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Craig,

There has been a semantic shift with "excites ... to."  In earlier
examples, "excites" is used as a synonym for "causes," with no necessary
sense of pleasurable stimulation:

   - A grateful mind excites me to reveal His sov'reign bounty, and attempt
   a tale Of dear remembrance. [William Wilkie, *Epigoniad*, 1792]
   - I should think it time lost to translate any of them; and only a sense
   of duty excites me to read them. [George Smith, *The Life of William
   Carey, D.D: Shoemaker and Missionary*, 1802]
   - But the cause which excites me to write is this — My greatest
   pleasure, through life, has been the perusal of any extraordinary
   narratives of fact. [from *Blackwood's Magazine*, 1827]

Examples from contemporary writing demonstrate the shift, with "excites to"
necessarily implying joyful arousal:

   - Seeing all that the Lord has done in my life over these years only
   excites me to see what he does seven years from now. [from the McLean Bible
   Church web site]
   - Blog entry shall be about what excites you, a participant, to come to
   Iligan or what others should be excited about to come to Iligan City. [from
   rules for a contest]
   - Your hair, skin, lips, skin touch / Everything about you just / Invites
   me, excites me / To wanna see you happy, girl. [lyric from B5's "How You
   Not Gonna"]

Dick

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>  Dick,
>    These are interesting examples, all complex transitive, with the
> infinitive acting as 'object complement" in traditional terminology. The
> subject acts upon (excites) an excitable entity to the point of taking
> action.
>     There's a difference in grammar between "I am excited to be here" and
> "Your invitation excited me to be here."
>     The idea of an arousal to action seems to be the earliest meanings.
> That feels a little archaic to me. "Excited" seems to me to be used quite
> often as stative adjective. "How excited was she?" "Very excited."
>     I'm still curious about what Martha is objecting to.
>
>  Craig
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 12:40 PM
>
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>
>  Good point, Craig. I did an advanced search for "this excites me to"
> excluding "to no end." Here are some examples of the infinitive as a
> complement:
>
>    - this excites me to go to office everyday
>    - All of this excites me to paint, print, and draw.
>    - I am nearing 51 years of age and this excites me to want to learn
>    more.
>    - This excites me to see what the obedience and passion of one person
>    can do.
>
> and many, many more.
>
> Dick
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>>  Dick,
>>      I think in all three of your examples, the infinitive is an
>> extraposed subject.
>>      "To work with clients on a one on one basis really excites me."
>>     I wonder if we can find an example where the infinitive is a verb
>> complement and not a subject. i couldn't find one.
>>     The passive version would be "I am really excited to work with
>> clients...." The fact that we can put "very" in front of excited would make
>> an argument that it is shading into adjective or is at least acting
>> ambiguously. And in this case it feels to me like an adjective complement.
>> "I am happy to work with clients" feels very similar to me.
>>
>>  Craig
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
>> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 12:03 PM
>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>>
>>   I'd say "be excited (to)" is a passive verb, since there are plenty of
>> equivalent actives. Here are some taken from Google (I searched "excites me
>> to"):
>>
>>    - It really excites me to work with clients on a one on one basis...
>>    - It excites me to announce that I am officially teaming up with Chad
>>    to kickoff our first, fully collaborative music project!
>>    - It excites me to be close to him, to think over and over, I can
>>    kill him and I will kill him but not now. (Anne Rice, *Interview with
>>    the Vampire*)
>>
>> and many others, an impressively large number of which are explicitly
>> sexual.
>>
>> Dick
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Lynn Searfoss <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>>
>>> It seems like an adjectival participial phrase, doesn't it?
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>>
>>>
>>> Hancock, Craig G wrote:
>>>
>>>> Martha,
>>>>     Can you give us an example?
>>>>    A quick google search of "excite to" brought no examples, but I
>>>> found a huge number for "excited to..." with most of those using "excited"
>>>> as past participle adjective. John Lackey is"very excited" to be back on
>>>> the baseball field, for example.
>>>>       /I am pleased to meet you/. /I am excited to be here/. These seem
>>>> common to me and perhaps equally ambiguous as to whether "pleased" and
>>>> "excited" are verbs (passive verb phrase) or adjectives. the infinitive
>>>> would work as adjective complement, as in "I am happy to be here."
>>>>
>>>> Craig
>>>> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
>>>> ------------
>>>> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [
>>>> [log in to unmask]] on behalf of Martha Galphin [
>>>> [log in to unmask]]
>>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 10:03 AM
>>>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>>>> *Subject:* Excited to
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> /What are your thoughts about the usage of the transitive verb _excite_
>>>> followed by an infinitive? I come upon it somewhere almost every day now
>>>> and am discomfited by it.
>>>> Thank you,/
>>>>
>>>> /Martha Galphin
>>>>
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