Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 59 стр.

      I promised to obey, and went upstairs with my message... (Dickens).
«We’d better take shelter,» she said (Maugham). I am glad to hear you say
so (Bronte). ...You must come and see his work (Galsworthy).
      When the action expressed by the infinitive refers to the îbject
of the sentence, the infinitive is an objective infinitive:
      You will allow me to see you again...? (Dickens). I want: you to
give me some information (London). He begged her i not to go...
(Dickens). Minny made Sarah sit in the one‘: comfortable chair close
to the fire... (Mazo de la Roche).

             The Functions of the Infinitive in the Sentence

      The infinitive is used:
      1. As subject:
        For the Soviet people, to live means to create, to go forward
constantly. To hear the wind getting up out at sea, to know that the
fog was creeping over the desolate flat outside, and to look at the fire
and think that there was no house near but this one, and this one a
boat, was like enchantment (Dickens).
        When the subject of the sentence is an infinitive phrase, it is
sometimes placed after the predicate. Then the sentence begins with the
pronoun it, an introductory word called the anticipatory it: it is neces-
sary to..., it is important to..., it is good (better) to..., it is bad (worse)
to..., it is useless to..., it is (of) no use to..., it is not much use to..., it
is little use to..., it is impossible to..., it is quite possible to..., it is quite
natural to..., if is difficult to.., it is hard to..., it is easy to..., etc.
        It was sufficient to sit there, to breathe, to look at the river and
trees, simply to exist (Braine). ...She sang delightfully: it was a treat to
listen to her (Bronte). It was pleasant to observe the fresh flowers in
the room (Dickens). It had been Penny’s idea to invite the mother
and daughter... (Mazo de la Roche).
        2. As predicative:
        His next step was to speak to Llewellyn (Cronin). Her greatest
joy was to receive letters every week and to write long replies (Gor-
don). All I had now to do was to obey him in silence... (Bronte). To
wage an active struggle for peace means constantly to expose plotters
of a new war, to foil their schemes and to rally more and more
millions of people to the defence of peace.


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