• Infinitive using

    From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/6 to All on Tue Jun 21 09:19:14 2022
    Hi, All!

    In one story I read this:

    .... "The face of Hyde sat heavily on his memory. He felt (what was rare to him) a nausea and distaste of life, and in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the roof."

    I saw a strange using of the Infinitive:

    ....in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed TO READ a menace in the flickering of the firelight...

    What would happen if I put it without TO:
    ....in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed READ a menace in the flickering of the firelight...

    Bye, All!
    Alexander Koryagin

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  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to Alexander Koryagin on Sun Jul 3 13:27:02 2022
    Alexander Koryagin - All:

    In one story I read this:

    A nice way to meantion that pearl of English literature --
    Jekyll&Hyde. By the way, I highly commend all of
    Stevenson's short stories, which are legally available for
    free (as in beer) and in free (as in freedom) formats, such
    as .txt and .epub !

    ... "The face of Hyde sat heavily on his memory. He felt
    (what was rare to him) a nausea and distaste of life, and
    in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace
    in the flickering of the firelight on the polished
    cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the
    roof."

    I saw a strange using of the Infinitive:

    a strage *use* of the Infinitive:

    ...in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed TO READ a
    menace in the flickering of the firelight...

    What would happen if I put it without TO:
    ...in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed READ a menace
    in the flickering of the firelight...

    "he seemed to read" above is not strage but standard and
    frequent, and means "it seemed to him" or "himseemed". I am
    sure you have encountered the pattern hundereds of times
    but paid no attention to it -- it is that unavoidable:

    -- Your cat seems to dislike me.
    -- You seem to make several posts a week
    -- He seems to feel ill at ease.

    `seem' is not special in this regard, for many other verbs
    take the infinitive in like manner, such as `want',
    `prefer', `like', `love'...

    "He seemed read a menace in the flicker of the firelight"
    is simply ungrammatical: when I fed it to my English
    parser, it returned a syntax error. Know you of a single
    precedent in English literature of two verbs in
    apposion, one in the Past Simple and the other a bear
    infinitive?

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  • From alexander koryagin@2:5075/128.130 to Anton Shepelev on Tue Jul 5 12:16:39 2022
    Hi, Anton Shepelev!
    I read your message from 03.07.2022 13:27

    ak>> In one story I read this:
    AS> A nice way to meantion that pearl of English literature --
    AS> Jekyll&Hyde. By the way, I highly commend all of Stevenson's short
    AS> stories, which are legally available for free (as in beer) and in
    AS> free (as in freedom) formats, such as. txt and. epub!

    ak>> ... "The face of Hyde sat heavily on his memory. He felt (what was
    ak>> rare to him) a nausea and distaste of life, and in the gloom of
    ak>> his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the
    ak>> firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the
    ak>> shadow on the roof."

    ak>> I saw a strange using of the Infinitive:

    AS> a strage *use* of the Infinitive:

    Can I use "using" without an article ("I saw strange using...")? I am
    sure there is no strict rule on this account.

    ak>> ... in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed TO READ a menace in the
    ak>> flickering of the firelight...

    ak>> What would happen if I put it without TO:... in the gloom of his
    ak>> spirits, he seemed READ a menace in the flickering of the
    ak>> firelight...

    AS> "he seemed to read" above is not strage but standard and frequent,
    AS> and means "it seemed to him" or "himseemed". I am sure you have
    AS> encountered the pattern hundereds of times but paid no attention to
    AS> it -- it is that unavoidable:

    AS> -- Your cat seems to dislike me.
    AS> -- You seem to make several posts a week
    AS> -- He seems to feel ill at ease.

    AS> `seem' is not special in this regard, for many other verbs take the
    AS> infinitive in like manner, such as `want', `prefer', `like',
    AS> `love'...

    AS> "He seemed read a menace in the flicker of the firelight" is simply
    AS> ungrammatical: when I fed it to my English parser, it returned a
    AS> syntax error. Know you of a single precedent in English literature
    AS> of two verbs in apposion, one in the Past Simple and the other a
    AS> bear infinitive?

    In my case "the other" was not a "bare infinite" -- the first one is in
    Past Simple(seemed) and other is also in Past simple (read).

    PS: Is your English parser is also a spell checker?

    Bye, Anton!
    Alexander Koryagin
    fido.english_tutor,local.cc.ak 2022
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  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to alexander koryagin on Tue Jul 5 15:34:28 2022
    Alexander Koryagin to Anton Shepelev:

    Can I use "using" without an article ("I saw strange
    using...")?

    As a noun? Yes, you can, but not in the parenthetical
    example:

    I was surprised at Phil's using an HP thin client as
    an MS-DOS and Windows 98 retrocomputer.

    "He seemed read a menace in the flicker of the
    firelight"
    In my case "the other" was not a "bare infinite" -- the
    first one is in Past Simple(seemed) and other is also in
    Past simple (read).

    When I entered these restrictions into my English parser
    and bid it reparse the sentence, it panicked! Where in the
    wild have you seen an apposition of two verbs in Past
    Simple? Perhaps Parser and I can understand you better by
    analogy?

    Is your English parser is also a spell checker?

    No, but it comes with a built-in typo-generator, even as
    your OCR firmware with a excellent typo-detector. Sometimes
    I wonder which is better: my typo-generator or your typo-
    detector...

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