Infinitive clause

Question

I have read some books introducing the following sentences as infinitive clause.

You must book early [to secure a seat]

As far as my understanding, a clause contains a finite verb(verbs showing tense, person or singular \ plural. not a non-finite verb(verbs having no tense, person or singular \ plural as infinitive, participles, gerund)
The sentence is:

Am I wrong in understanding clauses or is there something advance I have not been able to cover.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hi Jamal,

There are three main types of clauses: finite, nonfinite, and verbless.

Finite: 'I'm hungry, so I think I'll make a sandwich'.

Nonfinite: 'Being hungry, I made a sandwich'; 'My hunger caused me to make a sandwich'; 'Ravaged by hunger, I made a sandwich'.

Verbless: 'Although not very hungry, I made a sandwich'.

Jamal · Answer

Dear;

Thank you very much for the reply and your time.

With non-finite clause, 'Being hungry, I made a sandwich' we know the subject is common in both( I ) for dependent(participle clause and main clause.

But what about 'My hunger caused me to make a sandwich'. I think ( to make a sandwich should be infinitive phrase not clause as verb and subject are missing.

I appreciate if you tell me more about the infinitive one.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Well, it is all in the terminology, Jamal, but Greenbaum & Quirk distinguish four classes of nonfinite clauses-- based on the four classes of verb phrases: (1) to-infinitive, (2) bare infinitive, (3) -ing participle, and (4) -ed participle:

(1) The best thing would be to tell everybody. (verb phrase: 'to tell')
(2) All I did was hit him on the head. (verb phrase: 'hit')
(3) Her aunt having left the room, he apologized for her actions. (verb phrase: 'having left')
(4) Covered with confusion, they apologized. (verb phrase: 'covered')

Paco2004 · Answer

Jamal

I'd like to add something I know about your question.

Some linguists would analyze the syntax of your sentence the way as this;
My hunger caused something (=a clause or noun phrase).
My hunger caused [me to make a sandwich]. (an infinitive clause)
= My hunger caused [(the fact) that I made a sandwich]. (a finite clause)

paco

Anonymous · Answer

This would best be defined as a type of non-finite clause. English has three types of non-finite clause. These include the gerund clause, the infinitive clause, and the participial clause. It is neccesary to expand the definition of clause beyond finite clauses becuase these types of construction clearly have a subject and an object and the verb, though non-finite has many verbal properties.

Consider the following sentence:

I can't afford [for you to be late.]

The only logical explanation here is that 'you' is the subject of the clause and 'late' is the complement. 'For' is best described as a subordinator in this type of construction.

Other examples of non-finite clauses include:
1) Several problems resulted in [us/our not finishing the project.]
2) Several problems caused [us to not finish the project.]
3) Richard [having spent all afternoon explaining this in class] can explain non-finite clauses. (In this case, as with a finite relative clause, the subject is the noun preceding the clause).
4) She asked me [how to turn on the computer].

Infinitive clause

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