Infinitives/ bare infinitives

Question

The woman seemed to have been crying.Infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. What is the one in bold? A direct object/noun?-----------------------------------You must have been waiting for hours!Do bare infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs?Is the bare infinitive in bold part of the verb phrase or what?Thanks for you help with this!

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

The woman isn't an act of crying (noun); and the crying doesn't modify "seem" (adverbial). So I would take "seem" as copulative, and the infinitive structure as adjectival: it describes the woman.

I expect other interpretations are possible, though.

All the best,

MrP

English 1b3 · Answer

Thanks a lot.

What about the second one? Do bare infinitives not function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs?

CalifJim · Answer

English 1b3The woman seemed to have been crying.

Infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. What is the one in bold? A direct object/noun?

This example stretches the traditional system of grammar to the limit.

Instead of trying to invent a label which seems doomed to be unsatisfactory no matter what it is, I would say that the sentence is another form of this one:

It seemed that the woman had been crying.

When, by grammatical transformation, the subordinate clause becomes a main clause by the incorporation of seemed we are left with the oddity that woman is the subject, to have been crying is the verb that goes with it, and seemedis a sentential adverbial telling the speaker's view of this fact.

The woman seemed to have been crying.
___________

By the way, to be likely works in a similar way:

It is likely that the woman is rich. >
The woman is likely to be rich.
___________

In short, I don't know what labels are expected within the traditional approach for these sorts of structures, but I don't think knowing them will necessarily reveal much about the sentences either.

CJ

English 1b3 · Answer

Hi there

Thanks for you help. i understand that there may be more than one way to lable this.

But I was more concerned about the latter example:

You must have been waiting for hours!

Do bare infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs? (I don't think so)

Is the bare infinitive in bold part of the verb phrase or what?

MrPedantic · Answer

1. You | must have been waiting | for hours

To my mind, this is simply subject + verb phrase + prepositional adverbial.

MrP

English 1b3 · Answer

Yes, but the verb phrase has a bare infinitive in it, due to the modal auxiliary.

So I'm just confirming if I am right with that, and if bare infinitives can function as nouns adjective and adverbs as to infinitives can. Wiki doesn't mention them working as such, but I can't just trust that

CalifJim · Answer

English 1b3Do bare infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs? (I don't think so)

Well, there's this:

What he did was wait.

The bare infinitive wait might be considered a noun by some. But that's just a surface level analysis typical of the traditional grammatical approach.

Then there's:

The agent executed a buy order on the floor of the stock exchange.

The bare infinitive buy might be considered an adjective here.

CJ

English 1b3 · Answer

I guess this is what I want to know:

Are bare infinitives usually used as part of a verb phrase when a modal aux. exists.

Are to infinitives not part of the verb phrase--because they function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Thanks

Andriy Lapin · Answer

Dear friends,

let me make some additional remarks:

1. The woman seemed to have been crying is a result of an interesting transformation which is called raising. In the original sentence, the entire post-predicate to-clause is the implied subject of the main clause, and this can be seen with the equivalent that-clause construction which is extraposed:

It seemed that the woman had been crying.

The intended meaning is not that 'the woman seemed'; rather, the entire idea that 'the woman had been crying' is the logical subject of the main clause. This kind of structure is called subject-to-subject raising. The subject of the dependent to-clause is 'raised' to become the subject of the main clause. This type of raising occurs with to-complement clauses controlled by verbs of probability and simple fact (turn out, seem tend, appear, etc.).

2.

English 1b3You must have been waiting for hours!

Do bare infinitives function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs?

Is the bare infinitive in bold part of the verb phrase or what?

- if infinitives themselves are not a part of a larger phrase (as in the example above), they are ascribed the following functions:

1. Subject <To meet the lady was easy enough.>;

2. Subject predicative <Their function is to detect the cries of predatory birds>;

3. Direct object <'I wouldn't like to leave him,' Olivia said.>;

4. Object predicative <No one can expect us to sign our own death sentence.>;

5. Adverbial <I borrowed a portable phone to ring Waterloo>.

I don't think that the approach whereby infinitives are somehow put on the same level as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc is at all advantageous - it is more useful, I suppose, to speak about clause elements and their realisations.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

CalifJim · Answer

Gleb_ChebrikoffThis kind of structure is called subject-to-subject raising.

Warning: Off-topic.

I'm aware of this nomenclature, but I've always thought it a misnomer. What's to say it isn't verb lowering? (No, I'm not being facetious.) I ask because the movement of a verb like seem into the subordinate clause is exactly what it looks like to me! Lowering the verb into the subordinate clause triggers a transformation of its finite verb into infinitive form.

What theoretical purity is saved by saying that raising is involved? (I assume there is some such reason for the choice of terminology.)

___________

Gleb_ChebrikoffThe subject of the dependent to-clause is 'raised' to become the subject of the main clause.

As I see it, before the transformation is performed, there is no dependent to-clause, so I don't think you intended to say this. Right?

I assume you are transforming It seems that X ... to X seems (to) .... You're not going in the opposite direction, are you?

CJ

Infinitives/ bare infinitives

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