QUESTION 14 - USING SHORT INFINITIVE

Date: [this is an updated old posting, previous to LSEG4 edition]
Q14: " Dear Corollary Theorems,

(. . .) I teach English, though I am one of the confused teachers who has fallen victim to grammar and language teaching simplifications. I live and teach English in USA--the country with non-existent English grammar teaching and learning habits. It is assumed here that grammar should not be taught to American children because they are born into English-speaking families, therefore they acquire the language gradually, via their parents! There are different American families, of course: educated, semi-educated, and uneducated. How could that assumption be true if kids, before entering school, are at different levels of language knowledge?

I view this approach as extremely reactionary, though it plays into the hands of the rulers of our country. They don't need fully-educated masses of Americans; half-educated, or even totally uneducated Americans are a good source of workhorses which have no time to stop, think, and read a book.

(. . .) In general, my opinion about your approach to grammar is not devious--just a joke of ours--at all; I know what I want to say. On the contrary, I can see things (long-forgotten) in your book that I learned in University. Your treatment of conditionals, for example, or the number of pages you have dedicated to the Verb chapter. I don't own the book, but I'm planning to buy one.

(. . .) I need to know what is happening with the verb "to help". Has it become another modal verb? No grammar book references this aspect.

(. . .) You use 'helps understanding and extending the range of conditional complex sentence'--I noticed two instances. Do you intentionally avoid using 'to' following the verb 'to help'; for example: 'helps to understand and extend the range'? What is wrong with this verb (to help)? Most people use it with NO "to" particle following. What is your explanation?

(. . .) I like the way you pounce upon all sorts of language simplification. That is a stupid trend together with the "holistic" approach to language teaching and learning. (. . .)" 

From F G - USA

1. This book helps you understand English grammar (grammatical form).
2. This book helps you to understand English grammar (the accentuated form).

Both versions above are correct grammatically, providing they are used/interpreted correctly. The first form is based on grammatical rules. The second form is an emphatic accentuation, therefore a long infinitive helps in stressing the needed/wanted/desired accent.

The great confusion is generated by the fact that, in real life, people use both forms above. Some people do that knowing perfectly well what they are doing; others use one form or the other because each sounds better in particular contexts; most people, however, are terribly confused about using either form since no grammar book troubles to explain them appropriately.

FG has signaled "the trend" correctly, except he took it in reverse. The correct grammatical form is #1 above, and the "trend" is #2. Note that "the trend" is a grammatical mistake, unless it is used specifically to create (strong) accentuations: this is the reason behind the adverb "generally" added to the rule by O G POPA.

Now, grammatical rules are important to help us express correct meanings. However, there are a few instances when grammatical rules (and implicitly correct forms of expressions) do not quite work in English. Note the following.

          A14.A. This book helps to express the meaning.

Since there is no accentuation, the form above is grammatically incorrect.

          A14.B. This book helps express the meaning.

The sentence in form B above is correct, grammatically, though it doesn't sound right. Therefore, in order to make it "sound (like) English", people perform a little morphologic transformation.

          A14.C. This book helps expressing the meaning.

Syntactically, the direct object expression in blue, in all examples above, remains unchanged; morphologically, we use a gerund verb in example A14.C to replace the short infinitive one in form A14.B. The meaning of the sentence A14.C is complete, and it does sound as very good English.

Type A14.C sentences are the recommended form whenever short infinitives do not sound right, or if you are in doubt about using short or long infinitives. In LSEG4, Table M6.4.6.1 on page 291, section D, you could discover a brief list of verbs (about 50) which require they are followed by present gerund verbs. However, since present gerund is such a very good form of English expression (it is specific to English), the mentioned list can be easily extended to many other (similar) verbs.

NOTE
We keep on stressing that LSEG4 is a complete English grammar reference, and the answers to your questions help us prove that important aspect based on real life examples. Up to now, it happened only once that we couldn't find the proper answer in LSEG4, but that was due to the fact the question submitted to us was from L4EW--not yet written at that time.

The complete, easy to learn, Logically Structured English Grammar 4: theory plus exercises!