The infinitive constructions _to NOT verb_ & _NOT to verb_

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 11:15 AM,  <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> [E]arlier usage manuals do not mention this use of [...].

Thanks, Ron! That's the the syntactic structure that I searched for
but couldn't find, a few years back, WRT the infinitive construction,

"to _not_ V"

as in,

"He decided _to not come_."

IME, this particular structure has always seemed passing strange. It
suddenly appeared, full-blown, out of nowhere. I'd never seen it noted
as "incorrect," or in any other way, in any manual or by any teacher,
back in the day when I was learning "proper" English. There was no
need to, for it was the case that this structure simply didn't !

Then, BAM!!! I heard it and saw it everywhere. Very likely, for the
greater proportion of today's speakers - and even yesterday's, since a
lot of speakers of my own, AARP age, use this new construction without
blinking - it's the once-immutable  structure,

"He decided _not to come_"

that feels vaguely, annoyingly, in some sense, all fucked up.

Youneverknow.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain





--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org