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6.8 The Infinitive as Adverbial Modifier of Time

a)His father lived to be ninety. (= lived till he was…)

b)Go away! I shudder to see you here. (I shudder when I see…)

NOTE:

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

6.9 The Infinitive as Adverbial Modifier of Motivation

The Infinitive as an adverbial modifier of motivation refers to a compound nominal predicate with the predicative expressed by an adjective, a noun or a prepositional phrase, denoting some kind of assessment of someone’s intellectual faculties, morals or other qualities. The infinitive denotes an action, which serves as a motivation on which this, or that assessment is based. The assessment itself is a temporary one:

What an idiot I was not to have thought of it before.

She had been silly to come here.

NOTE:

The Infinitive as an Adverbial Modifier of Motivation is characteristic of colloquial style.

7. The Infinitive as Parenthesis

The infinitive used as parenthesis is usually part of a collocation: to begin with, to be (quite) frank, to be sure, to make matters worse, to put it mildly, to say the least, to tell the truth, needless to say, strange to say, so to speak.

These infinitive phrases can be placed at the beginning or sometimes at the end of a sentence: To be perfectly frank, you’re a bad driver. To be honest, I just don’t like him. To tell the truth, I’ve never met him. I’ve never met him, to tell the truth.

Exercise 19. Define the function of the infinitive:

1.To begin with, you have been lying to me all the time. 2.I think you should know better than to come at such a moment. 3.She is old enough to travel by herself. 4.To give is more blessed than to receive. 5.I awoke a little after sunrise to find Evan gone. 6.He was tall enough to see over the heads of the other people. 7.I’m going to send you to buy some stamps. 8.He took a bus so as not to be late. 9.She smiled as if to reassure him. 10.To be quite frank, I don’t like him at all. 11.He was, strange to say, just an ordinary little chap. 12.We must whisper in order not to wake the children. 13.We’ll sit nearer the front so as to hear better. 14.I went to the travel agency to get some information. 15.Davy took a year out to see the world and broaden his experience of life. 16.He is tall enough to be a policeman. 17.The case was too heavy to carry. 18.As a businessman he was too shrewd to accept the first offer. 19.He ran his hand through his hair as if to tidy it. 20.She moved her hand as if to stop him. 21.To be fair (to him), he wasn’t entirely to blame. 22.To cut a long story short, we said: “No.” 23.I’ve nothing to do but talk, talk. 24.The drunken man awoke to find himself in prison. 25.It’s educative to read. 26.She was the first to speak. 27.To hide the tears she turned away and went homewards. 28.Our intention is to help you. 29.But we’ll have to wait a while.

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