Question e-mailed by FH from Iran (July 29, 2013):I overlooked this question e-mailed to me last month by FH, an Iran-based English teacher: Which choice is correct? Please explain your reasons.
“We can do nothing for Peter but ________ Peter to think deeply about his problem.”
(a) to ask
(b) asking
(c) ask
My reply to FH:My apologies for this belated reply.
There are two possible ways of parsing this sentence with respect to the function word “but”: “We can do nothing for Peter but ________ Peter to think deeply about his problem.” One is to look at “but” as a conjunction in the sense of “with the exception of,” and the other is to look at “but” as a preposition in the sense of “other than.”
Let’s first test “but” as a conjunction by substituting “with the exception of” for it in the sentence you presented: “We can do nothing for Peter
with the exception of ________ Peter to think deeply about his problem.” The gerund “asking” works perfectly both grammatically and semantically in that construction: “We can do nothing for Peter
with the exception of asking Peter to think deeply about his problem.” However, the construction becomes dysfunctional when we use “but” itself as the conjunction: “We can do nothing for Peter
but asking Peter to think deeply about his problem.” This indicates that while the usage of “but” as a conjunction in that sentence is conceivable, it’s not syntactically advisable.
Now let’s test “but” as a preposition by substituting “other than” for it in the same sentence you presented: “We can do nothing for Peter
other than ________ Peter to think deeply about his problem.” The infinitive phrase “to ask” works perfectly both grammatically and semantically in that construction: “We can do nothing for Peter
other than to ask Peter to think deeply about his problem.” The construction remains grammatically and semantically correct when we use “but” itself as the preposition: “We can do nothing for Peter
but to ask Peter to think deeply about his problem.”
This means that using “but” as a preposition is the syntactically correct choice for that sentence. And let me hasten to add that with “but” as a preposition in that sentence, the infinitive phrase “to ask Peter to think deeply about his problem”—a noun form—functions as the
object of the preposition.
By now, it should be unmistakably clear that in all respects, the correct answer choice for the test sentence you presented is “(a) to ask.”
But one more question remains: What about “(c) ask”? Is there anything conceivably wrong with this sentence construction: “We can do nothing for Peter
but ask Peter to think deeply about his problem”? This form is actually an elliptical form of the sentence “We can do nothing for Peter
but to ask Peter to think deeply about his problem,” with the preposition “to” in the infinitive “to think” dropped for brevity and ease of articulation—the so-called “bare infinitive.” Many professional writers routinely use this elliptical form—I would even say they do so instinctively—for informal narratives and dialogue because it sounds more natural and spontaneous.
This being the case, I must conclude that the test sentence you presented is not very suitable for standard testing purposes because apart from being too complex, it is fraught with grammatical ambiguity and syntactic problems in actual usage.
RELATED READING:The bare infinitive solution to some intractable sentence constructions
