The beneficiary of an action

Question

Hello, everyone,A. “It is interesting for me to read this book.” equals,1) Reading this book is interesting for me.2) For me to read this book is interesting.B. “It's fun for me to play the piano.” equals,3) Playing the piano is fun for me.4) For me to play the piano is fun.My question is;1. if in case A 1), 2) the beneficiary of the action - ‘reading/to read this book’ is ‘me’ both?2. if in case B 3), 4) the beneficiary of the action - ‘playing/to play the piano’ is ‘me’ and ‘they’(as an implied subject)?While I think the sentence B above is not so idiomatic, I would hope to hear the reason why I feel the beneficiary is different in each case even under the same construction with ‘It's + (adj) + for me + (infinitive)’.Would appreciate your valuable comments.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

As you see, there are two interpretations of the original sentence.

The first in each case treats the for-phrase as separate from the infinitive that follows it in the original. This shows the beneficiary of the action.

The second interpretation in each case treats the complement of the for-phrase as the subject of an infinitive clause. This makes the complement of for the agent of the action portrayed in the infinitive clause, not a beneficiary. (In this case for is sometimes called a complementizer. Another name applies to the whole infinitive clause: a FOR ... TO ... clause.)

The following example is from Soames and Permutter (Syntactic Argumentation and the Structure of English).

It would be unpleasant for Martians to land in Las Vegas.
(1) Landing in Las Vegas would be unpleasant for Martians.
(2) For Martians to land in Las Vegas would be unpleasant.

In (1) the Martians feel some unpleasantness about where they land. They are the "beneficiaries" of the unpleasantness.
In (2) we humans (implicitly) feel the unpleasantness, but what we feel unpleasant about is the fact that the Martians might land in Las Vegas.

This means you can actually have two for-phrases if you want to make your sentence even more complex: one for-phrase to indicate the entity that experiences (is the "beneficiary" of) the feeling (interesting, fun, unpleasant), and another to indicate the subject of the infinitive clause:

(3) [For Martians to land in Las Vegas] would be [unpleasant for humans].

You can even put the for-phrases next to one another, though the result may not be a great example of good style:

(4) It is [exciting for Frank] [for his father to talk about the old country].

CJ

The beneficiary of an action

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