Timeline for recommend you + to-infinitive vs recommend that you + infinitive
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 16, 2013 at 9:46 | comment | added | Java D | @Brett Reynolds..It's always a good idea to include a link to where you got that information. Otherwise it's plagiarism. | |
| Dec 19, 2011 at 0:35 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | The "minimalist" (British?) form, "I recommend you be imprisoned" sounds fine to me, because "you" is just part of the recommended action. The construction I don't like is "I recommend you obey the law in future", where "you" receives the recommendation. I don't much care if the former includes "that" or "to" - all variants are more or less acceptable. But the latter always grates on me. It puts me in mind of "I recommended you to the boss", which I always think should be "commended". | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 22:26 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | The same problem remains with go. "I recommend Peter to go." = I suggested to the boss that Peter go. / I suggested to Peter that he go. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 18:37 | comment | added | Peter Shor | These phrases can have different meanings. You can say "I recommended that he be imprisoned immediately," but you generally wouldn't say "I recommended him to be imprisoned immediately," (although you could with "hospitalized" and not "imprisoned"), since in the second case, you are making the recommendation to "him". If you replace "be" with "go" in your Ngram, you don't get this problem, but it looks quite different. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 16:28 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | The clause is subjunctive, not infinitive. See CGEL p. 994. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 16:26 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | Sure, this is a quick and dirty search and it will catch some non-relevant items. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 16:15 | comment | added | John Lawler | And now I think about it, there may be a problem here, in distinguishing between constructions with an infinitive complementizer and those with purpose infinitives, like They finally recommended Bill to shut me up, which refers to the reason they recommended Bill, rather than what Bill is sposta do. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 15:51 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | +1 for illustrating an interesting shift. Playing around with NGram for a couple of minutes, I have the distinct impression recommend that is primarily American - though Brits are increasingly adopting the usage. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 15:41 | comment | added | John Lawler | Notice that these are both infinitive uses, but the newer construction uses a that complementizer instead of a to, with an obligatory subject before the infinitive. I think calling this construction (or, worse, the verb itself) "Subjunctive" is probably a mistake, since it makes a distinction that isn't present in the verb, which is always an infinitive (uninflected) form. This is after all why be works in both searches. | |
| Dec 18, 2011 at 13:08 | vote | accept | tripleowl | ||
| Dec 18, 2011 at 13:08 | |||||
| Dec 18, 2011 at 12:08 | history | answered | Brett Reynolds | CC BY-SA 3.0 |