The Infinitive
Historically, the infinitive is a verbal noun. Hence its double nature: it
combines the features of the verb with those of the noun. It is the form of the verb
which expresses a process in general, i.e. a process that is not restricted (i.e.
concretized) by person, number, tense, and mood. Because of its general process
meaning, the infinitive is treated as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the
verb.
The infinitive has two presentation forms: marked and unmarked. The
marked infinitive is distinguished by the grammatical word-morpheme to,
historically a preposition. Similar to other grammatical word morphemes, to can be
used to represent the corresponding construction as a whole (e.g. You can read any
of the books if you want to). It can also be separated from its notional part by a
word or phrase, usually of adverbial nature, forming the so-called split infinitive
(e.g. We need your participation, to thoroughly investigate the issue.) The marked
infinitive is an analytic grammatical form.
The other form of the infinitive is unmarked; it is traditionally called the
bare infinitive. It is used in various analytic forms (non-modal and modal), with
verbs of physical perception, with the verbs let, bid, make, help (optionally), with a
few modal phrases (had better, would rather, would have, etc.), with the relative
why.
The infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as
a result it serves as the verbal name of a process. It has the grammatical categories
of voice, aspect and temporal correlation. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of
the infinitive includes eight forms: the indefinite active, the continuous active, the
perfect active, the perfect continuous active; the indefinite passive, the continuous
passive, the perfect passive, the perfect continuous passive.
to take — to be taking
to have taken — to have been taking
to be taken —to be being taken
to have been taken — to have been being taken
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The continuous and perfect continuous passive can only be used
occasionally, with a strong stylistic colouring. It is the indefinite infinitive that
constitues the head-form of the verbal paradigm.
The verbal features of the infinitive. Like the finite form of verb, the
infinitive distinguishes the categories of aspect, voice, and temporal correlation.
The paradigm of the infinitive is determined by the semantico-syntactic
properties of the process. If the process is intransitive, we cannot derive voice
forms
e.g. to walk – to be walking vs. *to be being walked
to have walked – to have been walking vs. *to have been being walked
The nounal features of the infinitive. Semantically and morphologically, the
infinitive is much more similar to the verb than to the noun: its verbal features
outweigh its nounal features. Similar to the noun, the infinitive can be used as the
subject or part of the subject, the predicative, and the attribute.
1. A General Outline of Functional Parts of Speech
According to the criteria of form, meaning and function, all words are
divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier
grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.
Functional words are characterized by incomplete nominative meaning, they
are non-self-dependent and they perform mediatory functions in the sentence.
On the principle of "generalized form" only unchangeable words are
traditionally treated under the heading of functional parts of speech. As for their
individual forms as such, they are simply presented by the list, since the number of
these words is limited, so that they don’t need to be identified on any general
scheme.
To the basic functional series of words in English belong the article, the
preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection.
6. The Modal Word
The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less
pronounced detached position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected
situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability (probably,
perhaps, etc.), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc.),
and also of affirmation and negation.
Modal words stand in a special relation to the sentence. They are not
sentence members, since giving an evaluation of the entire situation presented in
the sentence, they stand on the outside. For instance, in the sentence Perhaps,
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dimly, she saw the picture of a man walking up a road (Christie) the modal word
perhaps is not a sentence member, but if we remove it, the meaning of the
utterance will change – it will be just a statement of the fact.
Academician Shcherba states that there are some words that do not belong to
any part of speech. Prof. Ilyish regards the words yes, no and please as standing
outside the part of speech system. This point of view is also supported by Prof.
Smirnitsky.
