Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 August 17

= August 17 =

Where exactly that this crowded plane was landed?
Source

I am reading this news article about 2021 Taliban offensive, but it didn't clearly mention where it was landed? It says stationed but it didn't mention about landing.Rizosome (talk) 05:51, 17 August 2021 (UTC)


 * This article states that the plane flew the evacuees to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. --Lambiam 06:56, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

I adore to read
Why can one say "I love to read", but not "I adore to read"? They both seem to be verbs, but is love a verb here? Stanstaple (talk) 22:18, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * That got me thinking about how it is said in Finnish. I noticed that if I say "rakastan lukemista" (literally "I love reading") it is understood that I love it when I read. But if I say "ihailen lukemista" (literally "I adore reading") it sounds more like I adore that reading exists in general. J I P  &#124; Talk 22:27, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Interesting. "I love reading" and "I adore reading" both convey a similar sentiment in my dialect. That is partially why I suspect love might not be acting as a verb in "I love to read". I am finding it difficult to construct another sentence where "I [present tense verb] [infinitive verb]" makes sense. Stanstaple (talk) 22:36, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I yearn to read. Long, desire, ache, wish, want, used, probably many others, all work. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:45, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * This page lists some verbs that can take an infinitive as their direct object, with or without an actor: . It doesn't include either "love" or "adore", so the lists definitely aren't complete. --Amble (talk) 22:38, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * A funny thing about these constructions with the infinitive is that you can lose the verb, but keep the "to": "Do you like to read?" "I love to." --Amble (talk) 22:42, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * You can love to read and you can adore To Kill a Mockingbird, but you can't adore to read To Kill a Mockingbird. --Amble (talk) 23:03, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Why not? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:22, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Because this is natural language, not logic. --Lambiam 08:45, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Which is precisely why you can adore to read the book. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:35, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Maybe you can, Bugs, but Stanstaple can’t. He told us himself in the original post. If you want to ask why Baseball Bugs can adore to read To Kill a Mockingbird, that would be a new question! —Amble (talk) 14:23, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * He didn't say he can't, he said one can't. Which one in particular, is unstated. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:37, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Sure, just asking for a friend. --Amble (talk) 18:01, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * There is the old joke, "I love working. I can watch it for hours." --Lambiam 08:45, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * As to that, the way Jerome K. Jerome wrote it is: "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."  (Three Men in a Boat, chapter 15.)  I suppose someone else may have made the same joke earlier. --184.144.99.72 (talk) 23:21, 18 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Went looking for a ref just in case and amazingly, there is an entire book on this :o - that is, on why you can use the “to” construction with some verbs while others have to use the “ing” form. The specific section on "verbs of liking" like love and adore is  (sorry I only seem able to link to the table of contents, but you can click on the right section from there). 70.67.193.176 (talk) 13:40, 19 August 2021 (UTC)


 * The original question is on exactly the same level as "why does love end in /v/ and adore doesn't?" The answer is "because that's the way those verbs have developed in English. Their subcategorization frames are no more predictable than their phonology. --ColinFine (talk) 19:49, 19 August 2021 (UTC)