The Infinitive

Principal Ideas: Verbals include such principal parts of the verbal form series as Infinitive (INF) – to go, to take, Gerund (GER) – going, taking, Participle I (PI) – going, taking, and Participle II (PII) – gone, taken. Verbals have double nature: being verbal in origin and the structure of forms they display mostly non-verbal functions within a sentence or a phrase.

1. Verbals are characterized by verbal origin – they are non-finite forms of the Verb, their form structure is made of verbal affixes added to the stem of the verb (-ed, -en, -ing), they possess grammatical categories common to the verbal class (Aspect, Voice, Time Correlation). These morphological features constitute the verbal nature of the Verbals. Syntactic features of the Verbals – their combinability with words of other classes and functions in the sentence are mostly nominal and adjectival / adverbial, e.g. they are mostly used like Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs.

Examples: fallen/falling leaves (What kind of leaves? – Attributive function, PI and PII are used as Adjectives); a story to tell (What story? – Attributive function, INF is used as an Adjective); He came to say ‘good-bye’ (What (purpose) did he come for? – Adverbial function, INF is used as Adverb); Seeing is believing (The Ing -form seeing is Subject, it is used as a Noun; believing is Predicative (nominal part of the predicate is believing, it is used as an Adjective or Noun). Both Ing -forms are GER); After telling her story the girl started weeping (Both Ing -forms are GER – (after) telling is Adverbial Modifier of time (it is used as an Adverb), weeping is used as a verb – it is part of the compound Verbal Predicate).

2. The main Verbal features of INF, PI, and PII are their ability to be used as components of analytical verbal forms of:

- Continuous Aspect (is reading, are talking),

- Passive Voice (is discussed, were named),

- Perfect forms of Time Correlation (have done, had treated),

- Future Indefinite, Future-in-the-Past (will/would remain, shall/should/would prepare)

- analytical Moods (should explain, would have done).

3. In the series of verbal forms all Non-Finites do not differ lexically from the rest. Grammatically they differ in the morphological categories – the Verbals cannot have Person, Tense, Number and Mood forms.

4. Like finite verbs, the Verbals may have Objects – direct, indirect and prepositional: ‘Gone with the Wind’, to tell youthe truth, picking the phone; they may be modified by Adverbial Modifiers: speaking in front of the audience, to tell immediately, torn apart, and by subordinate clauses: … speaking as if he were the manager, … to describe what we saw.

5. Verbals may participate in the Predicative Complexes (Predicative Constructions with INF, PI, PII) – binary syntactic units based on the predicative relations between a noun (pronoun) and a verbal (relations between the elements are similar to those of Subject-Predicate unit):

I saw Tom take out the gun and shoot (Tom took out the gun and shot. That is what I saw). We heard Linda practicing her violin (Linda was practicing the violin and we heard it). For Greg to behave this way is not possible (Greg cannot behave this way). I had the house decorated last spring (The house was decorated last spring. That was what I wanted/organized).

1. The forms and categories of the Infinitive. The use of ‘to’-Infinitive and the Bare Infinitive. ‘To’ without the Infinitive.

Principal Ideas: INF is the base form of the verb (dictionary entry for all verbal lexemes), thus it shares with the verbal class basic grammatical categories of Voice, Aspect and Time Correlation. In the sentence INF can be found with and without the distinctive particle TO. The particle can be used alone to represent the whole INF phrase. In the case of the so-called ‘split infinitive’ TO and INF can be separated by an inserted adverb.

1.1.1. Grammatical category ofVoice: Active INF usually denotes an action whose performer is the subject (Subj.) of the sentence: I have work to do. Mary wants to become an artist. In some structures the subject of the INF is the Noun/Pronoun closely connected with it: Mother wants me to become an outstanding artist. Passive INF is used with the Subj. that names smb. or smth. undergoing the action of the INF: She ought to be told about it. I didn’t expect to be invited. After here/there + be phrase Pass. or Act. INF forms are used with little difference in meaning: There is a lot of work to do / to be done. Here are the names of people to invite / to be invited.

Note a certain difference in meaning in phrases there is something (anything, nothing) to do and there is something (anything, nothing) to be done: There’s nothing to do (= I’m bored, there’s no entertainment). There’s nothing to be done (=there’s no way of putting things right), e.g. There’s nothing to be done, the tape is spoilt, we’ll have to buy another one. The verb blame is oftenused in the active form of INF but with the passive meaning: Gregory is to blame for the broken window (Somebody will blame Gregory, he will be blamed).

1.1.2. Grammatical category of Aspect: Continuous INF is used for actions taking place at the time referred to in the Sentence: They happened at the moment to be standing near a small house. He seemed to be smoking a lot when he returned from his expedition. Non-Continuous INF doesn’t refer to particular time of the action, thus it is called Indefinite INF: His idea was to bring his new friend to our club meeting.

1.1.3. Grammatical category of Time Correlation: Perfect INF has the same kind of meaning as the Perfect Tenses, when they denote actions completed before other events or before some time: It’s good to have finished the work for the day (=It’s good when you have finished the work… or I’m pleased that I have finished the work…). Perfect INF is often used to talk about imaginary/planned actions, which were not completed (about things that didn’t happen): I meant to have phoned you, but I forgot. Perfect infinitives often follow the verbs seem and appear to speak about the result of observation and inference: We seem to have made a great mistake when we asked him to come. He appears to have missed his train. Perfect Continuous and Perfect Passive Infinitives are possible:

For about ten days we seemed to have been living on nothing but cold meat, cake and bread. Nothing seems to have been forgotten.

2. ‘to -INF’ is used after:

3. Bare INF (without ‘to’) is used:

4. Particle ‘to’ is used alone to represent the whole INF phrase so that to economize on repeating words: Why didn’t you go to their farewell party? – I wasn’t invited to (=to come to the party). Will you join me for dinner? – I’d love to (=to join you). ‘To’ is dropped in subordinate clauses of Complex sentences after the verbs want and like when the clauses are introduced by what, where and other Wh-pronouns: You can do what you want (=what you want to do). You may say what you like, but I don’t believe you (…say what you like to say).

5. Split INF is an INF phrase in which ‘to’ is separated from INF by a modifying element, usually an adverb or please: My task is not to accuse or acquit; my task is to thoroughly investigate, to clearly define and to consistently systematize the facts. Split INF is not used very frequently, as it is stylistically rather strong, and should generally be avoided. There are cases when the split infinitive is the only way to avoid ambiguity: I have tried to consciously stop worrying about it.