Question by Michelle Ferrera Fetalvero in the Forum’s Facebook Gateway (September 2, 2017):Mr. Carillo, kindly enlighten me about the zero-complement verb.
I feel confused because my sister said the zero-complement verb refers to the bare infinitive. I thought the zero-complement verb is the other term for intransitive verb.
Thank you, Sir.
My reply to Michelle:I’m tempted to say at the very outset that both you and your sister are confused about the term “bare infinitive,” but let’s first revisit what traditional grammar—the grammar that I’m familiar with—tells us about the bare infinitive.
Traditional English grammar defines the bare infinitive as an infinitive without the “to,” as in the sentence “She let him
go.” We typically expect the infinitive “to go” to be used and to functionally work in that sentence, but the resulting construction, “She let him
to go,” strangely doesn’t read or sound right—but the sentence does read and sound right by the simple expedient of dropping the “to”: “She let him
go.” In contrast, the
full infinitive (the verb with the “to’) works perfectly well in the synonymous sentence “She allowed him
to go,” yet becomes dysfunctional when we drop the “to”: “She allowed him
go.” In practice we won’t be able to precisely anticipate which verbs will or won’t work as a bare infinitive, so the best advice I’m able to give when dealing with such situations is to simply play it by ear.
The same traditional English grammar that I know defines the intransitive verb as a verb that doesn’t need a direct object to complete its meaning, as the verb “sleep” in the sentence “She
sleeps soundly.” In contrast, the transitive verb does need a direct object to complete its meaning, as the verb “catch” in the sentence “She
catches the ball.” (See what happens when the direct object, “the ball,” is dropped—“She
catches)
Right now I can’t figure out how you and your sister got your signals crossed about the bare infinitive and the intransitive verb as well as conflated them with what your sister calls the “zero-complement verb,” a term that I must admit is entirely new and alien to me (I suspect she meant to say "zero-infinitive" instead, a term that some grammarians indeed use). So I thought I should check around a little bit and guess what I found? There’s an English teacher by the name of Dr. Ed Vavra in the Pennsylvania College of Technology in the United States who has developed what he calls “The KISS Approach to Sentence Structure.” This approach considers the term “complement” as simply one word that can be used instead of repeating these four possibilities in sentence structure: Zero Complement, Predicate Adjective, Predicate Noun, Direct and/or Indirect Object. (At this point, I must admit, the whole thing still seems like mumbo jumbo to me.)
Dr. Vavra claims to have developed a unique perspective on the teaching of English grammar, one that he says can help students with major problems writing essays because they have major problems with grammar, especially sentence structure. I’d like to see how his system works and to find out if, in fact, that system holds the key to the confusion you and your sister have encountered about the bare infinitive.
In fairness to Dr. Vavra and to both of you, I’m withholding my judgment about the matter until I’ve adequately figured out what
Dr. Ed Vavra’s “KISS Approach to Sentence Structure” is all about. (If you wish, you may check out his website directly.)
Bye for now, Michelle!
P.S. The next time around, do post your grammar questions directly in the appropriate discussion board of
Jose Carillo’s English Forum. That way we will have more latitude and flexibility in dealing with the subject—maybe use illustrations, diagrams, and the like—and get more Forum members to contribute and learn in the discussions.
