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Date: | Mon, 4 Jun 2001 14:00:40 -0400 |
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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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