Adverbial Infinitive phrase?

[Luckysquirty]

She wants us to eat a good breakfast.

Two questions:

1) Is the infinitive phrase "to eat a good breakfast" adverbial modifying "wants"?
2) Is "us" the direct object of "wants"? Thank you.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

1: I don't know.

2: Yes.

 

[Luckysquirty]

Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

The gratitude is appreciated, but we prefer that you just click "Thank". It's more efficient.

 

[TheParser]

She wants us to eat a good breakfast.

NOT A TEACHER

Hello,

If I understand my sources correctly, there are at least two ways to analyze your sentence.

1. "us to eat a good breakfast" is an infinitive phrase/clause that is the object of the verb "wants."

a. "us" is the subject of the infinitive phrase/clause.
b. Your sentence is the accepted way to say "She wants that we eat a good breakfast," which -- as one of my sources would say-- sounds "strange" or "unidiomatic."

2. You can also say that "us" is the direct object of "wants."

a. Then, the infinitive phrase/clause "to eat a good breakfast" is an objective complement. That is to say, "to eat a good breakfast" complements (completes) the meaning of the object "us."

*****

Be very careful though. Look at "We promised her to come."

Who promised to come? "We" did, not "her." Therefore, "her" is the indirect object, and "to come" is the direct object of "promised."




Sources: Paul Roberts, Understanding English (1954), pages 360 and 362; Pence and Emery, A Grammar of Present-Day English (1947 and 1963), page 72.

 

[Luckysquirty]

TheParser: First off, thanks for explanation. May we have a look at your sentence: "We promised her to come." Let's change it to "We promised her money." Here, we have a "true" direct object the noun "money." In yours, the infinitive functions as a noun (object). Is that accepted?

 

[TheParser]

In yours, the infinitive functions as a noun (object). Is that accepted?

NOT A TEACHER



In Pence and Emery's book (page 65), it states: "[A]n infinitive may have the function of a noun."

"It began to rain just as I was starting for home." The book explains that (a) "just as I was starting for home" adverbially modifies "to rain" and (b) "to rain" functions as a noun (the direct object of "began").

 

[Luckysquirty]

NOT A TEACHER



In Pence and Emery's book (page 65), it states: "[A]n infinitive may have the function of a noun."



"It began to rain just as I was starting for home." The book explains that (a) "just as I was starting for home" adverbially modifies "to rain" and (b) "to rain" functions as a noun (the direct object of "began").

Just saw something. Maybe proper structure: "The rain began just as I started home." Adverbial clause modifying the verb "began." No confusion. Thanks, again for your help.

 

[PaulMatthews]

She wants us to eat a good breakfast.

Q1: No.
Q2: Yes

"Want" is a catenative verb so this is a catenative construction, where syntactically "us" is direct object of "wants", and the subordinate infinitival clause is catenative complement of "wants".

"Us" is also the understood (semantic) subject of the infinitival clause.

"Us" is here called a 'raised object' because the verb it relates to syntactically is higher in the constituent structure than the one it relates to semantically.

The word 'catentive' comes from the Latin word for "chain", which is appropriate here since the verbs "want" and "eat" do indeed form a chain, separated by only the noun "us".

Note that direct objects are always noun phrase, not clauses.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The gratitude is appreciated, but we prefer that you just click "Thank". It's more efficient.

But nothing is worse than "Thank you in advance."

(Of course it's in advance!)

 

[jutfrank]

Side point: I consider We promised her to come as ungrammatical.

Does the pattern promise somebody to do something really sound okay to other members?