I would consider a sentence with “be” plus “excited” passive if it includes explicit agency.
“I am excited by your presence.” Passive
“I am excited by being near you.” Passive
“I am excited to be near you.” Excited as stative adjective. (More the reasons for the state of excitement than the cause.)
Some of the dictionaries I looked at give “arouse” or “rouse” as synonym, but I think “arouse” seems to hold onto its verb status a little more.
“I am aroused by your presence.” (Very natural)
“I am aroused to be near you.” (seems awkward to me.)
It’s interesting that “excite” has a technical sense in physics that applies to non-sentient entities. If we “excite” something, we increase its chemical
activity. For the most part, though, the infinitive can’t be direct object complement because it doesn’t fit either of those cognitive categories. We can excite a person or thing (in the increased activity sense), but I can’t think of ways in which the receiver
of the excitement might be expressed in infinitive form.
Craig
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 11:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Excited to
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:
Examples from contemporary writing demonstrate the shift, with "excites to" necessarily implying joyful arousal:
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:
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"):
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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