Michael,

 

This is my take.  Compare your sentence with "This is difficult for me to do."  I feel like it is the adjective that is making it possible to add the complement as an infinitive.  The subject of an infinitive is often introduced by "for".  Similar is the adjective "hard".  The meaning seems the same as, "For me to do this is difficult."  If I say, "It is time for me to leave," we seem to have a complement on the noun "time".  In this case the infinitive doesn't easily allow omission like it did with "difficult" and we can't easily say, "For me to leave is time."  The complement with "difficult" seems to be a dative (of interest).  This would suggest that the full (and redundant) meaning of my sentence might be, "For me to do this is difficult for me."  So it appears that the complement position (dative) is freely taken by an infinitive subject.  I believe that this all suggests that the construction is part of the syntax of "difficult". 

 

Bruce

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/15/05 10:57 AM >>>

    Another quick parsing question:  In "This is difficult for me," is the prepositional phrase "for me" modifying the verb "is" of the adjective "for me"?

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