What are infinitives?

[Pokemon]

Well, you can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink. I'm already beginning to feel as I were preaching language theory to gentiles. 'For seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand'.

The end.

 

[BobK]

Philo and I have already answered this.

For Quirk, and me, - it's a finite verb phrase.
For Chomsky it's a VP (verb phrase)
Many others would call this conceptual unit a phrase.

I would also agree that in 'has been crying', the three words represent the present perfect form of the verb 'cry'.

I am not going to say that it is not a phrase, and you are not going to say that it is. We'd better agree to differ and stop now before we bore everyone else to tears.

Yes indeed. This is a good summary. This forum is called 'Ask a Teacher'. Would everyone please remember that, before arguing ad infinitum about the number of angels that would fit on a pinhead.

And people who want to emulate Bacon's 'jesting Pilate' in their quest for Truth* should take the discussion to another forum.

b

PS * Jesting Pilate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia