The Grammar of English Infinitives with Czech Comparison

Author: Michaela Čakányová and Peter Kosta Series: Potsdam Linguistic Investigations

The infinitival particle to carries the feature irrealis and is one of the irrealis moods.Infinitives are of different sizes: control infinitive is bi-clausal, raising infinitive is mono-clausal and there are two types/sizes of ECM infinitives.Bigger infinitives are more independent and form phases that often express irrealis.

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Summary

Description

This book aims to clarify some puzzles that have been topical in formal linguistics for many decades now. It concerns the status of English and, for comparison, Czech infinitives, as opposed to finite clauses and marginally also gerunds. The book systematically demonstrates the functional (meaning) and syntactic (form) properties of infinitives. It highlights the essential properties common to all infinitives, their core structure in Logical Form (LF) and their relation to an irrealis feature. It also investigates the particularities of the various infinitival constructions.

About the Author

Michaela Čakányová teaches and researches in the areas of morphosyntax and syntax in the Department of English and American Studies, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Her research interests also include morphology, semantics, and philosophy of language.