Missing Words: for

When you want to explain English grammar to a new-Canadian or a new-American or a child or an adult who didn't get grammar, you may yourself be confused.  One reason is that we leave out those words that would make the relationships clear.

One word that is often missing is the preposition 'for'.  You may hear it in old songs.  My favourite is Springfield Mountain:
•••••On Springfield Mountain there did dwell
•••••A lovely youth; I knew him well.
            (Chorus omitted.)
•••••This lovely youth one day did go
•••••Down to the meadow for to mow.

Let's look at Jack and Jill:

I have written the word 'for' in grey to show that this word is being left out.  It is the preposition that takes 'to fetch', an infinitive, as its object.  'Pail' is object of the verbal 'to fetch' and 'of water' is modifying 'pail'.  You see all of those relationships in the French. too:

In the German version the word 'for' is there.  It's 'um'.  The infinitive 'to get' is given at the end of the prepositional phrase.  This is what Google Translate gave me.  It may be translating word-for-word rather than in idiomatic German.  I give it here to show you that in both French and German, the foundational languages for English, the preposition 'for' is stated, not left out. 

When you are trying to figure out English, it might help you to see how the sentence would be stated in another language.  We may leave 'for' out in very familiar constructions.   Perhaps we are trying to avoid repeating "prepositions" as in the combination "for to", as there is a desire to reduce redundancies.  However, the 'to' in an infinitive is not a preposition as such.  In Latin and French, the infinitive is only one word with a particular suffix: agere, amare, audere, obtenir, aller, chercher.   In German as you can see, the infinitive is usually formed with a preposition such as zu, om, von.  So, in English infinitives, I feel that the 'to' is now more like a title as in 'the go", "the sing", "the fetch" or as might be said in some dialects "t' go", "t' sing", "t' fetch".