[Grammar] syntactic function

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marin123

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Help me, please, to decide on the function of the words "to examine" and "to ptotect" in the sentence:
"The police has two major responsibilities: to examine the victim, and to protect all the evidence."

I believe they are predicate, but I was tought that infinitive cannon function as a predicate with few exceptions.
 

Raymott

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Help me, please, to decide on the function of the words "to examine" and "to ptotect" in the sentence:
"The police have two major responsibilities: to examine the victim, and to protect all the evidence."

I believe they are predicate, but I was taught that infinitive cannot function as a predicate with few exceptions.
Would it make it easier to understand if it were expressed it as:
"The two main functions of the police are to examine the victim and to protect all the evidence"?
 

marin123

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Surely that would be easier)))). But I have a fixed sentence, where I must define the syntactic function of the infinitives "to examine" and "to ptotect" in the given sequence, without any alternations
 

susiedq

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police / has / responsibilities = to examine/ victim . . . and . . to protect/evidence."

These may be a predicate nominatives.

The use of the colon makes this structure unique.
 
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marin123

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I see then an attribute here. what exect responsibilities? - responsibilities to examine and protect.
 

Finicky

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No predicate. "two mayor responsibilities" is the object of 'have'. The coordinated infinitive phrases function as a restrictive apposition - it defines the object, names the object.
 

Finicky

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police / has / responsibilities = to examine/ victim . . . and . . to protect/evidence."

These may be a predicate nominatives.

Absurd!
 

5jj

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Incidentally, the sentence is incorrect. It should be "The police have ..."
 
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