You are right, Kathleen. The infinitive phrase `to purchase leather' is
functioning adverbially in `He used his money to purchase leather'. It
modifies the verb 'used': It tells us how or why the subject `he' used his
money. (The strange assumption in this string seems to be that an `infinite
phrase' is ipso facto a nounal phrase. But an infinitive phrase is just an
infinitive phrase, and as itself, not a part-of-speech distinction: It can
function as any part of speech.)

Sophie Johnson
at ENGLISH  GRAMMAR TUTOR
http://www.englishgrammartutor.com/
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----- Original Message -----
From: Kathleen M. Ward <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: syntax questions


> I'll let others deal with the other questions, but this caught my eye:
>
>
> >How about "He used his money to purchase leather." Does the infinitive
> >modify the noun money?
>
> I think that "to purchase leather" is, pretty clearly, what is
> traditionally called an "infinitive of purpose."  As such, I think
> this would be an adverbial use of the infintive, not a noun-modifying
> one.
>
> Kathleen Ward
>
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