Scott,

You wrote:

"To discover a cure for scurvy" is an adjectival infinitive phrase
modifying the noun experiment."  "in the face" is an adverbial
prepositional phase modifying the verb slapped by telling where she
slapped him.  "The club elected me treasurer"  'treasurer' is an
objective complement completeting the identification of the object.  I
would hate to teach English using the colloquial definition.
Scott

You address one of the functions this infinitive phrase could have.  It
could also modify the verb "conducted" and would then be an adverbial
infinitive phrase of purpose.  In this case the two structures and the
two different functions make little difference in meaning, but the
adverbial function would be in answer, for example, to the question,
"Why did the committee conduct an experiment?", as opposed to the
question "what sort of experiment did the committee conduct?"

Herb

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