Неличные формы глагола (Practical tasks)

To have been interrogated in such a way was a real shock for

him.

The predicate of the subject expressed by an infinitive always takes the form of the 3rd person singular. As to its type, it is usually a compound nominal predicate with the link verb to be, although other link verbs may also occur, as well as a verbal predicate:

e.g. To acquire knowledge and to acquire it unceasingly is the first duty of the artist.

To talk to him bored me.

To write a really good book requires more time than I have.

The Infinitive as Predicative

The infinitive is generally preceded by the particle to in this function and in most cases expresses an action which follows the link-verb to be.

e.g. His greatest wish was to tell her everything. Our plan is to go to the Crimea for the summer.

The use of the infinitive as a predicative has some peculiarities:

1.In sentences with an infinitive subject the predicate infinitive denotes an action that follows, or results from, the action of the subject infinitive:

e.g. To see her was to admire her.

2.The set of nouns that can function as the subject of the sentence with an infinitive predicative is very limited. They are about 50 nouns denoting abstract notions:

e.g. The job of a reporter is to expose and record. The only sensible thing is for you to go away.

11

A predicative infinitive phrase may be introduced by the conjunctive adverbs and pronouns how, when, where, what, whom, the choice depending on the lexical meaning of the noun:

e.g. Now the question was what to tell him. The problem was how to begin.

3. The function of the subject may be also performed by the pronoun all or the substantivized superlatives the most and the least with an attributive clause attached to them:

e.g. All I want to do is to help you.

The least we can do is to try and understand their idea.

The most he could do at the moment was to give me a cigarette. In such cases the predicative infinitive can lose its marker to:

e.g. All I wanted to do was run away.

All we can do is stick to our decision.

The Infinitive as Predicate

The infinitive is used in predicates of several types, both nominal and verbal.

The Infinitive as Simple Nominal Predicate

The use of the infinitive as simple nominal predicate is restricted to the following sentence patterns:

1. Interrogative (affirmative and negative) sentences beginning with why and implying a suggestion. We always find an infinitive without the particle to here.

In interrogative-affirmative sentences the implication is that there is no need to perform the action:

e.g. Why lose your temper over a little thing like that? Why waste your time on this kind of work?

In interrogative-negative sentences the implication is that there is nothing to prevent one from performing the action:

e.g. Why not go there right away?

Why not apologize if you know you’re wrong?

The subject of the infinitive in this kind of sentences is always the person engaged in the conversation.

2. Exclamatory sentences showing that the person denoted by the subject is unlikely to perform the action of the infinitive – the speaker

12

rejects the idea as impossible. The infinitive may be used with or

without the particle to:

e.g. You – a-man-of-the-world – to suggest this! You know it’s impossible.

Me – marry him! Never!

The Infinitive as Part of a Compound Verbal Predicate

The infinitive is used in compound verbal predicates of three types.

1. In a compound verbal modal predicate after modal verbs can, may, might, ought, must, shall, should, will, would, need, dare, to be, to have, and expressions with modal meaning had better, would rather:

e.g. He can speak English. It may rain tonight.

He must know her address.

2. In a compound verbal phasal predicate after verbs denoting various stages of the action, such as its beginning, continuation, or end.

These verbs (to begin, to come, to start, to continue, to go on, to cease, etc.) followed by a “to”-infinitive form a compound verbal phasal

predicate:

e.g. Now I begin to understand you. They continued to whisper.

3. The compound verbal predicate of double orientation has no analogy in Russian. It consists of two parts. The first part is a finite verb which denotes the attitude to, evaluation of, or comment on, the content of the sentence expressed by the speaker or somebody not mentioned in the sentence. The second part denotes the action which is (was / will be)

performed by the person / non-person expressed by the subject:

e.g. The Gadfly seemed to have taken a dislike to her. → It seemed

(to the people) that the Gadfly had taken a dislike to her.

He is said to be looking for a new job. → They say that he is looking for a new job.

In this case we see different orientation of the actions which are regarded from two points of view: that of the speaker and that of the person (or non-person) expressed by the subject.

The three subtypes of the compound verbal predicate can be distinguished according to the expression of the first part:

1) The first part is expressed by one of the following intransitive verbs in the active voice: to seem – казаться; to appear – оказаться,

13

казаться; to prove, to turn out – оказаться; to happen, to chance –

случаться. After the verbs to prove and to turn out the infinitive is mostly nominal, that is presented by to be + noun or adjective. After the verbs to seem, to appear, to happen all types and forms of the infinitive

are possible:

e.g. I’m quite aware how improbable that sounds but it happens to be the truth.

He seemed to know all about it.

These verbs may be followed by different analytical forms of the infinitive with the particle to:

e.g. He seemed to have gained all he wanted. For a moment she appeared to be hesitating.

Sentences with compound verbal predicates of double orientation are translated into Russian in different ways depending on the meaning

2) The first part of the predicate is expressed by the passive voice forms of certain transitive verbs. They are:

a) verbs of saying: to announce, to declare, to report, to say, to state,

b) verbs of mental activity: to believe, to consider, to expect, to find, to know, to mean, to presume, to regard, to suppose, to think, to

d) the verb to make:

14

He was made to keep silent. Его заставили молчать.

3) The first part is expressed by the phrases: to be likely, to be unlikely, to be sure, to be certain. In this case only the non-perfect forms of the infinitive are used, with future reference:

e.g. She is likely to be late.

He is sure to become your friend.

In all these three subtypes the “to”-infinitive is always used.

The Infinitive as Object

The infinitive can have the function of object after verbs, adjectives, and adjectivized participles.

After verbs the infinitive may be either the only object of a verb or one of two objects.

1) Verbs that take only one object are:

e.g. They had arranged to visit the laboratory the next day. She claims to have read his diary.

I pretended not to be listening.

Among these verbs two groups can be distinguished:

a)the verbs to claim, to fail, to forget, to hate, to like, to omit, to regret, to remember, to swear, with which the Perfect infinitive denotes actions prior to those of the finite verbs:

e.g. I regret to have said it to her.

I remembered to have met him once.

b)the verbs to attempt, to expect, to hope, to intend, to mean, to plan, to try, when followed by the Perfect infinitive imply that the action of the infinitive was not fulfilled. In this case the finite verb can be used only in the past tense:

15

e.g. I hoped to have found him at home.

He intended to have reached the coast long before.

In addition to the verbs mentioned above, the infinitive as an object

is used after the modal phrases can afford and can bear in their negative and interrogative forms and also after the set phrases to make up one’s

mind, to take care, to take the trouble, to make sure, and some others:

e.g. Can you afford to go on such an expensive trip?

I couldn’t bear to damage him.

The next day he made up his mind to buy a copy of the newspaper.

With all the verbs mentioned above the infinitive is used with the particle to. The only exception is the verb to help which may be followed by an infinitive with or without to:

e.g. Helen will help to make tea.

I’m sure you will help talk her out of it.

2) Verbs that take two objects, the first of which is a noun or a pronoun and the second an infinitive. These are the verbs of inducement; they all have the general meaning to persuade, to cause to

With all these verbs, except to have, to let and to make, a “to”-

infinitive is used. After the verbs to have, to let and to make it loses the particle “to”:

e.g. Tell him to hurry.

Don’t let it bother you.

He asked her to keep an eye on the clock.

The infinitive may also be used as an object of an adjective. It is used after various kinds of adjectives: adjectives proper, predicative adjectives and adjectivized participles. The most commonly occurring of

e.g. He’s still very anxious to see you. I am curious to know the news. He would be crazy not to do so.

I am sorry to have done you harm. Dinner was ready to be served.

The infinitive is always preceded by the particle to in this function.

The Infinitive as Attribute

The English infinitive functioning as an attribute is far more frequent than the Russian infinitive. This happens because in Russian the infinitive attribute can combine with abstract nouns only, while in English it is used with a much wider range of words. In this function the infinitive always denotes a not yet fulfilled action, which is regarded as desirable, possible, advisable, necessary, etc. The modal meaning of the infinitive attribute is generally rendered in Russian by modal verbs or expressions.

The infinitive attribute can modify: 1) nouns, both abstract and concrete: e.g. You are just the man to do it.

He gave her permission to leave.

He was touched by the man’s desire to help him.

2) indefinite, negative and universal pronouns in –body, -thing, -one

(one):

e.g. “Have you got anything to eat?” Katherine asked.

The sergeant said they had nothing to do there.

17

It’s been wonderful having someone to help.

3)substantivized ordinal numerals (especially first), substantivized adjectives (next and last):

e.g. He was always the first to enter the dining-room and the last to leave.

Andrew was the third to be interviewed.

4)substantivized quantitative adjectives much, little, (no) more,

(no) less, little more, enough, a great deal, a lot, plenty: e.g. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

You’ve got so much to learn.

5) the noun-substitute one:

e.g. He wasn’t an easy one to make friends with.

As can be seen in the above examples, the most common form of the infinitive functioning as an attribute is the non-perfect common

aspect active voice form and non-perfect common aspect passive form.

When performing the function of an attribute a “to”-infinitive is always used.

The Infinitive as Adverbial Modifier

The infinitive can be used as an adverbial modifier of: purpose, subsequent events, consequence (result), attendant circumstances,

comparison, condition, exception, time, cause, or motivation. In all these functions but that of the adverbial modifier of exception, a “to”–

infinitive is used.

1. The adverbial modifier of purpose. In this function the action denoted by the infinitive is always a hypothetical one following the action denoted by the predicate. As such it can be expressed only by non-perfect common aspect forms of the infinitive (both active and passive).

The number of verbs followed by an infinitive of purpose is not restricted. They all express actions deliberately carried out with a definite aim in view. In other words, these actions are aimed at the realization of the action denoted by the infinitive:

e.g. I did my best to stop her.

I dressed and went out to buy the morning paper.

The infinitive of purpose may be preceded by the modifiers in order, so as or by limiting particle (just, only, merely, etc.) which emphasize the idea of purpose:

18

e.g. I was silent for a moment in order to give greater force to my next remark.

She hurried so as not to give him time for reflexion. They were waiting in there just to see him.

He told his joke merely to gain time.

The infinitive of purpose generally follows the predicate verb. But if special stress is laid on the infinitive of purpose, it may be placed at the head of the sentence. However, it is not often found in this position:

e.g. To relieve my feelings I wrote a letter to Robert.

2. The adverbial modifier of subsequent events. In this function the infinitive denotes an action that follows the one denoted by the predicate. The position of this adverbial in the sentence is fixed – it always follows the predicate. The only forms of the infinitive occurring in this function are those of the non-perfect common aspect, usually

active:

e.g. He arrived at three o’clock to hear that Fleur had gone out with the car at ten. (He arrived and heard …)

In this function the infinitive may be preceded by the particles only, merely, simply, which change the meaning of the whole sentence: the action denoted by the infinitive preceded by these particles makes the action denoted by the predicate pointless or irrelevant:

e.g. He hurried to the house only to find it empty. (He hurried and found …)

3. As an adverbial modifier of consequence (result) the infinitive depends on a) adjectives and adverbs modified by too; b) adjectives, adverbs and nouns modified by enough; c) adjectives modified by so, and nouns modified by such. In the last two cases the infinitive is introduced by as:

e.g. a) It is too cold to bathe today.

b)I don’t know him well enough to ask him for help.

c)She was so kind as to accept my proposal.

In all these cases the infinitive denotes an action, which would become or became possible (enough, so, such) or impossible (too) due to the degree of quality or quantity expressed in the words it refers to.

The position of the infinitive is fixed, it always follows the words it modifies. The form of the infinitive is non-perfect, common aspect, usually active.

19

4.The infinitive used as an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances shows what other actions take place at the same time as the action of the predicate:

e.g. He left the house never to come back.

In this function the infinitive always follows the predicate verb it modifies. As to its form, it is a non-perfect, common aspect, active voice form.

5.The infinitive used as an adverbial modifier of comparison refers to predicate groups including adjectives or adverbs in the comparative degree. The infinitive itself is introduced by than. In this function the infinitive is generally used with the particle to, though sometimes it may be found without it:

e.g. I should have known better than to expect to find it.

She seemed more anxious to listen to the troubles of others than

to discuss her own.

Damn it, I’ve got more important things to do than look at the

sea.

6. The infinitive may serve as an adverbial modifier of condition. In this case it expresses a condition under which the action of the predicate verb can be realized. The predicate verb is, as a rule, used in the form of the Conditional Mood. The only possible form of the infinitive is the non-perfect, common aspect, active voice form:

e.g. To hear him talk, you would think he was a celebrity. (If you heard …, you would think …)

“He is a popular singer,” Monica said. “You wouldn’t believe it, to look at him,” remarked Teddy. (You wouldn’t believe …, if you looked …)

7. The infinitive used as an adverbial modifier of exception denotes the only possible action that can be performed under the circumstances. The infinitive is generally used without the particle to

and is introduced by the prepositions but and except. It is found in negative and interrogative sentences (after nothing could be done…, he could do nothing…, what could he do…, he could not help… and the

like):

e.g. What could he do but smile?

There was nothing to do but escape.

We care for each other and there is nothing to be done about it, except tell you the truth.

20