ASSist TO, HELP TO, etc.

[Peter A. McGraw]

My original post, which started this thread, didn't address the presence or
absence of "to" to link "help" or "have" with the infinitive of another
verb.  The apparent innovation I was calling attention to was the extension
of the "to-less" pattern beyond a very small closed list of verbs
(including have, let, help, make), viz.:

"Here's a conversational gambit: Seems to me that there are fewer potential
funders now than a few years ago for programs that assist first-generation
college aspirants prepare for and succeed in post-secondary education."

My own internal grammar allows only that very small list to be linked
directly, modal-fashion, to a following infinitive without a linking "to".
So for me, "help...to prepare" and "help...prepare" are both perfectly
grammatical.  I guess I'd call "assist...to prepare" marginal, with
"assist...in preparing" much more natural.  *"Assist...prepare," however,
is impossible.

Peter Mc.


--On Monday, February 4, 2002 1:55 PM +0000 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

>  Using questionnaire methodology, we sampled a fairly large number of
> Duke students from various parts of the country and documented the fact
> that HELP TO and HELP are used almost interchangeably by most Americans.
> We did not sample ASSIST (TO), but I would guess that a lot of people
> would accept it because of the close semantic relationship with HELP.
>
> I imagine that one could do a Nexis search that would yield interesting
> data for all three --HAVE (TO), HELP (TO), and ASSIST (TO).



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu