Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the most relevant syntactic functions of infinitives within the sentence in English, based on the British 2006 Corpus (BE06) designed by Paul Baker and displayed by the server of Andrew Hardie, Corpus Query Processor (CQPweb). The corpus reveals that infinitives are a very frequent non-finite form employed in English. The most relevant syntactic functions that infinitives took in the corpus were as verbal periphrasis, as verb complements, as noun complements, as adjectival complements, as nominal predicates and as verb subjects. In English there are specific contexts in which the infinitive is not preceded by the particle to , such as after an extensive number of auxiliary, perception and permission verbs. Furthermore, there are other specific contexts in which the infinitive is preceded by the particle to , such as after a large number of direct objects in transitive verbs and functioning as a verb subject and as a noun or adjective complement. The major claim of this study is that infinitives in English do not constitute a uniform group; in fact, they display a variety of syntactic functions within the sentence directly reflecting their nominal and verbal properties.
Highlights
Infinitives are defined as non-finite forms that in many European languages have a bare form (En., speak, walk, work; Fr., parler, marcher, travailler; Sp., hablar, caminar, trabajar) and a form preceded by a specific particle (En., to; Fr., de; Sp., de) and they “[...] have both nominal and verbal features, both aspects of the content being apparent in the same context” (Schybsbye, 1965: 61)
After the analysis of the British English 2006 (BE06) Corpus, it can be concluded that English infinitive is a non-finite form that has verbal and nominal characteristics
They can fulfil several syntactic functions that are usually fulfilled by nominal phrases
Summary
Infinitives are defined as non-finite forms that in many European languages (such as English, French and Spanish) have a bare form (En., speak, walk, work; Fr., parler, marcher, travailler; Sp., hablar, caminar, trabajar) and a form preceded by a specific particle (En., to; Fr., de; Sp., de) and they “[...] have both nominal and verbal features, both aspects of the content being (often) apparent in the same context” (Schybsbye, 1965: 61). The objective of this paper is to identify the main syntactic functions that infinitives in English fulfil within the sentence. There is a section about infinitives in which we explain what an infinitive in some European languages is, its verbal and nominal characteristics and the most relevant syntactic functions infinitives display within the sentence. The conclusions section summarizes the major claims of this study
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