The Infinitive Functioning As Adverbial

摘要

The infinitive is a kind of non-finite forms of the verb. It has partly the character of a verb, partly that of a noun and also that of an adjective and adverb. It shows its verbal character by its capacity of taking the ordinary verb-modifiers, objects and adverbial adjuncts, exhibiting, at least in part, the distinctions of tense and voice. It shows its substantival character by its capacity of filling the same functions in a sentence as an ordinary noun. It can act in the function of adverbial as well as attribute, subject, object, predicative, apposition and so on. In this article, we will only discuss the question about the infinitive used as adverbial.