TJ:

You wrote,

>I am also puzzled by responses that refer to them as clauses.  Infinitive
>phrases have functioned in this manner since A-S days.  What is the
>purpose of trying to stretch them into clauses?

The problem is just that they're a lot clausier than the usual phrase, and the definition of "clause" varies more than one might expect. The U.S. school grammar tradition focused on finiteness as the essential ingredient for clausehood, and if you take that as a starting point these can't be clauses. That definition of clause, as well as the use of "phrase" for all multi-word units that aren't clauses, is by no means universal.

Other approaches tend to focus on the fact that infinitives can include verbs with what look exactly like objects, etc., and that you can usually infer a subject-y element (being deliberately vague here b/c the specifics vary per approach). From a teaching standpoint, it's a lot easier getting students to recognize that a given NP is the direct object of the verb in the infinitive if they're thinking of the infinitive as at least being like a predicate.

The "clausy" view starts looking more tempting when you try to deal with the difference between "I want to eat some vegetables" and "I want the kids to eat some vegetables." If you think both of those sentences have a main clause that's just "I want X," then it follows that you need to talk about the presence or absence of "the kids" in relation to the infinitive. One of the ways to deal with that is to say that infinitive really is a clause at some level of representation -- that it has a full clause structure, but with zero-elements in some spots. The grammar (with "grammar" here in the sense of a kind of widget) can then deal with the structure the same basic way it deals with a normal clause, with maybe some minor changes around the edges. I *think* this is Bruce's approach (but correct me if I'm wrong, Bruce!).

An alternate approach is to deal with "X wants to Y" and "X wants Z to Y" as different constructions that hearers recognize and process according to construction-specific rules. This is what's used by construction grammars (unsurprisingly).

Either of these approaches can use the label "reduced clause" for infinitives, gerunds, and participials. The term "small clause" usually goes with the first approach, and is most common among linguists working in a set of theories descended from the 1970s-era version of generative grammar. Systemic-Functional grammar use "non-finite clause," a term that initially struck me as an oxymoron, since I learned U.S. terminology first. Traditional school grammars, of course, sometimes use "verbals."

--- Bill Spruiell





________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of T. J. Ray [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 9:52 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adjective or adverb?

Stephen,
I don't see them as possible adverbials.  A reading of both sentences sans
the infinitive phrases almost makes them incomplete sentences, at least in
terms of full meaning.

I am also puzzled by responses that refer to them as clauses.  Infinitive
phrases have functioned in this manner since A-S days.  What is the
purpose of trying to stretch them into clauses?

tj


On Friday 05/27/2011 at 8:01 pm, Stephen King wrote:
An embarrassing question: Are the infinitive phrases in the following sentences adjectival or
adverbial?

A. We were looking for a good reason to sell the house.

B. Sparrow needed something to distract the guards.

In A, the inf. phrase answers the question "why?", which would seem to make it adverbial. However, it
also answers the question "What kind of reason?", which would seem to make it adjectival. I find B
similar.

Gentle enlightenment is requested.

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