So what does it modify? 

Martha (if you're out there reading this morning), if this sentence were in
your textbook, where would you put the infinitive on a traditional R&K
diagram--under "drunk" or under "too"? 

It seems to be modifying "too" moreso than "drunk" to me: How drunk? "Too"
drunk. To what extent? Too drunk to drive.   Doesn't it intensify or clarify
"too"? 

Incidentally, this is a good example of a situation in which my ability to
diagram sentences helps me to think through the relationship of words and
phrases in a sentence and, in turn, enables me to write more clearly and
more precisely. I could go through the same thought process without the
diagram (and I often do), but diagramming taught me to be very specific:
does "to drive" modify "drunk" or "too"? Perhaps that is a hairsplitting
question, but I think I have become a much stronger writer--and
thinker--over the years as a result of analyzing sentences in this way. Most
of my students feel the same way.

Nancy 

Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia College
Columbia, South Carolina
[log in to unmask]
803-786-3706
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alison Cochrane
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Too drunk

acting as the infinitive of purpose


 No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt


-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Adams <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 8:08 am
Subject: Too drunk


I'm wondering if someone on the list could help me with the analysis of 
the following: 
 
He was too drunk to drive. 
 
What is the function of the infinitive "to drive"? 
 
Peter Adams 
 
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web 
interface at: 
  http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html 
and select "Join or leave the list" 
 
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ 

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface
at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/