Why not complicate things a bit more?  Dick, your first, second, and fourth sentences strike me as right dislocation, but I think this is because of the vagueness of "this."  The third sentence doesn't sound like right dislocation because there is an expressed referent for "this."

Herb

Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
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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 10:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Excited to

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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