Re: Verbal distinctions

John Cowan wrote:

> Isidora Zamora scripsit:
>
> > As far as getting the English correctly goes, you'll want to use the verb
> > "wish" here rather than "want."  (I wish I could explain the reason, beyond
> > just saying that "I want that" is unidiomatic.  I'm sure there's more two
> > it than that, but I can't grasp it myself.)
>
> AFAIK there is no accounting for which verbs take that-complement clauses,
> which verbs take accusative and infinitive (shades of our Latin days),
> and which can accept either.  "Wish" takes a complement clause indeed,
> but "want" demands acc. and inf.:  "I want him to have been alive."
>
> The acc. and inf. first appeared English at the revival of learning, and
> I have always believed that it is in fact a syntactic borrowing and not
> an independent development, but the matter is hardly subject to proof.
> At any rate, none of the other Germanic languages (except perhaps Scots)
> have it even marginally.
>
The acc. and inf construction already existed in the OE period
this from Quirk and Wren OE Grammar

do hit us to witanne = make us know it

often with a passive meaning

het hine laeran = bade him to be taught

From Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English
with omitted accusative subject

he het hi hon on heam gealgum = he ordered (someone) to hang them on high gallows
(hi = them is object of hon) or in passive = he ordered them to be hanged


Germanic languages that use a modal (will) to express want or wish, do they have
accusative and infinitive? dative and infinitive? or a that clause?

My German is very limited, but I found these sentences through web search

Er hilft mir, die Situation zu analysieren

als er mir befielt, in den Wagen zu steigen

 with dative rather  than  accusative, but since English merged accusative and
dative
surely there's no real difference

David Barrow