1. I had him leave.
2. I asked him to leave.
In sentence #1, is leave an infinitive without the particle to?
What function does leave (in sentence #1) and to leave (in sentence #2) serve? Object complement?
Thanks!
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
(1) The books do not agree. I am happy to tell you the opinions of two very
good grammar books (for ordinary people like me):
A Grammar of Present-Day
English (by Pence & Emery)and
Descriptive English Grammar (by House and
Harman).
(2)
He asked me to go
(a) Analysis #1:
Me and
to go are direct objects of
asked. [Personally, I cannot
understand this reasoning.]
(b) Analysis #2:
Me to go is an infinitive clause (or
phrase) that is the direct
object of
asked.
Me is the subject of the infinitive
to go. [Personally, I like this.]
(c) Analysis #3:
Me is the direct object of
asked;
to go is the objective complement
of
me.
(3)
He made me go (here we are dealing with an infintive that does not have a "to,"
such as your "I had him leave").
(a) Analysis #1:
Me is the direct object of
made;
go is the infinitive clause/phrase
that is the objective complement of
me.
(b) Analysis #2:
Me go is an infinitive clause/phrase that is the direct object of
made;
me is the subject of the infinitive
go. [When a person diagrams a sentence
of this kind, s/he diagrams it as:
me (to) go. That is, one does not say or write the
word "to," but -- nevertheless -- it is there in theory.] I prefer Analysis #2.
P.S. If you go to the diagramming forum of
usingenglish. com, they will be
delighted to draw a Reed-Kellogg diagram of any sentence that you give them.
Although many people nowadays ridicule Reed-Kellogg as "old-fashioned" and
"useless," many of us find that it gives us a perfect "picture" of a sentence.
