Something is missing to interest the reader in the story.

[navi tasan]

1) Something is missing to interest the reader in the story.
Is the sentence grammatical and meaningful? If yes, how would you parse 'to interest the reader in the story'? Is the sentence equivalent to #2?

2) Something to interest the reader in the story is missing.
Does 'to interest the reader in the story' postmodify 'something' adjectivally?

 

[jutfrank]

I know from experience that you like to think about the ambiguity of infinitival clauses so I'll guess that your question concerns whether the infinitival clause in #1 could possibly be interpreted as expressing purpose (with the sense of 'in order to'), grammatically parsed as an adjunct. Is that what you're asking? If so, I'd say it's unlikely. I hear 1) as semantically identical to 2).

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much, Jutfrank,

You did indeed read my mind. And your reply leaves nothing more to be desired!

Thanks again.