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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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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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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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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