Article

Name: Infinitive Clause: Between Grammatical Category and Metaphor

Authors: Mikhail Ya. Dymarsky

Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Abstract:

It is proved that some infinitive constructions, which are usually treated as infinitive clauses, in fact are not such: topic infinitive, the infinitive group as a subject or predicate with the second main part of the sentence eliminated, the infinitive group as an apposition to the pronominal actant, the final infinitive clause by the main clause with the verb of movement on purpose. These phenomena are especially widespread in colloquial speech, as well as in artistic speech when imitation of colloquialism. The interpretation of these phenomena as infinitive clauses is a metaphor that does not reveal, but, on the contrary, obscures their essence. In the grammatical sense, only such a construction can be recognized as an infinitive clause, in which, in addition to the expression of the only main member by an independent infinitive, 1) a position is open for a dative subject; 2) a clear modal meaning is read. The “lyrical” infinitive clause is adjacent to the “true” one, in which the position of the dative subject is closed, but the subject, nevertheless, is unambiguously specified by the genre.

Keywords: Russian language, syntax, infinitive clause, metaphor, topic infinitive, infinitive constructions

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