engleski

Infinitive subjects or subjectless infinitives?

This paper argues against the view that infinitive, or to be more precise, definitized clauses have subject. The so-called infinitive subjects occur in three main types of constructions: (i) subject of the infinitive introduced by the preposition for; (ii) either nominative or oblique (accusative) subjects of infinitives, and (iii) covert subjects of the infinitives. It is shown that these putative subjects have non of the relevant coding or behavioural properties of typical subjects. The so-called subjects of infinitive are clearly semantic arguments of the non-finite predicate and their semantic intrpretation depends on the meaning of the non-finite predicate, but they have not been grammaticalized as subjects.

infinitive; subject; complementation system; syntax; English; adjective; grammatical construction

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