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/ [log in to unmask] ----- 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 > > 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/