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Fire1 Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

How to grammatically analyze this infinitive phrase

A. Hell, I didn't even have two dollars to buy myself lunch.

As for sentence A above, does "to buy myself lunch" modify "two dollars"?

I understand the meaning of A exactly, but I'm not quite sure whether "to buy myself lunch" modifies "two dollars".

Could you make it clear?

  

Top answer

fire1 Could you make it clear? Probably not. English is what it is.

— Anonymous

  • fire1 Could you make it clear?
  • Probably not.
  • English is what it is.
  • We only analyze it grammatically so we can talk about the grammar.
  • Grammar is of little use the rest of the time.
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2 Answers
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fire1Could you make it clear?

Probably not. English is what it is. We only analyze it grammatically so we can talk about the grammar. Grammar is of little use the rest of the time. Just keep your numbers and conjugations straight, read a lot, and the rest will come. That said, I think of your sentence as having tacit words in it. Perhaps you can't say that

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I didn't even have two dollars to buy myself lunch.


It’s an informal way of saying:

I didn't even have two dollars [to buy myself lunch with ___].

where the bracketed expression is an infinitival relative clause modifying “dollars”.

The relativised element is functioning as complement (object) of the stranded preposition “with”, which

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