Date:  Thu, 3 Apr 1997 13:37:38 -0500
From:  Mark Mandel <Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM>
Subject: "for to"

I recall a song I learned from a Weavers record in the fifties, sounding like
white US folk-song tradition of (at a guess) not earlier than 1850 at
earliest, and maybe any time since then. Every verse ended with "I come
for to sing", which was also the title. One verse ran:

    Some folks enjoy me, others do not.
    Some love to EX-tol on what I ain't got.
    Me, I don't mind, it don't mean a thing.
    But as for me, I come for to sing.

Of course, songs in this tradition constantly borrow from each other, so
the construction might have been archaic in the *speech* of the author.

    Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
  Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
      Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/