Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Abkarovits, Endre: Contradictions in Describing and Using the -ing Form as Object. (Complement)

SI - 17 It is interesting to observe the changing lists in the two comprehensive books of Quirk et alias (GCE and CGEL). While in their more recent book (CGEL.) a number of new verbs have been introduced ( (can't) bear, begrudge, commence, confess, deserve, enjoy, envisage, imagine, justify, loathe

, etc.), others have disappeared from their earlier list (acknowledge, contemplate, defer, delay, evade, finish, include, postpone, practise, resist, shun, suggest)

. What may be the reason for replacing them for others? Has their evaluation changed or do they simply want to give examples without attempting at offering complete lists (which could be expected of books of that size)? In the 1986 impression of the GCE we still find the same list as in the first edition of 1972, while in the CGEL published in 1985 for the first time there is a completely new list with new groupings. (The earlier grouping was hard to follow. I do riot see any reasons for calling permit, acknowledg

e, or postpon

e verbs of emotion). Another advantage of the new list is that they also denote which verbs are likely to be followed by a perfect gerund. The lists make it clear that verbs of the same sense group do not necessarily behave in the same way: 'His lawyer advised him to dro

p the case / his droppin

g the case, since it was difficult to succeed.' (AEP: 169) 'I recommend you to consul

t / your consultin

g an expert.' (AEP: 160) *'I suggeste

d her to go liome.' (Swan: 323) Similarly the group of verbs expressing feelings (enjoy, like, love, hate, prefer, loathe, dislike

) do not all accept the same patterns. All the authors in the survey seem to agree that enjo

y can be followed only by a gerund, most of them say the same about dislik

e (with the exception of two, as we have seen above), the use of loath

e is judged inconsistently. The other four can accept both gerund and infinitive, the authors agree, but what the choice depends on is the subject of the debate. Several authors claim (e.g. Swan: 339) that it depends on the liking referring to a particular occasion or having some general validity. The examples of other authors seem to contradict to this rule sometimes: