Infinitive form?

[Asta]

How about "to lead" in writing environment? I'd comment on my students'
papers: "lead your reader into this paragraph."

Asta Svedkauskaite

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 2:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Infinitive form?


>I was just wondering ... if there is an infinitive verb form for
>"transition"--besides 'to make a transition.'  What seems most obvious is
>'to transit'--but I don't think that's it!  Can anyone help?

There is the intransitive verb "transition" = "make a transition". It
appears in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary and in the American
Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.). This seems to me to be an uncommon and
perhaps a recent verb.

Usually, in general, I think one would use "change" or something like that.

I'll defer to the specialists regarding any specialized term in the context
of composition. None comes to my mind.

"Transit" doesn't quite match (IMHO); this verb corresponds to the noun
"transit" rather than to the noun "transition", I think -- it usually
refers to a 'crossing' rather than to a 'change', in my experience.

-- Doug Wilson