Re: Verbal distinctions

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.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Does anybody want any flotsam? / I've gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam? / I can getsam.
        --Ogden Nash, _No Doctors Today, Thank You_

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