'He stopped to smoke.' Is 'to' a preposition or part of an infinitive?

[oyatsu]

In the sentence: He stopped to smoke.Is "to smoke" an infinitive, or is "to" acting as a preposition?"Smoke" here is clearly a verb even though "smoke" can also happen to be a noun. And prepositions must be followed by nouns, so this "to" cannot be a preposition.Still, here "to" seems to have the meaning of "for the purpose of ~ing" which seems fundamentally different from the "to + verb" (infinitive) as in:She likes to swim. (there is no meaning of "for the purpose of") here.Any explanation or references you could provide to enlighten me would be wholeheartedly appreciated.

 

[jutfrank]

It's a way of marking the infinitive form of the subsequent verb.

In EFL, we call to smoke a to-infinitive form. These forms can, but do not always have the usage of expressing purpose, in which case they are called infinitives of purpose.

 

[Tdol]

And this does not mean that he quit smoking. It means that he stopped one thing, like his work, in order to smoke.

 

[engee30]

:up:

And this does not mean that he quit smoking. It means that he stopped one thing, like his work, in order to smoke.

And to add to the topic, concludig -- if you oyatsu meant 'ending an action', then you'd say: He stopped smoking.

 

[Mr Hedgehog]

I think 'to smoke' acts as a noun, the direct object of 'stopped', as the gerund 'smoking' is the direct object in the above post.

Not a teacher.

Additional question:

He stopped smoking. (smoking acting as a noun (direct object).

He stopped to smoke. (to smoke acting as an adverb, describing why he stopped)

As in:

The officer returned to help the inspectors. (the infinitive phrase 'to help the inspectors' should also be acting as adverb)

Please apoligise for that probably unqualified additional comment/question.

Thanks in advance!

 

[engee30]

Hi Matthew Wai. I sort of know where you're coming from, but I have to disagree with you on that. Smoking is the object in He stopped smoking, but to smoke is not in He stopped to smoke. So basically, it cannot be a noun either. Performing a simple test, you can determine the function of the elements in the sentence -- in a passive sentence, active objects can function as passive subjects, so technically it is possible to say:
Smoking was stopped by him

but you definitely cannot say:
To smoke was stopped by him.

That's how I see it, anyway.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Having read the above post, I think 'to smoke' acts as an adverb modifying 'stopped', which is intransitive in this context.

Hi Matthew Wai. I sort of know where you're coming from

You must have clicked on 'Member Info' under my username.

 

[engee30]

:lol:

You must have clicked on 'Member Info' under my username.

No, I promise I did not. I was merely expressing my understanding for your reasoning.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Please apoligise for that probably unqualified additional comment/question.

I think you meant to say 'I apologize' instead of asking someone to apologize.

Hi Matthew Wai. I sort of know where you're coming from

Now I think you meant to say 'I sort of know where your idea is coming from'.

 

[engee30]

Now I think you meant to say 'I sort of know where your idea is coming from'.

Yes, that's another way you can put it.