non-finite verb forms

Question 1

infinitive: with or without “to”?

Answer 1

usually preceded by “to”: To see is to believe.

“to” is left out after:
- auxiliaries
- certain idiomatic expressions: I cannot but admire your decision.
- a first coordinated infinitive clause: We’d like to stay a few days and then (to) go on.
- “let”, “make”, and verbs of sensual perception with notional subject (NOT the syntactical not. S, but the clausal one!!): They’ve let him go. What makes you think so?

Question 2

FU FO of the following structures:
It was nice to speak to you.
We consider it wrong to cheat in exams.

Answer 2

extraposed subject/object!

It was nice to speak to you.
S(grammatical) V Cs S(notional)

We consider it wrong to cheat in exams.
S V O(grammatical) Co O(notional)

Question 3

infinitive-clauses with notional subjects of their own

Answer 3

clausal notional S ≠ sytactical notional S !!

• without “to” after verbs of sensual perception, let, make, and sometimes know:
  I heard her leave the house. They let him go. She felt the sweat trickle down her spine.
• with “to” after verbs expressing desire, belief, knowledge:
  She wanted him to go with her. They know him to be a spy. The jury believed the youth to be guilty of arson.
• constructions with for + infinitive:
  The best thing would be for you to tell everybody. For him to object would be folly. She was eager for him to do it.
• with + infinitive:
  With Michael to advise her, she was soon able to extract $80 a week.

Question 4

the gerund

Answer 4

• has noun-like and verb-like characteristics
• can be (part of) the S, O, Cs, A
• or a postmod. of AdjP/NP + preposition
  He’s good at playing tennis. There was no hope of getting a job.
• Prepositional verbs always take a gerund

Question 5

the (present) participle

Answer 5

• can be an A
• never S or O
• can be premod. or postmod. of a NP without preposition (but somtimes with the optional conjunction ‘with’)

Question 6

what’s the problem here?
Being in charge, the accusation that he was incompetent was particularly annoying for him.
If paid generously, we can expect them to work hard.
Having slept for half an hour, the telephone rang.

Answer 6

misrelated participles!