Want

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Hi.1. She wants a new car.2. She wants to buy a new car.Wants is the verb and the main verb in the 1.Is wants to buy the verb in the 2. and is to buy a main verb in the sentence?Thank you.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

AnonymousIs wants to buy the verb in the 2, and is to buy a main verb in the sentence?

She wants to buy a new car.

No, wants to buy and to buy are not verbs, not syntactic units of any kind, even. They are just sequences of words, like buy a.

Wants is the verb of the main clause, She wants to buy a new car, and buy is the verb of the subordinate clause to buy a new car.

Anonymous · Answer

Aspara Gus AnonymousIs wants to buy the verb in the 2, and is to buy a main verb in the sentence?She wants to buy a new car.No, wants to buy and to buy are not verbs, not syntactic units of any kind, even. They are just sequences of words, like buy a.Wants is the verb of the main clause, She wants to buy a new car, and buy is the verb of the subordinate clause to buy a new car.

Thanks for the reply. What I've learnt from your explanation is that there is some sort of subordination here and that you are cutting the simple sentence into two parts one as a finite She wants and the other as a non-finite to buy a new car thus making it a complex sentence. Isn't it stretched a bit too far? Why can't we simply name the wants to buy a verb where to buy is a complement of the verb wants?

RandomGuy · Answer

Anonymous…you are cutting the simple sentence into two parts one as a finite She wants

She wants to buy a new car is a finite clause, not just She wants.

AnonymousWhy can't we simply name the wants to buy a verb where to buy is a complement of the verb wants?

As I said before, wants to buy is not a verb; it’s a sequence of three words: the verb wants, the subordinator to, and the verb buy, which do not form a constituent. The entire infinitival clause to buy a car functions as complement to wants, not just to buy.

This is evident from the fact that wants and to buy a car are separable: She wants very much to buy a new car; She wants him to buy a new car. Clearly if wants to buy were a verb this wouldn’t be possible.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Aspara GusNo, wants to buy and to buy are not verbs, not syntactic units of any kind, even. They are just sequences of words, like buy a.

Well, 'wants to buy' is not a unit, but 'wants is the main verb, and 'to buy' is widely considered to be a verb, the (to- infinitive)

Aspara Gusbuy is the verb of the subordinate clause to buy a new car.

In course books, student grammars and teaching materials available to most learners, 'to buy' in this sentence will be treated simply as a (to-) infinitive following or governed buy the main verb 'wants'. These materials will tell them that 'to buy a new car' is not a clause, because there is no finite verb or subject.

The fact that some systems of grammatical analysis today may treat 'to buy a new car' as a subordinate clause may be of interest and value to students of linguistics, but is not helpful to most people who wish to learn to communicate in English.They will be told by their teachers that this is not correct.

CalifJim · Answer

fivejedjonnot helpful to most people who wish to learn to communicate in English

But then one wonders if any controversy over the terminology of grammar is helpful to those who want to communicate in English.

Anyway, I always thought that a clause could have a finite verb (e.g., buys) or a non-finite verb (to buy), and I'm not aware that this is something from "modern grammar" (though maybe it is?), so I'm not so sure that teachers will necessarily consider it incorrect to say that to buy a car is a clause. Besides, I've seen lots of websites that call things like "Having found the lost cat, (they ...)" a clause, and that's non-finite too.

CJ

RandomGuy · Answer

fivejedjon'to buy' is widely considered to be a verb, the (to- infinitive)

You should know by now that where analysis is concerned popularity means very little to me. If it’s wrong it’s wrong.

fivejedjonThese materials will tell them that 'to buy a new car' is not a clause, because there is no finite verb or subject.

Yet they take imperatives to be clauses. Why does Buy a new car get to be a clause but not to buy a new car? Both have a non-finite verb and an understood subject.

Fivejedjon · Answer

CalifJimI've seen lots of websites that call things like "Having found the lost cat, (they ...)" a clause, and that's non-finite too.

That's part of the problem. Some would call that a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause#Non-finite_clauses.

When we are dealing with people who want to learn to communicate in English. we have to try, I believe, not to insist that one particulat form of labelling is the only right one. We need to remember that, while there may be general agreement (at least within any one dialect of English) as to what it is acceptable to most people to say and/or write, there is little agreement on the terminology we use to describe what we say or write. Even a century ago, when there were fewer schools of grammar than there are today, there were strong disagreements between grammarians on how the structure of the language should be analysed and what terminology should be used. Today there are many more schools and many moew disagreements.

Teachers and learners of ESL/EFL /ESOL need to understand that it is the language itself that is important. The grammatical terminology we use is only a means to an end, not an end in itself - unless we are studying linguistics. We also need to remember, with a touch of humility, that millions of people throughout time have acquired a mastery of one or more foreign languages without any theoretical knowledge at all of the grammar of any language.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Aspara Gusou should know by now that where analysis is concerned popularity means very little to me. If it’s wrong it’s wrong.

When it comes to saying whether a particular group of words is a clause or not, there can be no absolute right or wrong. There is no such thing as a 'clause' existing in its own right for us to pin down and analyse under a microscope. Jespersen used the word to mean one thing, Hornby to mean another. Quirk et al understood one thing by it, H & P another. None of them has receive dsme Grammar-***'s imprimatur of absolute rightness.

Anonymous · Answer

Aspara GusYet they take imperatives to be clauses. Why does Buy a new car get to be a clause but not to buy a new car? Both have a non-finite verb and an understood subject.

In my opinion, in the Buy a new car the verb Buy is a finite one. The subject is implied, always You (singular or plural) and left out. The verb is conjugated in present tense: (You) buy a new car.

RandomGuy · Answer

AnonymousIn my opinion, in the Buy a new car the verb Buy is a finite one. The subject is implied, always You (singular or plural) and left out. The verb is conjugated in present tense: (You) buy a new car.

If that were the case, then we would have *Are patient instead of Be patient.

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