What is the role of "to "here

cried like anything to see such quantities of sand

Obviously "to" here is explaining why someone cried like anything but why "to" can be used for that?

It is hard even to ask the question but what is the exact meaning of "to" here and in what sort of sentences can I find "to" used in the same fashion?

I can see these patterns
To get in time He ran ==>explaining purpose / goal or resultant sate he may get to by doing
went to Paris ===> explaining the direction someone went

but for me:
cried like anything to see such quantities of sand===> ????

If someone is kind enough to answer this question, I will be so grateful

it's more like "because of" in this case. The sentence is kind of strange so here's a clearer example with the same use of 'to':

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
I'm sorry to hear that your mom is sick.
I'm so happy to see you!

"Like anything" (rare enough alone) followed by "to" is nearly always the "In order to" meaning.


They wept like anything to see. Such quantities of sand: ?

This probably isn't a revision of the punctuation of Lewis Carroll is it?

The Walrus and The Carpenter


"Like anything" intensifies the verb and is in various dictionaries as an idiom.

This entry is from The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms:

"like anything
Extremely, vigorously, as in She cried like anything when the dog died. This idiom probably substitutes anything for a swear word."
_______
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1997.


Under "anything" in the American Heritage Dictionary:

"like anything
1. To an exceeding degree: We worked like anything to meet the deadline."
_______
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004

Elizabeth said:

"Like anything" (rare enough alone) followed by "to" is nearly always the "In order to" meaning.
They wept like anything to see. Such quantities of sand: ?
This probably isn't a revision of the punctuation of Lewis Carroll is it?

"Like anything" intensifies the verb and is in various dictionaries as an idiom.
This entry is from The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms:
"like anything
Extremely, vigorously, as in She cried like anything when the dog died. This idiom probably substitutes anything for a swear word."
_______
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1997.
Under "anything" in the American Heritage Dictionary:
"like anything
1. To an exceeding degree: We worked like anything to meet the deadline."
_______
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004

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Yes you are right Elizabeth, I meant "wept like anything" not "cried like anything".
My apologies for writing it wrong.

And I'm really thanksfull for your help:
"Like anything" (rare enough alone) followed by "to" is nearly always the "In order to" meaning.
It does make sense.

Also thank you nice gaijin, I do see the pattern now(Because I just memorised those and never though back in the time I leant them, I just could not see):
I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
I'm sorry to hear that your mom is sick.
I'm so happy to see you!

And I realised that even dictionaries actually have it:
expressing a cause

I do not really know but, because this use of "to" look pretty different from other uses of, maybe "to" ended up in absorbing a role of other words or an expression was truncated as the ancestral language evolved into English maybe.

Anyone might have an idea on the history of this usage?

GreenCat said:

Yes you are right Elizabeth, I meant "wept like anything" not "cried like anything".
My apologies for writing it wrong.

And I'm really thanksfull for your help:
"Like anything" (rare enough alone) followed by "to" is nearly always the "In order to" meaning.
It does make sense.

Also thank you nice gaijin, I do see the pattern now(Because I just memorised those and never though back in the time I leant them, I just could not see):
I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
I'm sorry to hear that your mom is sick.
I'm so happy to see you!

And I realised that even dictionaries actually have it:
expressing a cause

I do not really know but, because this use of "to" look pretty different from other uses of, maybe "to" ended up in absorbing a role of other words or an expression was truncated as the ancestral language evolved into English maybe.

Anyone might have an idea on the history of this usage?

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These are "to" before the verb to indicate an infinitive. There is no framework to classify them really, there are simply gobs and gobs of independent classes or uses, kind of like weeds, small words as this have gotten attached to and grown up around.

Elizabeth said:

These are "to" before the verb to indicate an infinitive. There is no framework to classify them really, there are simply gobs and gobs of independent classes or uses, kind of like weeds, small words as this have gotten attached to and grown up around.

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Thank you, I will learn one by one then

"Cried like anything."

God I hate Carroll.

"In order to" makes sense for most sentences with this phrase, but I don't think it applies here. "Wept like anything to see such quantities of sand" sounds to me like an older way of saying, depending on the circumstances (since I'm not sure of the context here), either "wept at the sight of such quantities of sand" or "wept at the thought of seeing such quantities of sand."

This kind of phrase isn't something that sounds natural today. Since it's Carroll, I doubt it sounded very natural then, but very pretentious. I'll bet they loved it.

akaitsume1 said:

"In order to" makes sense for most sentences with this phrase, but I don't think it applies here. "Wept like anything to see such quantities of sand" sounds to me like an older way of saying, depending on the circumstances (since I'm not sure of the context here), either "wept at the sight of such quantities of sand" or "wept at the thought of seeing such quantities of sand."

This kind of phrase isn't something that sounds natural today. Since it's Carroll, I doubt it sounded very natural then, but very pretentious. I'll bet they loved it.

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Um, other people explained it to me earlier but thank you.

And this is definitely a new piece of information:
>Since it's Carroll, I doubt it sounded very natural then, but very pretentious.

GreenCat said:

I cried like anything to see such quantities of sand

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GreenCat,
(in this post, I am marking subjects with green, conjugated verbs with red, and un-conjugated verbs with blue)

In english, you get something like this when more than one verb is used in a single clause.
The first verb in this sentence is cried. This verb is conjugated to agree with the subject (which am assuing to be the First person singular "I") For example: "I cried."

The second verb is to see. This verb is un-conjugated and does not agree with any subject. It still takes the same meaning, but both words make up the verb. For example: I want nothing more than to see the ocean.

I hope that this helps and if there is anything more that I can do to make this more clear, please let me know and I will try my best

Casey4825 said:

GreenCat,
(in this post, I am marking subjects with green, conjugated verbs with red, and un-conjugated verbs with blue)
In english, you get something like this when more than one verb is used in a single clause.
The first verb in this sentence is cried. This verb is conjugated to agree with the subject (which am assuing to be the First person singular "I") For example: "I cried."
The second verb is to see. This verb is un-conjugated and does not agree with any subject. It still takes the same meaning, but both words make up the verb. For example: I want nothing more than to see the ocean.
I hope that this helps and if there is anything more that I can do to make this more clear, please let me know and I will try my best

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Um, I am rather baffled but thank you for posting.
Other people kind of answered my question but grammar is something else I should be thinking of indeed.

"I wept like anything to see such quantities of sand."
"I wept to see such quantities of sand"
"I wept because of seeing such quantities of sand"
"I wept because I saw such quantities of sand"

I guess you pointed out that "wept to see" or "wept like anything to see" forms a verbal phrase.
It explains the grammar beautifully well but not very helpful sometimes, because non natives won't figure out a lot from barely that.

So I searched the web and I found this site; http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/complex-sentences.htm

Infinitive phrases consist of an infinitive (to dance, to fly, to circumnavigate, etc.) plus an object. They are usually used as nouns, but they can also be used as adjectives or as adverbs.

As noun (subject): To see him suffer is my dearest wish.

As noun (object): Cordelia longed to eat the last tamale.

As adjective: Franklin had brought nothing to give his mother-in-law.

As adverb: To satisfy this mysterious craving, she was willing to try almost anything.

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Maybe "to see such quantities of sand" can be more easily understood as adverbial infinitive phrase used to express a cause: which is how the other people explained it to me too, I think.

"To see such quantities of sand, he wept like anything", does this still make sense?

But honestly I cannot blame ESOL(English for speakers of other languages) teachers out there for not groining into the details of English grammar. Grammatical understanding of the language is absolutely necessary but it is not a lot of work and what is considered as standard and correct grammatical interpretation does not necessarily help much for teaching or learning.

As you pointed, grammar is very important though, without good understanding of English grammar, we just cannot tell if we are typing or talking some nonsense.

So, thank you for posting Casey4825.
I was ignoring something that I should not have

It helps the sentence make sense, its just one of those things i guess. It's sort of similar to how when some words are said there are silent letter, why wouldn't you just leave them out?

why wouldn't you just leave them out?

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with "to"
cried like anything to see such quantities of sand


without "to"
cried like anything see such quantities of sand


Let's make it a complete sentence and it may make more sense.
It could be...


I cried like anything to see such quantities of sand.


We cried like anything to see such quantities of sand.


"I" or "we" could be replaced by he, she, they, or a person's name.


"To" refers to "see" here. When the word "see" is changed to the past tense to match the tense of "cried", it makes more sense.


I cried like anything when I saw such quantities of sand.


or...


I cried like anything after seeing such quantities of sand.


So "to see" helps to refer that it was a past event, especially when combined with the past tense word, "cried".


Here's another example...


past tense
I went to see the grand canyon.
Here, "to see" is combined with the past tense word "went".


future tense
I am going to see the grand canyon.
Here, "to see" is combined with the future tense phrase "am going".


It comes down to the basic meaning of "to see" - to view or observe.


On its own, "see" can have a slightly different meaning.
See, I told you the bird would fly away if startled.


There, it's as if saying, "Wasn't it so?" or, "Wasn't I correct?"


So "to see" sets the meaning as viewing, or having viewed something if in past tense.


Without "to", the sentence could be misunderstood as...


I cried like anything. See, such quantities of sand....
Which may leave a person with the impression of an incomplete sentence that may be completed as...
I cried like anything. See, such quantities of sand do exist.


Hope that wasn't too confusing and that I explained it okay. Anyway, if "to" is left out, it makes it incomplete in a way.

Indiana Gardener said:

with "to"
cried like anything to see such quantities of sand
without "to"
cried like anything see such quantities of sand
Let's make it a complete sentence and it may make more sense.
It could be...
I cried like anything to see such quantities of sand.
We cried like anything to see such quantities of sand.
"I" or "we" could be replaced by he, she, they, or a person's name.
"To" refers to "see" here. When the word "see" is changed to the past tense to match the tense of "cried", it makes more sense.
I cried like anything when I saw such quantities of sand.
or...
I cried like anything after seeing such quantities of sand.
So "to see" helps to refer that it was a past event, especially when combined with the past tense word, "cried".
Here's another example...
past tense
I went to see the grand canyon.
Here, "to see" is combined with the past tense word "went".
future tense
I am going to see the grand canyon.
Here, "to see" is combined with the future tense phrase "am going".
It comes down to the basic meaning of "to see" - to view or observe.
On its own, "see" can have a slightly different meaning.
See, I told you the bird would fly away if startled.
There, it's as if saying, "Wasn't it so?" or, "Wasn't I correct?"
So "to see" sets the meaning as viewing, or having viewed something if in past tense.
Without "to", the sentence could be misunderstood as...
I cried like anything. See, such quantities of sand....
Which may leave a person with the impression of an incomplete sentence that may be completed as...
I cried like anything. See, such quantities of sand do exist.
Hope that wasn't too confusing and that I explained it okay. Anyway, if "to" is left out, it makes it incomplete in a way.

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Thank you, Indiana Gardener.

So "to see" helps to refer that it was a past event, especially when combined with the past tense word, "cried".

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It is a simple but a good explanation. You should write an English text book.

But um, anyway, my question has been fully answered, so maybe not any more needed.
Thank you for posting though.

The phrase "weep to hear" meaning "weep upon hearing" occurs in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus:

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale,
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.

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