Syntax

[carlylorelle]

I am currently in a second year university syntax and semantics linguistics class. We are learning all about infinite clauses and I just cant seem to grasp how to spot them at all. Some of the obvious one I can get but these sentences I cant and was wondering if someone could help me?
1) The child wants candy, but the mother wants her to eat her vegetables.
2) She decided to leave her job for un specified reasons
3) She arranged for her sisters to care for their sick mom
4) To save money requires diligence; to spend money is easy.

[Frank Antonson]

Some of your examples are very interesting.

For my part, I am so influenced by American, i.e. Reed-Kellogg, thinking that I cannot speak for any other approach. Even your term "infinite clause" leaves me blank.

I will try to diagram ( R-K) your sentences if you wish, but I would be happy to read other responses first. Also, I would like to think that you understood the language of R-K.

[Raymott]

I am currently in a second year university syntax and semantics linguistics class. We are learning all about infinite clauses and I just cant seem to grasp how to spot them at all. Some of the obvious one I can get but these sentences I cant and was wondering if someone could help me?
1) The child wants candy, but the mother wants her to eat her vegetables.
2) She decided to leave her job for un specified reasons
3) She arranged for her sisters to care for their sick mom
4) To save money requires diligence; to spend money is easy.

You might be missing something extremely simple. Do you mean "infinitive clause", or "non-finite clause", in the sense of a clause that uses the infinitive form of a verb? If so, you could do a web search on these terms.
If not, then the presence of the infinitive form in all of your examples would be a strange coincidence.
What are some of the 'obvious' examples you have?

[BookAddict]

Raymott is right. Non-finite constructions do not use person and tense. Your examples do not look like non-finites.

Non-finite:
Looking out of the windows, he saw his father getting out of his car.

Finite:
When he was looking out ...

We need more input.

[Soup]

I am currently in a second year university syntax and semantics linguistics class. We are learning all about infinit[ive] clauses and I just can[']t seem to grasp how to spot them at all. Some of the obvious one I can get but these sentences I can[']t and was wondering if someone could help me?

The subject of a finite clause is overt, that is, you can see it or hear it (e.g., the child wants candy). With an infinitive clause, you cannot see or hear the subject (e.g., to eat her vegetables. The verb to eat lacks an overt subject, which is what makes it an infinitive clause. "Clause", not phrase. On the surface level (the level we see and hear), the string of words to eat her vegetables looks like a phrase because it lacks a subject, but at its underlying or semantic level, it has a subject, one that's just not realized visually or phonetically (e.g., the mother wants Sue, (Sue) to eat her vegetables).


1a) The child wants candy,

subject: child
finite verb: wants
object: candy

1b) but the mother wants her to eat her vegetables.

subject: mother
finite verb: wants
object: her
complement: to eat her vegetables

1c) to eat her vegetables

subject:
non-finite verb: to eat
object: her vegetables

2a) She decided
2b) to leave her job for unspecified reasons.

3a) She arranged for her sisters
3b) to care for their sick mom.

4a) To save money requires diligence;
4b) to spend money is easy.

[Soup]

Raymott is right. Non-finite constructions do not use person and tense. Your examples do not look like non-finites.

The terminology is awkward. The sentences provided by carlylorelle house examples of 'infinitive clauses', the definition of which is as follows:

infinitive clause


–noun Grammar a clause containing an infinitive as its main or only verb form, as to speak clearly in Try to speak clearly.

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