How is the infinitive used as adjective here
1. I told you to waite
2. He wanted me to leave.
How is the infinitive used as an adjective here? How to determine? What concept should I use because 'I' and 'He' are pronouns here?
Top answer
The infinitives are not adjectives. You're muddling up category (part of speech) and function. The infinitivals in your examples are subordinate non-finite clauses serving as complements.
- The infinitives are not adjectives.
- You're muddling up category (part of speech) and function.
- The infinitivals in your examples are subordinate non-finite clauses serving as complements.
- More precisely, they are catenative constructions, where "tell" and "want" are catenative verbs, and the subordinate clauses "to wait" and "to leave" are their catenative complements.
- The intervening NPs "you" and "me" are the syntactic objects of "told" and "wanted", and the understood (semantic) subject of the subordinate clauses.
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The infinitives are not adjectives. You're muddling up category (part of speech) and function. The infinitivals in your examples are subordinate non-finite clauses serving as complements.
More precisely, they are catenative constructions, where "tell" and "want" are catenative verbs, and the subordinate clauses "to wait" and "to leave" are their catenative complements. The intervening NP
0roky00711. I told you to waite2. He wanted me to leave. How is the infinitive used as an adjective here?
These aren't the kind of examples of infinitives you seem to be looking for.
You probably want constructions like
the best time to start
the first attempt to build it
a good place to dine
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