Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Csaba Czeglédi: On the Distribution of Infinitival and Gerundive Complements in English

(55) We are considering GOING/*to go TO CANADA etc. One might perhaps conjecture that (54) could be given a reading characteristic of the infinitival pattern, which is, incidentally, probably the reading many Hungarian learners of English tend to associate with similar sentences, and therefore even advanced students complement suggest with an infinitival clause in hundreds of instances, as any teacher of English in Hungary can testify. If it is an error, which it probably is, it does not seem to be the kind which is only committed occasionally by the innocent learner of English as a foreign language but one that is prone to infect also the language of educated (even professional) native speakers and writers of English such as James Joyce, as the reader can verify from the quotation in (56) below. (56) Uncle Charles smoked such black twist that at last his nephew suggested to him to enjoy his morning smoke in a little outhouse at the end of the garden. (James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1916, p. 60.) The same is also documented in Chierchia (1984:300), where, unfortunately, it is not clear whether these are his own examples (and errors), in which case what we see is another instance of overgeneralization by an exceptionally competent user of English as a second language (since Chierchia, although his English is often impressingly eloquent in style, does not probably qualify as a native speaker)

, or he cites authentic material. (57) a. John suggested to Bill to decide to leave together b. John suggested to Bill to signal to leave together (Cf. Chierchia 1984:300, his original number (24)) 28