1、Infinitive,Infinitive, -ing participle and ed participle all fall into the non-finite forms of verbs.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,1) Grammatical forms- infinitive has no tense distinction, nor person or number contrasts. But they can be passive and take the simple, progressive, perfective and pe
2、rfective progressive forms, e.g. The boy always hopes to be praised by his teacher. I have nothing to regret for. She had no need to be worrying. He is believed to have visited every province of China. The president was reported to have been flying across the Atlantic. Question: How to form a negati
3、ve infinitive? A negative infinitive is formed by adding not or never immediately before the infinitive to: He promised never to do anything like that again. Mary advised me not to lend him any money.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,2) To-infinitive & bare infinitive-infinitive is usually accompanie
4、d by “to”, but sometimes without “to” (bare infinitive): Question: Under what circumstances should we use bare infinitive? When following modals, bare infinitive is used. But need & dare may be used in to-infinitive form. Does she dare to go there alone? Do we need to pay for the meal? Following sem
5、i-auxiliaries, bare infinitive is used, e.g. Youd better not go out. I happened to meet Mary on the way to the library.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,Bare infinitive following modal idioms such as: would rather, would rather than, would sooner, would as soon, may/might as well, cannot but, e.g. He
6、 would rather listen to others than talk himself. Since its a fine day, we might as well walk. Rather than cause trouble, he left. Sooner than marry that man, she would earn her living as a waitress. Used in some fixed combinations: let go/fly/slip/fall, make do, make believe, e.g. He did all that j
7、ust to make believe. We dont have time for lunch, but we made do with sandwiches.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,Used in “ causative verb + object”, like make, let, have functioning as object complement, e.g. The boss made them work late on Saturday. I wont let you go before lunch. The teacher had
8、us read silently. But when turned into passive, to-infinitive is used instead, e.g. They were made to work late on Saturday.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,Used in “ sense verb + object”, like see, hear, observe, notice, feel, watch, look at, listen to also as object complement, e.g. I felt the hou
9、se shake. I saw him walk out the room. I dont like listening to other people talk. But when turned into passive, to-infinitive is used instead, e.g. He was seen to walk out the room.,Grammatical forms of infinitive,See more examples of bare infinitive: They can do nothing but/except wait for rescue.
10、 Cf: Theres no choice but/except to wait for rescue. Why ask me? Why not ask him? But: What to do? How to do? When to do? Why to do? Go post a letter for me. Try eat a little. Try help him.Note: help to do and help do are both acceptable.,A test item in TEM 4,“It seems that she was there at the conf
11、erence.“ The sentence means that _. A. she seems to be there at the conference. B. she seemed to be there at the conference. C. she seems to have been there at the conference. D. she seemed to being there at the conference. (2009),The forms of infinitive,Past action/event,Notes on the use of “to”,In
12、finitive “to” used alone To avoid repetition, use “to” alone, common in informal style, e.g. You may go if you want to. But the base verb should be retained if it is be or have, e.g. Arent you the manager? No, I dont want to be. He hasnt finished yet. Well, he ought to have. Sometimes the whole infi
13、nitive-clause can be omitted, e.g. Youll make it if you try (to). Id like to travel to Guilin, but I havent got the money (to).,Notes on the use of “to”,Ellipsis of the infinitive “to” The second “to” can be omitted when two infinitives are coordinated by and or or, e.g. I wish to buy a villa and ha
14、ve it decorated in my favorite style. But never omit “to” when the infinitives have a contrastive meaning, e.g. To be or not to be, that is a question. Nor can “to” be omitted when the infinitives cooccur in a parallel construction, e.g. The students must learn to read extensively, to analyze what h
15、e reads and to summarize the main points presented.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,Distinguish infinitive “to” & preposition “to” If “to” can be followed by a noun or noun equivalent, it proves to be a preposition. Otherwise, it is an infinitive sign. The following are some examples of the col
16、locations in which the item “to” is preposition, not an infinitive sign. A) verb + preposition “to”, e.g. confess to attest to contribute to refer to agree to bow to object to submit to stick to adhere to pertain to take to yield to attend to resort to come to relate to amount to react to consent to
17、 When it comes to belling the cat, the mice have nothing to say. He will not submit to being separated from her. Keeping what belongs to others amounts to stealing.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,B) verb + noun/pronoun + preposition “to”, e.g. ascribe to devote to apply to attribute to confine
18、 to reduce to commit to resign to owe to Abbreviate to accustom to prefer to dedicate to reconcile to He lost the game, but he would not resign himself to being defeated. Phelps attributes his success to his talent and hard training.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,C) verb + -ed participle + pr
19、eposition “to” be used to be reconciled to be accustomed to be reduced to be resigned to be devoted to be given to be abbreviated to Its very important for the freshmen to get used to learning independently. He gradually become reconciled to the loss of his wife. He was reduced to begging for a livi
20、ng.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,D) Verb + adverb particle + preposition “to”, e.g. look forward to get round to get down to get near to face up to feel up to Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Im really tired. I dont feel up to going shopping today. After a long business trip, John g
21、ot round to enjoying the family reunion.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,E) adjective + preposition “to”, e.g. adjacent to preferable to similar to superior to inferior to tantamount to loyal to deaf to averse to sensitive to Keeping silence is tantamount to acquiescence. Cinderella felt inferi
22、or to her siblings. Mary was averse to sharing an apartment with Cindy.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,F) Noun + preposition “to” obstacle to indifference to limit to key to answer/reply to hinderance to objection to aid to The key to solving the unemployment is to expand domestic demands and
23、increase investment. The lack of hi-tech intellectuals proves to be an obstacle to the sustainable economic development.,Infinitive “to” or preposition “to”?,G) complex prepositions ending in “to” according to preparatory to in addition to with a view to prior to preliminary to with an eye to in rel
24、ation to thanks to previous toShe take up English with a view to becoming a translator. The contract will be signed prior to the ceremony.,What grammatical / syntactic functions can an Infinitive perform?,When an adjective is followed by an infinitive, the semantics of the construction might vary dr
25、astically, though they share a similar structure. e.g. John is easy to please. John is eager to please.Question: How do the sentences differ from each other? Can you explain why? Note: The subject of the main clause may act as the logical subject as well as object of the infinitive clause.,It is eas
26、y to please John.,John is eager to please sb.,adjective + infinitive (as a complement),1) The subject of the main clause acts as the logical subject of the infinitive. e.g. I was shocked to hear the earthquake. She was unlucky to lose the game. Im determined to win the game. But if the subject of th
27、e main clause is not the logical subject of the infinitive, how should the logical subject be expressed?,adjective + infinitive (as a complement),The logical subject of the infinitive can be expressed with an introductory “for” or “of”, e.g. Im quite willing for your brother to come with me. Im afra
28、id for her to go swimming alone. It is really challenging for me to earn my living as a full time university student. It is very important for you to get a Ph.D as you teach in the university. It is obligatory for every citizen to fight against the crime. Its very kind of you to say that. It is fool
29、ish of him to meet him again. It is stupid of her to repeat the same mistake.,adjective + infinitive (as a complement),The infinitives in “It-patterns” following some adjectives showing character or behavioral trait can be transformed into the normal construction with real subject, e.g. It is foolis
30、h of him to lend her money. He is foolish to lend her money.It was careless of her to break the vase. She was careless to break the vase.,adjective + infinitive (as a complement),2) The subject of the main clause acts as the logical object of the infinitive. e.g. That question is difficult to answer
31、. To answer that question is difficult. It is difficult to answer that question.She is pleasant to talk to. To talk to her is pleasant. It is pleasant to talk to her.The coffee is bitter to taste. *To taste the coffee is bitter *It is bitter to taste the coffee. Cf. Youll feel that the coffee is bit
32、ter when you taste it.,adjective + infinitive (as a complement),adjective + infinitive (as a complement),3) The subject of the main clause acts as the logical subject or object of the infinitive. e.g. The book is easy to sell. It is easy to sell the book. The book sells easily. He is quick to take o
33、ffence. He takes offence quickly.He was very reluctant to help. He helped people reluctantly.,noun (phrase) + infinitive (as post-modification),Observe the following examples, identify the semantic relations between the noun and infinitive. Liuxiang was the first Asian to break the WR of 110-meter h
34、urdle. This is the best book to read. The boy needs a friend to play with.I have no wish to quarrel with you.,Subject-predicate,Verb-object,Preposition-object,apposition,noun (phrase) + infinitive (as post-modification),Observe the following examples, the infinitive may appear in active or passive f
35、orm, e.g.Give me a list of people to invite / to be invited. The man to consult / to be consulted is Mr. Johnson. But active forms are preferable in the following cases: Ive got a lot of letters to write. There is a lot of work to do.While passive forms are preferable in the following cases: The cas
36、es to be investigated must not make public in press. The question to be discussed at the next meeting will be a hard nut to crack.,noun (phrase) + infinitive (as post-modification),With some nouns such as attempt, chance, effort, freedom, intention, necessity, opportunity, reason, time, way, etc., t
37、he post-modifier may be an infinitive or a “preposition + V-ing”, e.g. There is no necessity to buy / of buying a new car. The liberated people should have the freedom to choose / of choosing their own social system. With some others like ability, agreement, ambition, anxiety, curiosity, obligation,
38、 permission, refusal, reluctance, tendency, etc., an infinitive is preferred, e.g. They signed an agreement to rent the house. The real estate industry manifests a tendency to decline.,noun (phrase) + infinitive (as post-modification),There are still other nouns like hope, experience, excuse, intere
39、st, genius, method, motive, possibility, plan, skill, etc., which take a preposition + V-ing rather than an infinitive as post-modifier, e.g. There is no hope of winning the game. We must improve the method of teaching foreign languages.,Verb + infinitive (as an object),1) verb + infinitive There ar
40、e verbs (see in page 237) that can be directly followed by an infinitive rather than an Ving form as object, e.g. Hamlet vowed to revenge his dead father. He demanded to be told everything.,Verb + infinitive (as an object),2) verb + object + infinitive There are verbs (see in page 238) that cannot b
41、e directly followed by an infinitive unless the verb and the infinitive are intervened by a noun or pronoun, e.g. Did you see anyone enter this room? The boss got his employees to work overtime. Ill arrange for you to come. I believed him to be innocent. I advised my dad to give up smoking.,Verb + i
42、nfinitive (as an object),3) verb + (object) + infinitive With the verbs (P239) like ask, hate, intend, prefer, want, etc., the object is optional. That is, these verbs can occur either in the “verb + infinitive” or “verb + object +infinitive”, e.g. Id like to join the Party. Id like you to join the
43、Party. I cant bear to see you like this. The children cant bear me to be away for so long. Do you intend to enter the postgraduate program? We didnt intend them to act like that. I prefer to stay. I prefer him to stay with us.,The functions of infinitive,Tell the syntactic functions of the infinitiv
44、es in the following sentences. 1).To learn a foreign language well is not a piece of cake. 2). Its ridiculous to have an excuse like that when being late for class. 3). After the hard negotiation for 2 weeks, both parties agree to cease fire. 4).The doctor managed to persuade the patient to receive
45、an operation. 5).To guarantee the quality of the air in Beijing, the municipal government has enforced a series of environmental policies. 6).The children had only one wish, to live a peaceful life. 7).His desire to be a millionaire drove him mad. 8).Mary was invited to give a speech at the meeting.
46、 9).Your duty is to take care of the children.,To sum up, infinitive can act as subject, object, object complement, subject complement, attributive, adverbial, apposition, predicative, but with the exception of predicate. (being a non-finite verb form),Object-control vs subject-control predicate,Obs
47、erve the following sentences: We would like you to stay . We would like to stay .We dont want anyone to upset them . We dont want to upset them .I expect students to pass the exam . I expect to pass the exam .,Object-control vs subject-control predicate,If we posit that each bracketed infinitive in
48、the second sentence of the pairs also has a subject, denoted by PRO, the above sentences can be rewritten as follows.We would like you to stay . We would like PRO to stay .We dont want anyone to upset them . We dont want PRO to upset them .I expect students to pass the exam . I expect PRO to pass th
49、e exam .,Object-control vs subject-control predicate,The motivation for positing PRO in the subjectless infinitive is semantic in nature. But we may also have some syntactic evidence. Observe the following sentences:They want John to help himself . *They want John to help themselves . John wants PRO to help himself .They want their son to become a millionaire/*millionaires He wants his sons to become millionaires/*a millionaire.They want PRO to become millionaires/*a millionaire. He wants PRO to become a millionaire/*millionaires.,
