Timeline for He continued to talk and he continued talking
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 19, 2013 at 22:22 | comment | added | user230 | In "He stopped to smoke", "to smoke" is an infinitive. The difference is not in the meaning of to, but whether the phrase is an adjunct or a complement. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 21:56 | comment | added | jeysmith | @Jay Yes, I've understood. It's just this kind of issues (as well as all that concerning phrasal verbs and prepositions) that freaks an English learner out :-) | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 18:51 | comment | added | Jay | @jeysmith Ooh, good point. In, "He loved to smoke", "to smoke" is an infinitive. But in, "He stopped to smoke", "to smoke" is a prepositional phrase. The two sentences look alike but really we're using the word "to" with two completely different meanings. In another language which does not use the same word both as the infinitive indicator and as a preposition, this issue would not exist. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 18:47 | comment | added | Jay | And it occurs to me, there are cases where the meaning could be opposite. Like, "He deserved to kill": he had the right to kill others. "He deserved killing": his crimes called for the death penalty. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 18:44 | comment | added | Jay | There are many verbs where one or the other form would not be valid. Like, "He denied cheating", but "He denied to cheat"? not grammatical. "He pretended to care", yes, but "He pretended caring", no. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 18:41 | comment | added | Jay | When I said I couldn't think of counter-examples, perhaps I should have been more clear. I was thinking of constructions using "continued" or other words indicating "doing this in some manner", like "tried" or "enjoyed", maybe "feigned". But yeah, with "stopped" they have totally different meanings, arguably an idiom. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 14:41 | comment | added | user230 | Yes, what Kaz says is right. Complements are licensed by their head, and stop licenses smoking but not to smoke. You can use to smoke, but as an adjunct rather than a complement. Unfortunately, you have to memorize which verbs license which kinds of complements. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 2:08 | comment | added | Kaz | Basically the pattern "to stop to [verb]" is specially reserved to mean to stop (intransitively) so that to be able to [verb]. It applies to some other words, like "to pause": to pause thinking versus to pause to think. | |
| Nov 15, 2013 at 2:05 | comment | added | Kaz | It's interesting how "He stopped to smoke" is ungrammatical if the intent is "he stopped smoking". It really looks as if this simply has to do with a restriction which is built into the verb "to stop". It doesn't have to do with the possibility that "to stop" can be intransitive, because "to continue" can also be intransitive. It also doesn't have to do with the semantics of "to stop" denoting a discontinuation of activity, because the grammar "he ceased to smoke" is permissible. | |
| Nov 14, 2013 at 23:21 | comment | added | jeysmith | @WendiKidd :-) Yes, I presume that "He continued in order to/so that he could talk" doesn't really make sense. I wrote that "unhealthy" example just because I know what is the actual difference between those two sentences, and I thought that there could be a subtle difference in meaning between "He continued to talk" and "He continued talking" that an English learner, as I am, couldn't get "at first sight". | |
| Nov 14, 2013 at 22:38 | comment | added | WendiKidd | @jeysmith Hmm. Well, I suppose that it depends, then, on whether to can reasonably interpreted as in order to. Because that's the difference in your smoking example: "He stopped smoking" = "he no longer smoked." "He stopped to smoke" = "he stopped in order to/so that he could smoke". But in your talking example "He continued in order to/so that he could talk" doesn't really make sense. (For all I know I'm not making sense, but I'm trying to! :)) | |
| Nov 14, 2013 at 21:53 | comment | added | Tyler James Young | “He isn't talking” and “he isn't to talk” also have different meanings. | |
| Nov 14, 2013 at 21:19 | comment | added | jeysmith | I thought that they were something like "He stopped smoking" and "He stopped to smoke". Thanks. | |
| Nov 14, 2013 at 20:29 | history | answered | Jay | CC BY-SA 3.0 |