Janet,
   I have wrestled with this for some time.
   I currently see the phrasal verbs that seem like paraphrases of currently accepted modals as auxiliaries (and as modal.) You have one example in your sentence. ("Am going to". It can be seen as a paraphrase of "will")
   He ought to go. He must go.
   He is able to go. He can go.
   He is supposed to go.  He should go.
   He has to go. He must go.
These seem to allow us to combine modal notions (He ought to be able to go is OK, but he must can go is not) and occasionally modals plus tense. ("He was supposed to go" "He is supposed to go." Much more flexible than "must").
   Verbs like need,want, hope, desire  (which can often function as nouns and /or have close noun counterparts) seem to differ in a couple of ways. They focus on internal motivation rather than external (obligation, responsibility, desirability [from outside]), or just plain old epistemic judgment about likelihood of occurrence. The infinitive complements (I would call them that) also carry over to the noun versions.  "He hopes to study. His hope to study...She needs to study. Her need to study...)
   There's another group associated with beginning, starting, ceasing, continuing that take these complements as well. (And trying?) "He has started to..."
   I am wrestling with how much these participate in the grounding system of the clause--epistemic and deictic judgment help us understand the speaker's attitude about the desirability, likelihood and so on (subtly nuanced) of the process under focus. These in effect "ground" the process within a discourse context. So from this functional perspective, want to, need to and so on might, as grounding elements, be taking on an auxiliary like role, hence our confusion about exactly where to place them. They represent the internal motivation toward the occurrence of a process.
   I feel like it's hard for me to post to the list these days because I am in a different place and not quite settled with it yet. But this one comes close to home. These thoughts are very much work in progress.

Craig
  

Castilleja, Janet wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> 
Hello

In the following sentence: you are going to need to pay close attention,
would you classify 'to pay close attention' as a subjectless infinitive
clause functioning as a direct object?

I was tempted to see 'need to' as a type of semi-auxiliary, but I
checked Quirk et al.  They (I think) would analyze it as above.  Is that
the consensus?  Is there much argument about semi-auxiliaries?

Janet

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