MEANINGS EXPRESSED BY BARE INFINITIVE CLAUSES

Type 4: V + NG + bare infinitive – We let them go

Typical verbs are: let, have, make; see, hear, feel; help.

Bare-infinitive clauses evoke an event in which an end-point is included, as in we let them go, we saw them go. Relatively few verbs occur in this pattern. They include three verbs of coercion, illustrated below, a few verbs of perception and the verb help.

Don’t let anxiety spoil your life.

They made the prisoners stand for hours.

I’ll have my secretary make you a reservation.

Syntactically, we analyze the non-finite clause of the make type as an object complement, complementing the direct object. Notice the parallel between: She made them angry/ She made them sit down.

Analysis of the NG + bare-infinitive complement of perceptual verbs illustrated below is more problematic. Is the NG the object of the matrix clause or the subject of the non-finite clause? Does the NG + bare infinitive refer to a whole situation, as with want?

I saw someone enter the shop late at night.

She felt something hard hit her on the head.

While the ‘whole situation’ view appears to be semantically acceptable, ‘I saw someone enter the shop’ entails ‘I saw someone’, this entailment not being the case with the want type. Syntactically, the NG is the object of the matrix clause and is also the subject of the bare-infinitive clause.

Some of the clauses of coercion and perception (but not with causative have, or with feel) can be passivized, with the NG as subject and the bare infinitive replaced by a to-infinitive, as in: The prisoners were made to stand for hours, Someone was seen to enter the shop. Let is usually replaced by allow (They were allowed to go). In this respect we find the same divisibility of the NG as occurs with the ‘ask’ type.

It is notoriously difficult to pin down the difference in meaning between help + bare infinitive and help + to-infinitive. One analysis sees the bare infinitive as direct or active involvement in bringing about the action expressed by the infinitive, as in: I’ll help you carry your luggage upstairs. With help + to, by contrast, the event is seen to be the consequence of the helping, and often means ‘contribute to’ rather than active involvement by the helper, as in Acupuncture can help people to give up smoking.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم التطوير يقدم دورة عن أخلاقيات المهنة ضمن برنامج تأهيل المنتسبين الجدد

ضمن برنامج (وفاءً للدماء).. المجمع العلمي يقيم محفلًا قرآنيًّا في محافظة المثنى

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يرفد المكتبة المركزية في ديالى بإصدارات معرفية

قسم التطوير يبحث مع ديوان الوقف الشيعي آفاق التعاون في مجال التدريب والتطوير المؤسسي

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

خبير يكشف 5 حقائق طبية صادمة وغير معروفة

ليس الأسود ولا الحيتان.. "كائن صغير" هو أخطر قاتل للبشر!

بارقة أمل لمرضى "الإيدز".. علاج خلوي ينجح في كبح الفيروس

ظاهرة مقلقة تتوسع.. "المستنشقات" خطر صامت يهدد المراهقين

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

اكتشاف مادة في الثوم تحسن قوة العضلات وتبطئ شيخوختها

تطور الحياة على الأرض المبكرة اعتمد على معدن نادر

باحثون صينيون يطوّرون بطارية مائية قد تعمل 300 عام

الذكاء الاصطناعي..هل يصبح متهما جنائيا في الجرائم والانتحار؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Type 5 b: V + NG + -ing – We deplore his/him risking his life in this way

Type 5a: V + -ing clause – I like listening to music

MEANINGS EXPRESSED BY - ING CLAUSES

Type 2: V + NG + to-infinitive clause with subject – He wants us to go

MEANINGS EXPRESSED BY TO-INFINITIVE CLAUSES

COMPLEMENTATION BY NON-FINITE CLAUSES CATENATIVE COMPLEMENTS A

COMPLEMENTATION BY FINITE CLAUSES SUMMARY

Non-finite variants

Nominal relatives

Indirect interrogatives

MEANINGS AND PATTERNS OF WH-CLAUSE COMPLEMENTS

Verb + NG + that-clause