On 2009-10-29, at 8:43 PM, Assembly for the Teaching of English  
Grammar wrote:

> This represents a fairly common problem of syntax and morphology not  
> lining up with each other.  Certainly "to eat" is an infinitive, but  
> "to" also cliticizes to "going" when "going to" acts as a modal, as  
> shown by its contraction to "gonna".

I think overmuch is made of this phonological point. The 'to' in  
"planning to" has a similar realization, but nobody makes a big deal  
about 'planna'.

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls 'to' a  
subordinator (a small set that also includes 'that', 'whether/if' and  
certain uses of 'for'). It's neither part of "be going to" nor part of  
the infinitive.

Best,
Brett

-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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