in Old English 185
- Genitive variation in letters, history writing and sermons in Late Middle and Early Modern English 197
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part ivSyntactic variation and change through contact
- On the use of beon and wesan in Old English 217
- The reflexes of OE beon as a marker of futurity in early Middle English 237
- Stylistic fronting in the history of English 255
- Subject and Word index 279
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
part iVerbal constructions
- “Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra” 11
- Tracking and explaining variation and change in the grammar of American English 29
- Prevent and the battle of the - ing clauses 45
- Prescription or practice? 63
- On the idiomatization of “ give + O + to ” constructions 79
- The clausal complementation of good in extraposition constructions 95
-
part iiModality and (marginal) modals
- The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English 123
- The interplay of modal verbs and adverbs 143
- Current change in the modal system of English 165
-
part iiiDevelopments in the English noun phrase
- Discontinuous quantificational structures in Old English 185
- Genitive variation in letters, history writing and sermons in Late Middle and Early Modern English 197
-
part ivSyntactic variation and change through contact
- On the use of beon and wesan in Old English 217
- The reflexes of OE beon as a marker of futurity in early Middle English 237
- Stylistic fronting in the history of English 255
- Subject and Word index 279
