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Hans51 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
To infinitives as an adjective or an adverbial phrase?
The ruling party's Supreme Council said it had convened the meeting to end the continuing strife between the president and the floor leader.
I have no problem understanding this sentence but I was wondering if native English speakers try to figure out how 'to end...' functions in the sentence like one is to end...modifies the meeting behind as a adjective phrase and the other is to end...functions as a adverbial phrase and tells what the purpose of convening the meeting is.
I think that sometimes there is no meaning difference whether to infinitives function as an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase but in the example sentence, I think that seeing it as an adverbial phrase is more natural.
What do you native English speakers think? Thank you so much as usual in advance!
I have no problem understanding this sentence but I was wondering if native English speakers try to figure out how 'to end...' functions in the sentence like one is to end...modifies the meeting behind as a adjective phrase and the other is to end...functions as a adverbial phrase and tells what the purpose of convening the meeting is.
I think that sometimes there is no meaning difference whether to infinitives function as an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase but in the example sentence, I think that seeing it as an adverbial phrase is more natural.
What do you native English speakers think? Thank you so much as usual in advance!
Top answer
Hans51 I think that seeing it as an adverbial phrase is more natural. Yes, I agree. The adjectival interpretation is not one that would naturally occur to me in this sentence.
- Hans51 I think that seeing it as an adverbial phrase is more natural.
- Yes, I agree.
- The adjectival interpretation is not one that would naturally occur to me in this sentence.
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4 Answers
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Hans51I think that seeing it as an adverbial phrase is more natural.Yes, I agree. The adjectival interpretation is not one that would naturally occur to me in this sentence.
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Thank you so much! And then do you agree that sometimes either way is possible but there is no meaning difference?
For example,
I am going to throw a party to celebrate her success.
Here I think that I can see 'to celebrate her success' as an adjective phrase that modifies a party
and also as an adverbial phrase that modifies 'throw' or 'throw a party'.
For example,
I am going to throw a party to celebrate her success.
Here I think that I can see 'to celebrate her success' as an adjective phrase that modifies a party
and also as an adverbial phrase that modifies 'throw' or 'throw a party'.
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Hans51I am going to throw a party to celebrate her success.In this case the two interpretations are both possible and there is no significant difference in the resulting meaning. For me, I think the inclination to make "to celebrate her success" adverbial is still slightly stronger. This may be because, all other things being equal, "verb (in order) to do sth
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Hans51I think that sometimes there is no meaning difference whether to infinitives function as an adjective phrase or an adverbial phraseHere's one that's adjectival, if you want one for comparison.
Yesterday the ruling party's Supreme Council started the war to end all wars.
CJ
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