- •Modern english grammar
- •Vyšča skola publishers kiev — 1976
- •Наталия николаевна раевская
- •Предисловие
- •Передмова
- •Foreword
- •Table of contents
- •Introduction
- •Part I. Morphology
- •Part II. Syntax
- •Introduction
- •Early prescriptive grammar
- •Prepositions:
- •Interrogators:
- •Problems of field structure
- •Functional re-evaluation of grammatical forms in context potential polysemy in grammar
- •Grammatical doublets
- •Part I. Morphology c hapter I the subject matter of morphology
- •Chapter II parts of speech problem of classification
- •Chapter hi the noun
- •The article
- •Revision Material
- •Chapter IV the adjective
- •Substantivation of adjectives
- •Revision Material
- •Chapter V the verb
- •Modal verbs
- •In the English Voice System
- •Substitutes for Passive
- •Chapter VI english verb-forms and their pattern-value
- •The Present Tense
- •I. Indicative Modality
- •II. Imperative Modality You go and see him.
- •The past tense
- •The past continuous (progressive) tense
- •Chapter VII the pronoun
- •Chapter VIII the adverb
- •Category of state
- •First Form of the Predicate
- •Third Form of the Predicate
- •Fourth Form of the Predicate
- •1 Ask you this question. Fifth Form of the Predicate
- •I like music. I'm fond of music.
- •I regret it. I'm sorry about it.
- •Chapter X the simple sentence the principal parts of the sentence
- •The secondary parts of the sentence
- •The Attribute
- •The Object
- •Verb-phrases with Prepositionless Object
- •Adverbial Adjuncts
- •Infinitival sentences
- •Ellipsis
- •Verbless two-member sentences
- •Substitution and representation
- •Intensity and emphasis in english sentence-structure
- •Idiomatic sentences
- •Constructional homonymity
- •Chapter XI phrase-structure
- •Subordinate phrases
- •Noun-Adjunct Groups
- •Verb-Phrases
- •Copulative verbs
- •Infinitival, Gerundial and Participial Phrases
- •Participial Predicative Phrases
- •Coordinate phrases
- •Syndetic Coordinate Phrases
- •Asyndetic Coordinate Phrases
- •Chapter XII the composite sentence
- •Coordination
- •Subordination
- •Subject and Predicate Clauses
- •Object Clauses
- •Attributive Clauses
- •Clauses of Cause
- •Clauses of Place
- •Temporal Clauses
- •Clauses of Condition
- •Clauses of Manner and Comparison
- •Overlapping relationships and synsemantics in hypotaxis
- •Transpositions and functional re-evaluation of syntactic structures
- •Problems of Implicit Predication
- •Final remarks on subordination
- •Asyndeton
- •Represented speech
- •Nominality in english sentence-structure
- •Grammar and style
- •Index of grammatical points treated
- •1 Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.Franklang.Ru
Infinitival sentences
In terms of grammatical organisation infinitival sentences should reasonably be subdivided into one-member and two-member sentences. The two groups may well be illustrated by the following examples:
To be unwordly and quite good! How new! How exciting!... To be one who lived to make people happy. (Galsworthy)
That fellow to talk of injuries! (Galsworthy)
In two-member sentences the infinitive is preceded by a noun or a nounal phrase.
Infinitival sentences are fairly common in spoken English and literary prose.
Like other units of predicative value, they can communicate not only their denotative meaning but also the connotative suggestions of various circumstances of their use.
The context, linguistic or situational, and intonation in actual speech will always be explicit enough to make the necessary modal meaning clear.
Aubrey Green threw up his hands. "Ah! That white monkey — to have painted that! (Galsworthy)
There are interrogative infinitival sentences, e. g.:
Why waste time? Why not stay here?
A suggestion made in such infinitival sentences may be rejected as impossible (nexus of deprecation).
We surrender? Never!
In terms of style and purpose, infinitival sentences merit attention as synonymically related to sentences with finite verb-forms. Identical in their grammatical content, such synonyms differ in stylistic value, and modal force. Compare the following:
Infinitival sentences |
Sentences with finite verb-forms |
To have brought Fleur down openly — yes! But to sneak her like this! (Galsworthy) |
I could have brought Fleur down openly — yes! But how can I sneak her like this! |
Poor fellow! What a thing to have had hanging over his head all the time. (Dreiser) |
Poor fellow! What a thing had been hanging over his head all the time. |
... Would he have hesitated then? Not a moment! Operate, operate! Make certain of her life! (Galsworthy) |
...They must operate, make certain of her life. |
A host to snatch food from a guest! A host to strike a guest! A gentleman to strike a lady! (Bennett) |
How can a host snatch food from a guest? How can a host strike a guest? How can a gentleman strike a lady? |
211
Such midgets to have made this monstrous pile, lighted it so that it shone in an enormous glittering heap, whose glow blurred the colour of the sky! (Galsworthy) |
How could 'such midgets have made this monstrous pile lighted it so that... Cf. Syn. That such midgets should have made this monstrous pile and lighted it so that...! |
It seemed to him unfair. To have taken that risk — to have been through this agony — and what agony! — for a daughter! (Galsworthy) |
It seemed to him unfair. How could he have taken that risk... |