The infinitive

I. Identify the infinitives and comment on their form:

1. The English critics were supposed to have hailed his performance that night as the greatest Hamlet of the age. 2. Adele was not easy to teach that day. 3. I'm sorry, very sorry to have misled you, but it wasn't Canon Pennyfather that I saw that night. 4. Harder than to give up was to be given up, or to be the cause of someone you loved giving "-up for you. 5. When Blanche quarreled with Strickland she had only to leave him, and her husband was waiting humbly to forgive and forget. 6. But it would be very dull to be mar­ried to Dennis. 7. Although I felt lonely and rejected, I was thankful to be living alone. 8. You have just been telling me how much you liked to be conquered and how pleasant overpersuasion is to you. 9. My nephew, you seem to be dis­playing signs of triviality. 10. Without Vesta, Gerhardt would have found his life hard indeed to bear. 11. Mrs. Barton Trafford had crisp, white hair which she wore like the Venus of Milo, and she was supposed in her youth to have been very comely. 12. To be disliked by Martha Thompson must be nasty and if you happened to be a cook, dangerous as well. 13. To have been reared in luxury as he had been, to have seen only the pleasant side of society, which is so persistent and so deluding where money is concerned, to have been in the run of big affairs not because one has created them, but because one is a part of them and because they are one's birthright, like the air one breathes, could not help but create one of those illusions of solidarity which is apt to befog the clearest brain.

II. Point out the infinitives expressing the actions simultaneous with that of the predicate verb, posterior or anterior to it. Explain what this usage is conditioned by:

А. 1. Не had abandoned the cab because he could not bear to remain seated beside his cousin. 2. He threatened to whack me still worse if I told you. 3. I like to have my rooms left tidy. 4. His eyes wandered, and he had no meaning in its wandering: this gave him an odd look, such as I never re­membered to have seen. 5. I should like to have answered. 6. Gerhardt saw her coming and pretended to be deeply engaged in a newspaper. 7. You always want to argue about things. 8. If Lester had not married her already, she must realize full well that he did not intend to do so. 9. It was Emily's evening out and I expected to find Mary-Ann alone, but as I went along the passage I heard voices and the sound of laughter. 10. "I'm glad to be leaving here," said Miss Marple. 11. Good­bye. So pleased to have met you. 12. She was relieved to find that he did not take the matter too seriously. 13. I don't mind saying I shall be interested to hear. 14 but still more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with smoke. 15. And they tell me I'm lucky to have gotten a room. 16. His lordship was so dumbfounded to find himself presented in such agreeable colours, that he did not know exactly what to say. 17. ... his doctor was surprised to find this noble patient's health growing better.

B. 1. I think I will come to England to improve my Eng­lish. 2. I wonder if she said that in order to please me. 3. I exist to be worried by you. 4. You must know something to have advertised as you did?-5. It sounds too fantastic to be true. 6. That night there was a storm and I woke to hear the rain lashing the window-panes. 7. And how stupid of Miss Springer to have gone off by herself like that without waking up somebody else. 8. How wise her mother had been to nip that friendship in the bud. 9. I went to shut the window and what was my surprise to see a light in the Sports Pavilion. 10. We were a couple of young fools to take such a job. 11. And when he put aside his book and gave her a glance, she was startled to see in his eyes a look of physical distaste. 12. And with these words in his ears, Michael went home, to find his little son sickening for measles. 13. He lived to be ninety. 14.1 wondered to see them receive with calm that look which seemed tome so penetrating. 15. She had been silly to come here.

C. 1. On the tiptoe she went into the room. She mustn't disturb him. He must be very tired after his journey. 2. I am afraid you must be under some misconception. 3. It occurred to me presently that they must think her pretty too. 4. We could talk about him, and you know how into the heat of con­versation things come back. 5. I fear there can be no possible doubt about the matter. 6. If there is a microbe it cannot be measles: it must be parameasles. 7. But how could she possib­ly know about it? 8. You may be in love with Popsy. 9. We might have" & good influence over him.

III. Comment on the modal and temporal semantics of the infinitives in italics:

1. То come to see her would only upset the child and make her unhappy. 2. To say that Soames preferred his house by the river when his wife was not there would be a crude way of expressing a far from simple equation. 3. It would be a good thing perhaps to know a little more about her. 4. But to leave him alone and idle wouldn't help him to stay sane. 5. He lin­gered on, and began to feel that perhaps it would be just as well to let matters rest as they were. 6. ... and to do as you wish me would, I begin to think, be almost equivalent to com­mitting suicide. 7. I don't want to marry an old man, and it would be silly, at my age, to marry a young man. 8. ... it might not be unwise to give her one last chance. 9. To have followed their meal in detail would have given him some in­dication of their states of mind. 10. To have yielded then would have been an error of principle; to have yielded now would have been an error of judgement. 11. It would have been bet­ter, after all, more natural surely to have gone into the sitting-room hand in hand, smiling at one another.... 12. I softened Considerably what related to the three days of wandering and starvation because to have told him all would have been to inflict unnecessary pain... .

IV. Comment on the infinitives given in italics. Say whether they express temporal meanings or those of time correlation. Motivate your answers:

1. "I wonder if that's wise." — 'To leave her would be less so." 2. To arrive before the time would look overeager. 3. To make a call of any distance, or a London call, upset her severely. 4. It won't do to neglect her.... 5. He detailed to Annette everything that was not of importance, for to tell her what was would never do. 6. To have him watched would be pretty revolting. 7. To publish that poem was crazy. 8. Just as in a very old world to find things or people of pure descent is impossible, so with actions. 9. It would be much better to say nothing about it. 10. It will be extremely inconvenient for me to see her. 11. It was disloyal to be hungry at such a time. 12. What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed in the storms of an uncertain struggling life, and to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repined. 13. To have known her is a privilege. 14. To have boasted that she knew a lot might have raised doubts in his mind. 15. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me. 16. "It's so delight­ful to have run into you like this, Mr. de Winter," She said, as we went towards the lift. 17. To go to Fleur and ask for a frank exposure of her feelings was what he would have liked to do. 18. To enter that room was a colossal risk. 19. To see each of his ugly, selfish motives changed into a good and gen­erous one by the simplicity of a child was a singular experi­ence. 20. To show feeling was perhaps the only thing of which the chap would be ashamed. 21. "I think Dinny's overestima­ting her strength, Hilary." —"No woman really in love could do otherwise. To find out whether she is or not will be her job." 22. No! That account was closed. To reopen it was to tempt Providence. 23. To go far away and quickly was the only thing to do.