Preposition ‘to’ followed by gerund in Steinbeck: “started the little wind to moving among the leaves”

Question

Q.1. This is a sentence by John Steinbeck. I don’t understand the verb construction of the preposition ‘to’ followed by a gerund instead of by an infinitive. What’s the explanation?

Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.

Of Mice and Men

Q.2. And does this version have the same meaning as Steinbeck’s?

Evening of a hot day started the little wind that moved among the leaves.

Answer 1

You got me to thinking...

Thanks for your question, Mónica; it definitely made me think—by which I mean that it got me to thinking.

Now that’s a perfectly unremarkable use that you hear all the time, even though you don’t need the to preposition. I could have just said that it got me thinking—or that it got me to think. Same thing.

Why did Steinbeck use the to if he didn’t need to? Because it’s how (some) people once talked in a certain time and place, so it conveys that same sense of time and place. In America during the 1800s and early 1900s, you came upon this construction from time to time.

It wasn’t regional speech, either; it happened all over the country, and it wasn’t simply uneducated speech either; it appears in the U.S. Congressional Record from those times. I’ll provide citations later on down below, including some recent ones even.

Grammar Bits

“Making something do something” is actually a type of causative construction, the kind of thing you see whenever you:

• ...make someone/something do whatever.
• ...have someone/something do whatever.
• ...let someone/something do whatever.
• ...cause someone/something to do whatever.
• ...get someone/something to do whatever.
• ...help someone/something to do whatever.
• ...help someone/something do whatever.

But it’s more than that. Using the verb start adds in an inchoative (or inceptive) aspect for initiating the activity, and the -ing form of the verb following adds the continuous aspect for showing that this activity is an ongoing one, not a completed one.

And it’s the same thing that you see happening with your Steinbeck quotation, too.

Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves.

Let’s whittle that down to its key elements, then go through some rewrites:

• Evening started the wind to moving.
• Evening made the wind start moving.
• Evening got the wind to start moving.

Notice how that’s not really the same sense as in your proposed rewrite:

Evening of a hot day started the little wind that moved among the leaves.

That’s because the evening made the wind start moving. The action it caused or initiated was the verb moving.

Steinbeck did the same thing in The Grapes of Wrath when he wrote:

But before Ma ate, she put the big round wash tub on the stove and started the fire to roaring.

Whittled down and rewritten, that’s like:

• Ma started the fire to roaring.
• Ma got the fire to start roaring.
• Ma made the fire start to roar.
• Ma made the fire start roaring.

Citations

So although you’re more apt to come upon this in American writing from the 1800s, it does show up from time to time even now as the first couple citations show.

• What started me to doing this was that this guy named Cowboy wanted to go somewhere and he didn’t have nobody to watch his stuff.
  Sidewalk, Mitchell Duneier · 1999.

• It was that inspiration that started me to recording the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.
  Ain’t But a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings about St. Louis; 1998.

• and that started us to looking around a little more
  Wilmott R. Hastings of Lynn, Massachusettes, 1898.
  Pulp and Paper Investigation Hearings
  April 25, 1908-Feb. 19, 1909, with Indices · Volume 1, Issues 1-17;
  By United States. Congress. House. Select Committee Under House Resolution 344, James Robert Mann · 1908

• I set my teeth together hard every time those playful brutes started us to rolling.
  The Youth’s Companion, Volume 75, 1901. Originally published 1827.

• And that, of course, gave us an insight of transportation and started us to thinking very seriously of being a little more independent in our transportation.
  United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Coast and Insular Survey · 1914

• You think that is what started us to looking into this intensive farming?
  United States. Congress. House. Special Committee on Investigation of American Sugar Refining Company · 1911

• The war with Spain started us to growing and we could not help it if we would. Our growth has made new problems , but the American people have faced them and will continue to face them.
  The Public: A Journal of Democracy · Volume 4 1901, originally published 1898.

• What started us to talking about going down they broke one end of that car they broke the other.
  Railway Master Mechanic, Volume 25, 1901, originally published 1880.

• The weather was then warm, which started them to brooding. April was very cold, with frosts near to zero, which killed a great many. The summer was very dry and hot, and the flowers did not last long.
  American Bee Journal, Volumes 3-4 1868, originally published 1861.

• I, by short marches, got down into the country where the guerrillas were concentrated, and after three or four skirmishes started them to running, and in the pursuit nearly every horse I had started out with gave out ...
  The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1892, originally published 1869.

• It was during the time that he was agent that he bought them mules or wagons and started them to farming.
  Affairs of the Mexican Kickapoo Indians: November 11 to December 7, 1907
  United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Indian Affairs · 1908.

• The prisoners were carried to the fields where they pulled up the weeds and loaded them on wagons and hauled them to the turn-rows where they could be destroyed, for if they were pulled up and thrown back upon the ground, the rains over night would have started them to growing afresh.
  Journal, Volumes 2-3; By Texas. Legislature. Senate · 1914, originally published 1854.

• He sorted out a shovel and pick, made Texas Pete carry them right along the trail a quarter, and started him to diggin’ a hole ..
  McClure’s Magazine, Volume 26, 1905; originally published 1893.

• There’s a fellow up in Chicago who started me to thinking — which is dangerous business for a “rattler” like me, liable to drop a crown sheet and become unconscious at any time! Anyhow this fellow from the Windy City has been...
  Railway Review, Volume 60; 1917, originally published 1896.

• Well, I don’t know just what stretched across the mouth of a steep, started me to connecting up Garber’s dangerous little gully — to keep the cattle absence and the Y. & C. Ř . robbery, but, from straying in through and maybe anyway...
  Adventure, Volume 21, Issues 4-6. 1913; originally published 1910.

• A couple of days later a tramp started me to thinking about Carter steamer dropped anchor, and Marie and protective coloration at the same Carlotti came ashore.
  Collier’s, Incorporating Features of the American Magazine · Volume 64, 1919; originally published 1905.

• And I jist want to tell you what started me to thinkin’ in this here direction. But before I begin on that ar’, I want to tell you that I had jist one of the best women that ever wore a bonnet, and as good lookin’ as any of your ...
  The Mysterious Parchment, Joel Wakeman · 1856.

• The knowledge of the tragedy of Grace Hollister started me to seeking restlessly, on bookshelves and elsewhere, for a secret that forever eluded me, and forever led me on.
  A Far Country (Volume 1 of 2), By Winston Churchill · 1915.

• That started me to watching for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me.
  Moths of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter, 1912.

• It is an in-duty at $1.684 capital invested on the strength of that protection jury to every American industry, and I can not understand how to the industry - and started it to going, and you are now going to our
  Congressional Record; Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress · Volume 37; By United States. Congress · 1903; originally published 1873.

Selected Rewrites

And here are some transformations on those that preserve their sense:

• What started me to doing this was that this guy named Cowboy wanted to go somewhere and he didn’t have nobody to watch his stuff.
• What got me started doing this was that this guy named Cowboy wanted to go somewhere and he didn’t have nobody to watch his stuff.
• What got me to start doing this was that this guy named Cowboy wanted to go somewhere and he didn’t have nobody to watch his stuff.
• What got me to start to do this was that this guy named Cowboy wanted to go somewhere and he didn’t have nobody to watch his stuff.

• That started me to watching for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me.
• That got me started watching for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me.
• That got me to start watching for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me.
• That got me to start to watch for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me.

• It was that inspiration that started me to recording the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.
• That was the inspiration that got me started recording the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.
• It was that inspiration that got me to start recording the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.
• It was that inspiration that got me to start to record the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.
• That was the inspiration that got me to start to record the first of my original improvisations, both poetical and melodical.

• And that started us to looking around a little more.
• And that got us started looking around a little more.
• And that got us to start looking around a little more.
• And that got us to start to look around a little more.
• And that made us start looking around a little more.
• And that made us start to look around a little more.

• The weather was then warm, which started them to brooding.
• The weather was then warm, which got them started to brood.
• The weather was then warm, which got them started brooding.
• The weather was then warm, which got them to start to brood.
• The weather was then warm, which got them to start to brood.
• The weather was then warm, which made them start to brood.
• The weather was then warm, which made them start brooding.

• I set my teeth together hard every time those playful brutes started us to rolling.
• I set my teeth together hard every time those playful brutes got us started rolling.
• I set my teeth together hard every time those playful brutes got us to start rolling.
• I set my teeth together hard every time those playful brutes made us start rolling.

• The rains over night would have started them to growing afresh.
• The overnight rains would have gotten them started growing afresh.
• The overnight rains would have gotten them to start growing afresh.
• The overnight rains would have made them start growing afresh.
• The overnight rains would have made them start to grow afresh.

Answer 2

Usage in this area (whether or not to include to between start and a gerund¹) has changed significantly over time. Until a century ago, we were as likely to include the "extraneous" to as not...

But we almost never do that today...

Obviously it's ridiculous to suppose that the "rules of grammar" changed during this period. It's just idiomatic preference that changed. But unless you want to sound "weird", you should definitely side with the majority.

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¹ gerund erroneously called a continuous participle in the first version of this answer. But is that any reason for a downvote? Perhaps I should just save myself some grief and copy those smart linguists who call them -ing verb forms.

Answer 3

Consider the following:

The wind started the windmill spinning.

We have started with a direct object the windmill and a non-finite complement spinning, which is what the windmill was doing.

Now consider:

The wind caused the windmill to spin.

Again, a direct object the windmill and a non-finite complement, to spin.

What we have in the quote from Steinbeck is a kind of hybrid, where a non-finite clause that doesn't need to has it nonetheless, and the complement is in a form that the standard use of started does not license:

... to spinning.

It's regional talk.

Compare "start them to moving" here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Experiences_of_a_Trapper_and_Hunter/UbbZ6ThFkAQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22them+to+moving%22&pg=PA96&printsec=frontcover