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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary
To be inflicting
Hi,
"The report echoes the widespread view in the medical profession that it is deeply unwise to be inflicting far reaching structural reform on the NHS at the same time as asking it to make huge savings." [From The Guardian.]
There is a progressive infinitive, namely "to be inflicting" in the sentence and my question is: can the "to be inflicting" be substituted by the simple infinitive "to inflict"? And if so, what is the difference in meaning in such a usage?
Thank you.
"The report echoes the widespread view in the medical profession that it is deeply unwise to be inflicting far reaching structural reform on the NHS at the same time as asking it to make huge savings." [From The Guardian.]
There is a progressive infinitive, namely "to be inflicting" in the sentence and my question is: can the "to be inflicting" be substituted by the simple infinitive "to inflict"? And if so, what is the difference in meaning in such a usage?
Thank you.
Top answer
Yes. The progressive adds a note of immediacy or speaker emotion to the statement.
- Yes.
- The progressive adds a note of immediacy or speaker emotion to the statement.
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2 Answers
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Yes. The progressive adds a note of immediacy or speaker emotion to the statement.
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