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Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Infinitival clause
Hi,
Enough evidence is already in hand, they say, to rule out the powerful cooling effect from clouds that would be needed to offset the increase of greenhouse gases.
Q1) The infinitival clause should have been placed right next to "evidence" if it had been shorter in length. Correct?
Q2) Which licenses the infinitival clause, "enough" or "evidence"?
I'd appreciate your help.
Enough evidence is already in hand, they say, to rule out the powerful cooling effect from clouds that would be needed to offset the increase of greenhouse gases.
Q1) The infinitival clause should have been placed right next to "evidence" if it had been shorter in length. Correct?
Q2) Which licenses the infinitival clause, "enough" or "evidence"?
I'd appreciate your help.
Top answer
jooney Q1) The infinitival clause should have been placed right next to "evidence" if it had been shorter in length. Correct? Yes.
- jooney Q1) The infinitival clause should have been placed right next to "evidence" if it had been shorter in length.
- Correct?
- Yes.
- It would have been placed there.
- Suppose, for example, that all that information about the cooling effect of clouds had already been presented earlier in the text.
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5 Answers
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jooneyQ1) The infinitival clause should have been placed right next to "evidence" if it had been shorter in length. Correct?Yes. It would have been placed there. Suppose, for example, that all that information about the cooling effect of clouds had already been presented earlier in the text. Then the writer could have written
Enough evidence to
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I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm a little uncertain about the term "to license a clause". Either 'enough' or 'evidence' can be left out, if that's the sort of thing you're interested in.
Yes, that's the thing I'm looking for. On second thought though, it wasn't really appropriate to bring up
Yes, that's the thing I'm looking for. On second thought though, it wasn't really appropriate to bring up
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jooneyQ2) Which licenses the infinitival clause, "enough" or "evidence"?The infinitival clause is licensed by "enough".
BillJ
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Thank you for your reply, BillJ.
But what about the fact that the infinitival clause can be present without "enough", as shown below?
ex) Evidence to rule out this effect is already in hand.
The infinitival clause, in this case, is a modifier, as in the following example.
ex) I have a book to read.
So my question is how adding "enough" all of a sudden c
But what about the fact that the infinitival clause can be present without "enough", as shown below?
ex) Evidence to rule out this effect is already in hand.
The infinitival clause, in this case, is a modifier, as in the following example.
ex) I have a book to read.
So my question is how adding "enough" all of a sudden c
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The infinitival clause is not a modifier, but an indirect complement licensed by “enough”. The addition of the word “enough” makes a significant change to the meaning of the clause. Consider the two possibilities:
(1) "Enough evidence to rule this out is already in hand".
(2) "Evidence to rule this out is already in hand".
For (1) we have something like "x amount of ev
(1) "Enough evidence to rule this out is already in hand".
(2) "Evidence to rule this out is already in hand".
For (1) we have something like "x amount of ev
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