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70
Complex sentence with
I tell you this so that you may
an adverbial clause of
understand the situation.
purpose
We put the matches away lest
the baby should find the box.
Complex sentence with
If I were you ...
I should not object to it.
an adverbial conditional
I should come ...
if I knew the address
clause
I should have called on you
yesterday ...
if I had known the address
Should I meet him, I shall tell
him about it.
NON-FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB (VERBALS)
§ 95. There are four non-finite forms of the verb in English: the infinitive (to take), the gerund (taking),
participle I (taking), participle II (taken). These forms possess some verbal and some non-verbal features. The
main verbal feature of the infinitive and participles I and II is that it can be used as part of analytical verbal
forms (is standing, is built, have come, will do, etc.)
Lexically non-finites do not differ from finite forms. Grammatically the difference between the two types of
forms lies in the fact that non-finites may denote a secondary action or a process related to that expressed by the
finite verb.
Non-finites possess the verb categories of voice, perfect, and aspect. They lack the categories of person,
number, mood, and tense.
None of the forms have morphological features of non-verbal parts of speech, neither nominal, adjectival or
adverbial. In the sphere of syntax, however, non-finites possess both verbal and non-verbal features. Their non-
verbal character reveals itself in their syntactical functions. Thus, the infinitive and the gerund perform the
main syntactical functions of the noun, which are those of subject, object and predicative. Participle I functions
as attribute, predicative and adverbial modifier; participle II as attribute and predicative. They cannot form a
predicate by themselves, although unlike non-verbal parts of speech they can function as part of a compound
verbal predicate.
Syntactically the verbal character of non-finites is manifested mainly in their combinability. Similarly to
finite forms they may combine with nouns functioning as direct, indirect, or prepositional objects, with adverbs
and prepositional phrases used as adverbial modifiers, and with subordinate clauses.
Non-finites may also work as link verbs, combining with nouns, adjectives or statives as predicatives, as in:
to be/being a doctor (young, afraid). They may also act as modal verb semantic equivalents when combined
with an infinitive: to have/having to wait, to be able/being able to stay. So the structure of a non-finite verb
group resembles the structure of any verb phrase.
All non-finite verb forms may participate in the so-called predicative constructions, that is, two-component
syntactical units where a noun or a pronoun and a non-finite verb form are in predicative relations similar to
those of the subiect and the predicate: I heard Jane singing; We waited for the train to pass; I saw him run, etc.
The Infinitive
§ 96. The infinitive is a non-finite form of the verb which names a process in a most general way. As such, it
is naturally treated as the initial form of the verb, which represents the verb in dictionaries (much in the same
way as the common case singular represents the noun).
In all its forms and functions the infinitive has a special marker, the particle to. The particle to is generally
used with the infinitive stem and is so closely connected with it that does not commonly allow any words to be
put between itself and the stem. Occasionally, however, an adverb or particle may be inserted between them:
She doesn’t want to even see me once more.
The infinitive thus used is called the split infinitive, and is acceptable only to give special emphasis to the
verb.
Although the particle to is very closely connected with the infinitive, sometimes the bare infinitive stem is
used. The cases where the infinitive loses its marker are very few in number.