English Grammar for University Students. Part 4

Adverbial modifier of purpose. Indefinite forms of the Infinitive (both active and passive) are used in this function. The Infinitive may be preceded by the conjunction in order, so as or by limiting particle (just, only):

We all need stress in order to achieve and do our best work.

They never parked the big van in front of the house so as not to upset the neighbours.

Adverbial modifier of subsequent events or attendant circumstances. In this function the Infinitive denotes an action that follows the one denoted by the predicate. The Infinitive may be preceded by the particles only, merely, simply [Н. А. Кобрина, Е. А. Корнеева и др., 2009].

He left his home town, never to come back.

I tore open the box, only to discover that some of the parts were missing. I went to see the doctor, only to find him absent.

Adverbial modifier of result. In this function the Infinitive is used after adjectives and adverbs modified by too; enough; so …. as, and nouns modified by such.… as.

I was too afraid to try bungee jumping.

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.

Would you be so kind as to send to me those documents?

Trade policy needed to be organized in such a way as to contribute to sustainable economic development.

Adverbial modifier of comparison or manner. In this function the Infinitive is introduced by the conjunctions as if, as though or than.

The cat looked up at me as if to say “I’m hungry.”

He nodded his head slowly as though to agree with everything she said.

He knows better than to marry her.

Adverbial modifier of condition denotes an action which pre-conditions the action expressed by the predicate. In this function the Infinitive is used but seldom.

To look at his works you would think that you have already seen them somewhere.

If to speak about teens, they stand somewhere between childhood and adulthood.

Parenthesis

The Infinitive used as parenthesis is usually part of a collocation, as in: 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, to make a long story short, to crown all, to make matters worse, to be more precise, to say nothing of , etc.

When they had an accident, they were upset, to say the least.

John helps me with my taxes.He’s my accountant, so to speak.

Predicative constructions with the infinitive

The Infinitive is used in three types of predicative constructions:

The Objective with the Infinitive Construction.

The Subjective with thе Infinitive Construction.

The For-to-Infinitive Construction.

In all these constructions the Infinitive denotes an action ascribed to a noun or a pronoun. Due to their semantics and because of the attached position the nominal and the verbal elements are understood as forming a complex with subject-predicate relationship [Кобрина, Корнеева и др., 2009].

I saw him cross the street.

It is for him to decide.

He appeared to be a good doctor.

The objective infinitive construction