Infinitives

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Infinitives

• Ed McCorduck
• English 402--Grammar
• SUNY Cortland
• http//mccorduck.cortland.edu

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slide 2 definition of the infinitive

• An infinitive is a phrase consisting of the base
  form of a verb (see slide 7 of the chapter 2
  Form Classes lecture) preceded by to.
• exx
• to go to bore
• to sing to procrastinate

English 402 Grammar
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slide 3 split infinitives

• Often an adverb or adverbial phrase can occur
  between the to and the base verb in an
  infinitive. Such constructions are called split
  infinitives, and these are normally considered
  incorrect in prescriptive grammar.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 4 examples of split infinitives

• split infinitives
• to boldly go
• to never surrender
• to very carefully disarm
• to nearly always fail

corrected split infinitives to go
boldly/boldly to go never to surrender/ ?to
surrender never to disarm very carefully/ very
carefully to disarm to fail nearly always/
nearly always to fail
English 402 Grammar
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slide 5 infinitives as adverbials and
infinitive phrases

• Infinitives can function as adverbials, often to
  express reason or purpose (i.e., answering the
  question Why?). When infinitives are used as
  adverbials, they often appear in larger phrases
  called infinitive phrases which consist of the
  infinitive plus any slots and modifiers that
  appear in the equivalent sentence patterns.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 6 examples of infinitives and infinitive
phrases used as adverbials

• exx
• They panhandle to survive.
• infinitive functioning
  as an adverbial
• (answers the question Why?)
• He bought some pills to sleep better at night.
• (to sleep infinitive)
• infinitive
  phrase functioning as an adverbial
• (answers the question Why? or
  For what purpose?)

English 402 Grammar
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slide 7 more examples of infinitive phrases
used as adverbials

• He bought some pills to poison his wife.
• (to poison infinitive)
• infinitive
  phrase functioning as an adverbial
• (answers the question Why? or
  For what purpose?)
• She skipped the country to dodge her creditors.
• (to dodge infinitive)
• 
  infinitive phrase functioning as an adverbial
• (answers the question Why?
  or For what reason?

English 402 Grammar
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slide 8 infinitives with in order

• When an infinitive functions as an adverbial, in
  order may be inserted before the to.
• exx
• They panhandle to survive.
• ? They panhandle in order to survive.
• He bought some pills to sleep better at
  night.
• ? He bought some pills in order to sleep
  better at night.
• She skipped the country to dodge her
  creditors.
• ? She skipped the country in order to dodge
  her creditors.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 9 example of when you cant put in order
before an infinitive (not adverbiial)

• but
• Chauncey loves to eat.
• ? Chauncey loves in order to eat.
• (ungrammatical if the infinitive is not
  adverbial, i.e., if the meaning is not that
  Chauncey is a member of the oldest profession
  which provides him his only means of sustenance)

English 402 Grammar
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slide 10 Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences
with infinitives

• In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, adverbial infinitives
  are diagrammed like other adverbials, i.e., they
  appear after the vertical subject/predicate
  dividing line and under the main horizontal line,
  attached to it by a slanting line on which is
  written the to of the infinitive and which goes
  to a parallel horizontal line containing the base
  verb.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 11 example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of a
sentence with an infinitive
Reed-Kellogg diagram of We stopped to smoke
English 402 Grammar
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slide 12 Reed-Kellogg diagramming of infinitive
phrases
If the sentence contains not a simple infinitive
but an infinitive phrase, the diagram will depend
on the sentence pattern of the infinitive phrase.
For example, the diagram of the Pattern VI
sentence He sleeps better is
English 402 Grammar
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slide 13 derivation of infinitive phrases from
full sentences
When this Pattern VI sentence is converted into
an infinitive phrase, it is diagrammed in its
containing sentence with the same predicate slots
(but no overt subject) along with the verb in the
base form and a slanted line with the to of the
infinitive as described in slides 10 and 11
above. Hence, here is the diagram of the sentence
He took pills to sleep better
English 402 Grammar
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slide 14 example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of a
sentence with an infinitive phrase

English 402 Grammar
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slide 15 example of a Pattern VII sentence and
Reed-Kellogg diagram of it
As another example, consider the diagram of the
Pattern VII sentence We relieved ourselves (in
which the reflexive pronoun ourselves is the dir
obj)
English 402 Grammar
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slide 16 another example of the derivation of
an infinitive phrase from a full sentence
Here is the Reed-Kellogg diagram of the sentence
We stopped to relieve ourselves in which the
Pattern VII sentence illustrated in the previous
slide has been converted to an infinitive phrase
with this phrase retaining ourselves as the dir
obj (indicated as always by the half vertical
line), in this case of the infinitive to relieve
English 402 Grammar