Real Grammar - Susan Conrad, Douglas Biber 2009
Noun + Infinitive
Unit 44 I’ve got a lot to do
What have you learned from your grammar textbook?
Nouns (N) can be followed by an adjective phrase (AP) functioning as a noun modifier:
What does the corpus show?
A
Infinitives can be used in adjective phrases that modify nouns. They are slightly more common in conversation than in writing. Other kinds of adjective phrases and adjective clauses are much more common in writing (see Unit 39 for an overview of noun modifiers in writing).
• The best thing to do is call.
• He hasn’t had time to talk.
B
In conversation, only a few nouns are commonly modified by infinitives. These nouns are very general in meaning (see Units 19 and 20 for more on general nouns in conversation). In a noun + infinitive combination, the infinitive expresses specific information and makes the message clearer than the noun alone would.
* Way can also mean “distance,” usually in a long way to go: We've got a long way to go.
C
Most infinitive phrases do not have a subject stated in them because the subject is clear from the context. However, occasionally the subject of the infinitive is stated in a prepositional phrase with for:
D
In academic writing, most nouns modified by infinitive phrases are more specific than the general nouns in conversation. For example, the nouns evidence and assumption are abstract, but they are more specific than thing or stuff:
• There is evidence to suggest that we should control for age when assessing the impact of income.
• This is too general an assumption to make.
However, the general nouns time and way are also common with infinitives in writing:
• Sedimentation must have been fast enough to bury the tree before the tree had time to rot.
• One obvious way to minimize this problem is to reduce the number of different data formats.
Activities
1 Notice in context: Read the two excerpts from different conversations and the paragraph from an academic text. Underline the noun + infinitive combinations.
1. Conversation: A dog trainer explains the advantages of a small cage (a “crate”).
You can put your dog in its crate at nighttime, and you don’t have to worry about it, and your dog has its own little special place to sleep and a quiet time to relax. I mean like a portable cage inside your house, to put your animal in. That’s also the best way to housebreak your dog, is get a crate.
2. Conversation: A field researcher misses a good opportunity.
When she first went to Dulce she was trying to find a place to stay there, and they made her this incredible offer. They said, you can stay in our portable housing for teachers, but you have to be a teacher’s aide. She should have jumped on it because it would be a way for her to make friends and meet people, which you have to do before you can find an assistant and start getting data, but she wasn’t thinking that way. She told them that she didn’t have time to be a teacher’s aide and then they all got insulted and everybody ignored her, the whole community.
3. Academic writing: About a new medical discovery
We have seen evidence to suggest that this could be the first step in what will probably be a revolution in medicine over the next decade. Gene therapy, a new medical tool in the war on cancer and many inherited disorders, could be used on patients for the first time this fall. A scientist for the National Institute of Health said that if the technique works, it gives doctors a powerful new way to cure the incurable.
2 Practice the structure: Complete each one of these sentences from conversation or academic writing with a noun and an infinitive from the appropriate box. Use each infinitive only once.
1. Conversation.
a. The best time to study for any test is early in the morning.
b. If you’re gonna take a tropical vacation, the ... is Hawaii.
c. Cake doesn’t sound like a particularly healthful ... for breakfast.
d. The boss just put these files on my desk. I’ve got plenty of ... before I leave tonight.
e. Now is the ... what could happen if you go ahead with this plan.
2. Academic writing.
a. Studying Latin grammar and vocabulary is an easy ... general linguistic concepts to language learners.
b. In the world of traditional physics, it was the natural ... that energy flowed in and out of space in a perfectly continuous way.
c. A series of passages were read by adults in a reading comprehension study, with the ... each sentence being measured.
3 Practice conversation: work with a partner. Take turns asking each question and responding with a noun + infinitive combination that makes sense. A meaning category is suggested in parentheses for each one. Write your answers after you say them.
1. A: When do you think we should take our trip to New England? (time)
B: The best time to go is in the fall, when the leaves are changing color.
2. A: I’m going to do laundry. Do you have dirty clothes? (object)
B: ...
3. A: Should I buy a big screen TV now, or wait until they’re cheaper? (time)
B: ...
4. A: What college do you recommend for math? (place)
B: ...
5. A: What can I do to get my kids to eat their vegetables? (manner of doing something)
B: ...