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Fire1 Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

Can "because/because of" be used in an infinitive phrase?

A. It is not right to hate someone because they hate you.

B. To hate someone because of his or her skin color is to hate the genes that determine skin color.


I think that "because they hate you" and "because of his or her skin color" belong to the infinitive phrase "to hate someone".

To put it simply, "because they hate you" and "because of his or her skin color" belongs to "[ ]".

A. It is not right [to hate someone because they hate you]

B. [To hate someone because of his or her skin color] is to hate the genes that determine skin color.

But my questions are,

Q1) Can "because/because of" be used in an infinitive phrase like in examples A and B?

Q2) Is my analysis that "because they hate you" and "because of his or her skin color" belong to the infinitive phrase correct?

Could you please answer my two questions separately? Thanks a lot!

  

Top answer

Hi 1) In the sentences that you give, the infinitive phrases are acting as nouns. The 'is' is acting in a way that is sometimes called a copula verb. It just links two nouns or noun phrases in order to say that, on either side of the verb, the words express the same thing (but in a different way) - or so the speaker claims: - Jane is my friend.

— Dave_anon

  • Hi 1) In the sentences that you give, the infinitive phrases are acting as nouns.
  • The 'is' is acting in a way that is sometimes called a copula verb.
  • It just links two nouns or noun phrases in order to say that, on either side of the verb, the words express the same thing (but in a different way) - or so the speaker claims: - Jane is my friend.
  • - To know me is to love me.
  • Where an infinitive verb is used as a noun, it is perfectly OK to modify the verb within the infinitive with an adjectival phrase.
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1 Answers
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Hi

1) In the sentences that you give, the infinitive phrases are acting as nouns. The 'is' is acting in a way that is sometimes called a copula verb. It just links two nouns or noun phrases in order to say that, on either side of the verb, the words express the same thing (but in a different way) - or so the speaker claims:

- Jane is my friend.

- To know me is to love me.

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