Goody! I love it when I can
disagree with everybody. Here goes:

The `adjectives' issue need not arise in

`My decision to leave my job was wise'.

Instead, there are two nounal sequences here:

`my decision' and `to leave my job'.

Both of them are described by the predicate
adjective `wise':

My decision was wise.
To leave my job was wise

In the same sentence both sequences
are the noun subjects of the copula `was'.
They are demarcated by the comma because
they constitute a list of nouns:

My decision, to leave my job, was wise.

Of course, when this infinitive phrase is intended as
an adjective it cannot be comma demarcated
from the noun it describes, `my decision', for
the simple reason that there is neither syntactic
nor logical reason for the demarcation:

My decision to leave my job was wise.

Sophie



----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Veit <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 4:00 AM
Subject: Fwd: Infinitive phrase as adjective and as appositive


> In a sense you're both right, since the sentence is ambiguous. If you
speak
> it with pauses before and after the infinitive (denoted in writing by
> commas, dashes, or parentheses), you've got an appositive:
>
>        My decision, to leave my job, was wise.
>
> More often the sentence would be spoken without pauses (or punctuation)
and
> it is then "adjectival":
>
>        My decision to leave my job was wise.
>
> I'd actually label the latter as a "complement infinitive," since it
> corresponds with the nominal complement "My decision that I leave my job
> was wise."
>
> Dick Veit
> UNCW
>
> >Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 10:34:31 -0700
> >From: "Kischner, Michael" <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Infinitive phrase as adjective and as appositive
> >
> >Does someone know a convincing way of distinguishing between the
infinitive
> >phrase as adjectival ("The attempt to robe the bank failed") and as
> >appositive ("His goal, to win the Presidency, was never realized").  The
> >example  that my class got hung up on was "My decision to leave my job
was
> >wise."  I called the infinitive phrase there an adjectival.  The students
> >seemed unsatisfied by my explanation that in their hearts they know I'm
> >right.
>
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