U21

0. INTRODUCTION

2. USES OF THE -ING FORM

1. USES OF THE INFINITIVE

1.1. BARE-INFINITIVE

by itself

1.2. TO-INFINITIVE

Adjunct of feeling

Phonologically, 3 diff pronunciations:

  • Strong: when stressed /tu:/
  • Medial: before vowels /tu/
  • Weak: before consonants /tə/

Non-finite VPs

Finite VPs

do not express personal or temporal relations on their own

include a Primary verb, inflected for tense (went), person (goes) & number (is, are), and includes a Subject. It can stand alone as an Independent clause, or it can serve as a Coordinate or Subordinate clause

include a Secondary verb, not inflected for tense, person or number (verb form in the infinitive, present or past participle) , and occasionally a Subject (his, him for). It is a Dependent clause, which functions as part of a sentence: as Subj, Obj, Compl

"I'll pass the exam"

"Smoking is bad"

  • the -s form of the Present
  • the -ed form of the Past

(11) with "to" (in nominal funct)

(8+3) without "to" (in verbal funct, never in nominal)

It has nominal functions, as a:

  • Noun: "I want to take a walk"
  • Adj: "the days to come"
  • Adv: " I went to see you"

It doesn't in itself indicate time, determined by:

  • other time markers: "I went to see you"
  • the context: "the days to come"

The present infinitive can refer to:

  • Present: "It does you good to eat vegetables"
  • Past: “It was very nice of you to come”
  • Future: “I wish I had money to buy a house”

The perfect infinitive can refer to:

  • Past: "He is said to have spoken"
  • Hypothetical: "I thought it wrong to have helped her"

with other Vbs

Modal Vbs

"Will you open the window?"

Semi-modals

Dare & Need in negative & interrogative sentences

Aux "do"

"Oh, do tell us what happened"
"She did not seem to notice"

"do nothing but"

"He does nothing but catch flies", "He did no more than seek to win"

(as Aux of emphasis or periphrasis)

Modal idioms

Had better/best, would rather/sooner

rather than

to express preference to one thing over another

Stereotyped phrases

  • "He made me believe that John was dead" (pretend)
  • "She had to make do with ..." (manage)
  • "Let's go", "Let go of the past", "Don't let it fall/drop/slip"
  • "He offered to help carry the basket"

Vb + non-finite Vb (invariable)

Elliptical constructions

"(Do you) want some?"

Accusative with infinitive

"How dare you come here?"
"He needn't return the letter"

"“They decided to surrender rather than fight”

Expressing Volition, Command, Perception, Cognition, etc.:

  • hear, feel, see, watch, let, make, have, find, know, help
  • "She watched the man cross the street"
  • "I won't have you say those things"
  • "They made him repeat everything"
  • "I've never known him loose his temper"

"We'd better stop", "I'd rather go"

Vb + Obj + Inf

Why (not) Qs

"Why spend such a lot of money?"

Two coordinated Infs

the 2nd doesn't take "to" if the 1st doesn't

"She couldn’t do better than resign"

Adjunct of purpose

Subordinate clause

Adjunct of volition

Vb + "how to"

Modal idioms & Semi-modals

"Be" + to-infinitive

Accusative with infinitive

in Exclamatory sentences

be to, have to / ought to, used to, dare to, need to

the 1st Vb is subordinated in meaning to the 2nd

  • "I am to see him tomorrow"
  • "You will have to wait a moment"
  • "She ought to have been more careful"
  • "She used to go there everyday"
  • "He did not dare to speak"

& Catenative Vbs

The 2nd Vb is an Adjunct or Object (to express volition?) of the preceding Vb (the 1st, which is transitive)

  • "My uncle decided to sell his business"
  • "He thinks to deceives us" (to intend)
  • "We intend to go to Denmark"
  • "I tried to open a window"

Adjunct/Obj after main Vb
"intend/decide/try to"

the 2nd Vb functions as an Adjunct to a preceding Nn or Adj, especially to express feeling

  • "There is no need to worry"
  • "It is the right thing to do"
  • "He has a large family to keep"
  • "It’s time to go to bed"
  • "I was afraid to seem unrespectful"
  • "I'm pleased to come"
  • "Cigarettes are easy to obtain"
  • "He's a hard man to please"
  • "He's always the first/last to get up"

Nn / Adj + to-inf Adjunct
"be easy/hard/pleased to"

it may qualify a Vb or Nn, though it often qualifies the rest of the sentence. The idea of purpose may be emphasized by "in order" or "so as"

  • "You’d better repeat them every day, in order not to forget them"
  • "I do them very carefully, so as not to spoil them"

in order to, so as to

When preceded by a Wh-word, Conjunction, or Relative pronoun, the to-inf is equivalent to a dependent clause

  • "I don’t know what to do" [Interrogative Pron]
  • "Tell me where to go" [Interrogative Adv]
  • "He looked at the clock, as if to indicate that the interview was over" [Conjunction]
  • "He gave them land on which to live" [Relative Pron]

After the Vbs "know, forget, learn, teach" followed by "how", to express manner

  • "He will know how to manage the problem"
  • "My father taught me how to catch butterflies"
  • "I will never forget how to do it"
  • "You must learn to be patient"

with the present or the past tense of to "be", which functions as an Aux to express personal or impersonal arrangement

  • "We are to be married next week" [personal]
  • "I am not to lay the table before 12 o’clock" [personal]
  • "The worst is still to come" [impersonal]

after Vbs which express an act of will (volition): advise, allow, ask, encourage, force, invite, lead, order, permit, persuade, request, tell, urge, want...

  • "Allow me to congratulate you"
  • "He asked me to sit down"
  • "We persuade him to withdraw"
  • "I forced him to come to the party"

Like the bare-infinitive, to express (1) surprise/ indignation, or (2) a wish that is unlikely to be fulfilled

  • (1) "To think that all his efforts to help her had gone for nothing!"
  • (2) "Oh, to be in England!"

2.1. PRESENT PARTICIPLE

the suffix -ing is added to the stem/base of a Vb

The -ing form may act as a:

  • Noun: "The headmaster gave him a warning"
  • Gerund: "She hated dancing"
  • Present participle: “The cat drinking its milk"
  • Adj: "She bought a pair of walking shoes"
  • Prep: "I telephoned him concerning the will"

~ Adjectives

2.2. GERUND

  • Describe the thing (or person) that produces sb’s feelings (while the past participles, i.e. those ending in –ed, describe sb’s feelings)

~ Clauses

  • Adjs: “Simon is the boy sitting in the corner”
  • Advs: “I hurt my leg playing tennis"

"This film is boring/interesting"
"He's bored/interested"

3. TO-INFINITIVE vs GERUND (8)

Both can occur as Subj, Obj & Predicate. Both may be qualified by an AdvP, take an Obj or Subj, be used in the Perfect & in the Passive

Non-finite Verb

  • be qualified by Advs:
  • have/take an Obj:
  • have/take a Subj:
  • be used in the Perfect:
  • & Passive (morphologically):
  • "He disliked drinking heavily"
  • "I saw him playing cards"
  • "I saw him smoking"
  • "Having smoked two cigars"
  • "Being hurt on his knee"

as Obj or Adjunct

to a number of Vbs

like, worth & there's no

  • "It’s worth not looking at"
  • "This does not look like lasting forever"
  • "There is no accounting for tastes"
    "There's no denying that..."

after

after some PhVbs

be for/against, give up, keep on, leave off, look forward to, put off, see about, take to

avoid, burst out, deny, enjoy, escape, fancy, (I) can't help, detest, keep, mind, postpone, resent, stop...

  • "I give up smoking"
  • "Looking forward to hearing from you"
  • "Carry on doing that"
  • "I cannot leave off playing cards"

after Possessive Prons & Deters

“It’s no use their/them complaining"
"I couldn’t stand my mother’s interfering"

after certain expressions

  • Spend/waste + time + gerund:
  • Go/come + swimming/shopping/etc.:
  • "Denny denied knowing the plan", "Would you mind opening the window?"
  • "She enjoyed hearing him talk", "For God’s sake" stop talking?"
  • "Have you finished cooking?", "It’s no good talking to him"

It can exhibit all the syntactic properties of a:

Noun

  • have a Plural with -s:
  • have 's Genitive or Possessive Pron:
  • take/be preceded by Articles:
  • form part of Compounds:
  • be co-ordinated with Nouns:
  • “What do they mean all these goings-on?”," Her writings were published today"
  • “It was his own doing”, "I appreciate John's taking the time to help me"
  • “His mother gave him a warning”, "The dancing in that show was amazing"
  • sleeping-bag, fishing rod, swimming-pool, dining-room, shopping-centre
  • "Her hobbies are painting and writing"

It may function as:

  • Subj: "Traveling might do you good"
  • Obj: "They do not appreciate my singing"
  • Subj Compl: "My cat's favorite activity is sleeping"
  • Compl of Prep: "The police arrested him for speeding"

as a Noun with verbal meaning

Prep Adjunct

  • "The doctor began by feeling my pulse"
  • "The sun is near setting"

/special constructions

  • “I spent a lot of time doing my homework”
  • "I go shopping everyday"

(6) It can also have verbal function

as part of a

as an Adj with verbal meaning

Progressive aspect

Used as the main Vb of a finite VP in the Progressive aspect (continuous tenses): "She is playing tennis"

to try

to mean

to remember/forget

  • Inf: refers to the future
  • Gerund: refers to the past
  • Inf: make an attempt
  • Gerund: make an experiment

"I must remember to ask him"
"I remember seeing them last year"

"Try to keep perfectly still for a moment"
“To make a living he had tried writing”

  • Inf: intend
  • Gerund: to involve

“She had never meant to hurt him”
"This meant converting merchant ships to carry fuel"

to like/dislike/love/hate/prefer

  • Inf: special occasions
  • Gerund: general statement

“I hate to disappoint you”
“ She hated driving fast”

to stop

  • Inf: to pause in order to do sth
  • Gerund: a complete stop of the action

to allow/recommend/advise

  • Inf: if the person/object is mentioned
  • Gerund: if there is no Object

“Every hour I stop to smoke a cigarette”
“I really must stop smoking”

“I don’t allow my pupils to smoke”
“I don’t allow smoking”

After a number of Vbs, either can occur:
to begin, start, continue, attempt, love, prefer, mean, like, remember, try, regret, advise, propose, can’t bear, intend, etc.

to go on

  • Inf: to change of activity
  • Gerund: to continue

"She stopped talking about her illness and went on to tell us about her job"
"She went on talking about her illness till we all went to sleep"

the base form is finite in the Present, Imperative, Present subjunctive, & non-finite in the Bare-infinitive & To-infinitive

We usually understand the Time reference from the context of the main clause. Also, we use a non-finite clause when the Subject is the same as the main clause

  • the -ing participle in the Progressive aspect & Participle clauses
  • the -ed participle in the Passive, Perfect aspect & Participle clauses

VPs can be divided into 2 types according to the main Vb form (its head)

  • "The temperature will began to fall"
  • "His promises failed to materialize"
  • "I’ve come to see John"
  • "One soon gets to like it"

to express arrangement

Adjectival/Adv subordinate clauses
used to avoid repetition & reduce the number of words in a sentence

Often, preceded by these words: while, when, since, after, before, on, etc:

  • "While packing her things, she thought about the last two years"
  • "Before cooking, you should wash your hands"
  • "On arriving at the hotel, he went to get changed"
  • "Instead of complaining about it, they should try doing something positive"

to express manner

to express volition/command

to express surprise/emotion

make, let, help

seem to, appear to, happen to, manage to, tend to, begin to, come to, etc.

"what to do, where to go, etc."

(after Prepositions)