Parsing.

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Matthew Wai

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If the infinitive phrase is the direct object of the verb, it is noun. , it is noun. If it is a complement of "her", then it would be an adjective.
As Raymott said 'her' is the direct object, I think the infinitive is a complement, i.e. acting as an adjective, but I am not a teacher.
 

mawes12

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Please use standard English forms in this forum.

What is the standard form of "y'all"? "All of you", "you all", or "you"? And can someone answer post #45?
 

MikeNewYork

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If you wish to leave it at the situation in which I have given many authorities to support my point of view and you have give none, fine.

You still have to deal with the thousands of web pages that represent the traditional view of verbs.

Take this sentence: My mother hates me drinking on weekends. Some "genius" decided that "drinking on weekends was a non-finite verb clause. Then another "genius" decided that a clause needed a subject. So that person decided that "me" is the subject. So now we have a clause with a subject and a verb. By all rights, it should be a sentence. But the sentence would be "Me drinking on weekends." How dumb is that?
 

Eckaslike

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For me, the key to all this is to concentrate on the main verb, "persuade". We all seem to agree that "he" is the subject and "persuade" is the main verb.

"Persuade", whether viewed as a transitive or causative verb has be used "on" someone (or something, like a dog) in the form of persuasion.

Therefore, whether viewed as a transitive, or causative verb, the action has to have a direct object that receives that action. She would have gone if he had not persuaded her otherwise.

If we agree that only someone or something can be persuaded, then the only someone in that sentence other than "he", which we have already established is the subject, is "her" which must therefore be the direct object receiving the persuasion.

He cannot persuade "not to go", because firstly that does not make sense, and secondly "not to go" is a phrase (however, we care to view it), and not a person or animal. It therefore cannot receive his persuasion.

This means that the only possible direct object in that sentence has to be "her", otherwise you end up with an illogical mess in my opinion.

So I think the key place to start in this instance is logical meaning first, then grammatical analysis second, and if the two agree then we have found the answer.

(But I still bet we haven't reached agreement. I've probably just rattled the hornet's net with a big stick! :lol:).
 

TheParser

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***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Dear members and guests interested in this topic:

Your humble servant has found some information that will knock your socks off!

Please go to Google and type in these words: grammar -- Feel confused about to-infinitive

*****

The discussion (about "persuade," for example) is brilliant -- in my opinion.

Even your humble servant was able to understand 75% of it.

Credit goes to the members of the grammar helpline Stack Exchange.
 

MikeNewYork

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But it has much to do with "non-finite verbs".
 

mawes12

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Matthew asked this:

Then is the infinitive in question a noun, an adjectives, or an adverbs?

And I want to know what clause do you think this is, he persuaded her that she shouldn't go?

I think some clauses and verbals say the same thing. I might be wrong though.
 

MikeNewYork

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I would say "that she shouldn't go" is a noun clause acting as the direct object of the verb. That would leave "her" as the indirect object.
 

mawes12

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I was thinking what you were thinking and it's probably the answer to the question.
 
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