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In one of the grammar books I study I found a following example:

In my previous job I was confined to doing only one thing.

I'd say that confined to do is the correct way to say it. I always thought that we can never use to + gerund, or can we? And if so, then what is the rule?

Thank you in advance.

tchrist
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Batal96
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    She was assigned to looking after the children. He was restricted to driving only in daylight. There's no particular principle involving the preposition (not "infinitive marker") *to* in the context of gerunds. You just use that preposition if it's the right one to go with the "main" verb (confined to, assigned to, restricted to). – FumbleFingers Dec 28 '20 at 18:11
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    ...but note that whereas idiomatically you're normally *confined, restricted* or *limited to doing something, you could also be constrained, instructed, ordered to do it*. Rarely if ever the other way around. – FumbleFingers Dec 28 '20 at 18:13
  • The to is not the infinitive marker, but rather a transitivizing preposition governed by the predicate (in this case, be confined), which requires to when it's transitive. This predicate takes a gerund complement following the to, like several other predicates; and unlike still other predicates, which don't govern to when they're transitive. – John Lawler Dec 28 '20 at 20:07

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