Scott, You wrote: "To discover a cure for scurvy" is an adjectival infinitive phrase modifying the noun experiment." "in the face" is an adverbial prepositional phase modifying the verb slapped by telling where she slapped him. "The club elected me treasurer" 'treasurer' is an objective complement completeting the identification of the object. I would hate to teach English using the colloquial definition. Scott You address one of the functions this infinitive phrase could have. It could also modify the verb "conducted" and would then be an adverbial infinitive phrase of purpose. In this case the two structures and the two different functions make little difference in meaning, but the adverbial function would be in answer, for example, to the question, "Why did the committee conduct an experiment?", as opposed to the question "what sort of experiment did the committee conduct?" Herb 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/