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SUBJECTIVE INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION (SIC)

In the SIC the infinitive is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case. The construction, that is the infinitive and the nominal element together, performs the function of complex subject. An alternative interpretation is also possible. It is that the nominal part of the construction is the subject of the sentence and the infinitive is part of a compound verbal predicate:

• He is likely to come soon.

The SIC is very often used with passive verbs. These verbs include:

a) verbs of the senses: hear, see, observe:

• The babywas often heard tocry.

• She was seen to tremble.Note: When verbs of the senses are used in the SIC they are followed

by the full infinitive.

b) verbs expressing opinion and judgement: allege, assume,
believe, claim, consider, deem
(formal), discover, estimate,
expect, feel, find, hold, know, predict, prove
(= 'demonstrate'),
reckon, report, rumour, say, see (= 'consider'), think,
understand.

As it has been already said, the SIC is more common with these verbs than the OIC and the number of verbs really used is greater. The full infinitive that follows the verbs is usually to be, to have, a continuous or a perfect infinitive:

• The house is believed tobe haunted.

• The Secretary was alleged to be a memberof a secret society.

• This was deemed to detract from the dignity of the republic.

• It was estimated tocost 1.000 pounds.

• He was rumoured tobe writing anew book.
•Hewas understood to have left for Canada.

The SIC is also used with the following active verbs:

to seem to appear (= 'to seem') to turn out to prove (= 'to turn out') to happen to chance (= 'to happen')

She seemed to believe me.

He appeared to have beendeceived.

It turned out tobe avery nice party.

It has proved tobe quite useless.

She happened to be near at themoment.

I chanced to notice her.

Finally, the SIC is used with expressions be (un)likely, be sure, be certain:

• She was likely to forget it quite soon.

• The dispute is unlikely to be settled for a long time.

• The growth in demand is certain to drive up the price.

THE FOR-TO-INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION

In the for-to-infinitive construction the infinitive is in predicate relation to a noun or a pronoun preceded by the preposition for:

• Iwaited for them to say something.

The for-to-infinitive construction can have various functions in a sentence:

Subject: It was impossible for him to go there.

Predicative:That is for you to decide.

Complex object:They called for action to be takenagainst the terrorists.

Attribute: It was a nice example for youto follow.

Adverbial modifier:

Of purpose:She put the money on the table for me to see it.

of result:She spoke too fast for me to follow.


Μθνχενκξβ ΐ. Γ.
Verbals


 

 

FUNCTIONS OF THE INFINITIVE

SUBJECT

If we want to focus on the information expressed by the infinitive we can use it as the subject of a sentence:



• To speakto him about itwas something none of them would risk doing.

However, this use is considered to be formal in modern English. More common are structures in which the infinitive as the subject is introduced by It. It happens when:

a) nouns and adjectives are used predicatively and express one's opinion, recommendation or necessity.

The adjectives used are:

advisable careless (of smb) characteristic (of smb) convenient curious dangerous decent (of smb) desirable difficult easy fair foolish (of smb) funny hard interesting important impossible kind/nice (of smb) natural (of smb) necessary pleasant possible reasonable right safe surprising stupid (of smb) typical (of smb) useful useless wrong worthwhile, etc.

• It would be curious to know the results.

• It was decent of her to drive me home.


The nouns used are semantically connected with the adjectives and include, for example, mistake, crime, offence, a good idea, pity, etc.

• It is an offence to drop litter in the street.

• It would be a pity to miss such an opportunity.

• It would be worthwhile to start an investigation.

Sometimes a perfect infinitive is used here:

• It was stupid of you not to have accepted the offer.

• It was clever of him to have behaved like this.

b) we want to say what effect an experience has on somebody.
The verbs used here include: amaze, amuse, annoy, appal,
astonish, bewilder, bother, delight, disgust, distress, grieve,
horrify, interest, please, shock, surprise, upset, worry:

• It pleased him to think of his beloved.

• It shocked me to realize that.

c) we want to say what is necessary for a particular action or
activity:

• It took me an hour to get there.

• It will take years to repair it.

• It will cost millions to implement it.

PREDICATIVE

The infinitive can come after the link verb be:

• His only dream was to buy a car.

Very often the subject in this kind of sentence is an abstract noun and the infinitive serves to disclose its meaning. Sometimes the infinitive can be preceded by wh-words like where, who, what, etc:

• The difficulty was where to cross the river.

Occasionally the verb mean is used instead of be:

 

• To act like that meant to destroy our friendship.


 




Μθνχενκξβ ΐ. Γ.
Verbals


The infinitive can also be used as part of a predicative. In this case it modifies an adjective the meaning of which is not complete without the infinitive:

Granny was always hard to please.

Notes:

1) If the verb in the infinitive form requires a preposition, the latter cannot be omitted and goes after the verb:

• The bridge is dangerous to walk over.

The subject is never repeated after the preposition. It would be incorrect to say, for example, *The bridge is dangerous to walk over it.

2) In modern English we can find structures like:

• He is a brave man to do that.

• The boy is very sophisticated to know that.

• He will be crazy to go there.

In these examples the function of the infinitive is not very clear. From the point of view of structural similarity, we should treat them in the same way as the examples above. However, they are different semantically. The infinitive phrase gives the speaker's reason for the judgement given at the beginning of the sentence. From this point of view the function may be defined as the adverbial modifier of reason. This problem is open to discussion.

3.3. PART OF A COMPOUND VERBAL MODAL PREDICATE

The infinitive in this function comes after a modal verb:

• Ican swim.

• She may knowit.

3.4. PART OF A COMPOUND VERBAL ASPECT PREDICATE

The infinitive is used in this function after verbs denoting the beginning, continuation or cessation of an action. The verbs include: begin, start, cease, continue:

• It began to rain.

For more details about these verbs see the Gerund section.

 

18
3.5. OBJECT

The infinitive is very often used in this function. We find it:

1) used directly after verbs;

2) with an object between the infinitive and the verb;

3) used after predicative adjectives;

4) preceded by a wh-word;

5) introduced by it.

1) Verbs followed directly by the infinitive:

afford agree aim arrange ask attempt beg care choose(=decide) claim consent dare decide demand deseve desire expect fail fight forget grow help hesitate hope intend learn live long manage mean need neglect offer opt plan pledge prepare pretend promise refuse resolve scorn (=refuse) seek struggle survive (=live) swear tend threaten venture volunteer vow wait want wish

He asked to come with us.

• Do not hesitate to ask questionsif you have any

• He chose to pay no attentionto what she said.

• This never failed to infuriate her.

• He opted to support the movement.

• I tend to go to bedrather late.




Μθνχενκξβ ΐ. Γ.

Most of these verbs can be used with the passive infinitive:

• She refused to be deceived.

• He deserves to be promoted.

The verbs claim, pretend, tend are quite often used with the perfect infinitive:

 

• He claimed to have been there.

• He pretended to have heardnothing.

2) Verbs followed by an object + the infinitive:

 

advise defy help pay teach
allow enable inspire permit tell
ask encourage instruct persuade train
beg expect invite press trust
cause forbid lead prompt urge
challenge force leave recommend use
compel get order remind warn

 

•I encouraged her to tell the truth.

•She challenged me to race her to the corner.

• I defy anyone to say that I am wrong.

• It has led me to change my attitude.

• They paid him to be silent.

• She reminded me to lock the door.

• It prompted me to visit the doctor.

• I trust them to solve the problem.

 

20
Verba Notes:

a) As is clear from (1), the verbs ask, beg, expect and help can also be followed directly by a full infinitive:

• He begged (us) to be allowed to stay.

b) Special attention should be paid to the verbs allow and permit. Structures like *It allows to make the following conclusions are incorrect. If there is no notional object, a formal one should be inserted:

• It allows us /oneto make the following conclusions.

c) The verb get is a causative verb, a synonym of the verbs make and have. Unlike the latter, it is used with a full infinitive. Depending on the context get can mean 'persuade', 'ask' or 'tell':

• He got Ann to help them.

• She got the maid to clean the room.

3) The infinitive is widely used as the object of the following predicative adjectives: glad, happy, lucky, surprised, sorry, curious, afraid, reluctant, pleased, etc:

• I am curious to know the news.

• He is afraid to go there.

The perfect infinitive is sometimes used here to emphasize that the event preceded the emotional state:

• I was happy tohave been invited.

• He was lucky to havebeen given the job.

• She was sorry to have missedthe opportunity.

 

 


Μθνχενκξβ ΐ. Γ.


Verbals


Note:With afraid wecan use both the infinitive and the gerund, but the meaning changes. For more details see the Gerund section.

4) We can often use a full infinitive after a wh-word. The verbs used with this structure include:

ask explain know reveal tell

decide forget learn say think

describe guess realize see understand

discover imagine remember teach wonder

discuss

• I do not know how to open the door.

• I can not decide whether togo or not.

• He asked me which bus to take.

5)We can use the verbs consider, think, find, presume, believe,
hold, judge
and make with the pronoun it followed by an
adjective or noun and a full infinitive:

• He thought it his duty to help them.

• I find it hard to believe the story.

• This made it possible to accept the invitation.

• He made it a rule to get up at seven o'clock.

It here is introductory and introduces the real object, which is the infinitive.

6) There are a number of verbs with which we can use either the infinitive or the gerund, but with a change of meaning that can be slight or rather considerable. These verbs include:
a) remember, forget;    
b) like, love, prefer, hate;    
c) dread, regret;    
d) to be afraid;    
e) advise, intend, recommend;    
f) cannot bear;    
g) mean;    
h) try    

i) understand. The verbs will be dealt with in the Gerund section. 22

7) With the verbs come, go and find we can use either the infinitive or participle I depending on what we want to express. Detailed treatment of the difference will be given in the Participle section.

3.6. ATTRIBUTE

The infinitive as an attribute can modify nouns, indefinite and negative pronouns, ordinal numerals and the substantivised adjective last.

• They have set up a programme to relieve the poor.

• She went to buy something to eat.
• They had nowhere to go.

• He was the last to arrive.

• She was the first to help me.

• We did not have the opportunity tobuy it.

Sometimes the infinitive in this function expresses the idea of necessity, possibility or arrangement. In this case the infinitive is quite often passive:

• There were many things to be repaired (= 'which had to be repaired').

• They spoke about the conference to be held in September (= 'which was to be held in September').

• He is a man to rely on (= 'who can be relied on').

Note:The use of the passive infinitive is often optional and the active infinitive can be used instead. Compare, for example:

• There were many things to repair.

3.7. ADVERBIAL MODIFIER


Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1851


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