Modalization

[Victoria Neufeldt]

I agree.  'Assist' has not usually been used with an infinitive, either with
or without 'to'.  Both "assist aspirants prepare for college" and "assist
aspirants to prepare for college" sound odd to me, and the former sounds
*really* odd.

Victoria


On Wednesday, January 09, 2002 3:21 AM, P-A-T wrote:

> > 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.
> >
>
> Interesting interpretation!  However, I have never heard or read
> "assist . .
> . to."  I would translate the passage as follows:
>
> Here's a conversational gambit: Seems to me that there are fewer potential
> funders now than a few years ago [of] programs that assist
> first-generation
> college aspirants [in] prepar[ing] for and succeed[ing] [at/]in
> post-secondary education.
>
>                                     {OR}
>
> Here's a conversational gambit: Seems to me that there are fewer potential
> fund[s] now than a few years ago for programs [that/to help]
> first-generation
> college aspirants prepare for and succeed in post-secondary education.
>
>
> In both cases, ("that" clause or infinitive phrase [to help] ), the word
> group functions as a modifier of the noun, "programs."  However, the verb,
> "assists," selects for the prepositional phrase ("assists . . .
> in [VERB'g]")
> whereas the infinitive, "help,"  co-occurs most often with the infinitive
> ("help . .   . to"), but can also select for the prepositional
> phrase, ["help
> . . . in [VERB'g],
>                                            P-A-T
>

Victoria Neufeldt
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Canada
Tel: 306-955-8910