Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 53 стр.

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The Infinitive

Historically, the infinitive is a verbal noun. Hence its double nature: it

combines the features of the verb with those of the noun. It is the form of the verb

which expresses a process in general, i.e. a process that is not restricted (i.e.

concretized) by person, number, tense, and mood. Because of its general process

meaning, the infinitive is treated as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the

verb.

The infinitive has two presentation forms: marked and unmarked. The

marked infinitive is distinguished by the grammatical word-morpheme to,

historically a preposition. Similar to other grammatical word morphemes, to can be

used to represent the corresponding construction as a whole (e.g. You can read any

of the books if you want to). It can also be separated from its notional part by a

word or phrase, usually of adverbial nature, forming the so-called split infinitive

(e.g. We need your participation, to thoroughly investigate the issue.) The marked

infinitive is an analytic grammatical form.

The other form of the infinitive is unmarked; it is traditionally called the

bare infinitive. It is used in various analytic forms (non-modal and modal), with

verbs of physical perception, with the verbs let, bid, make, help (optionally), with a

few modal phrases (had better, would rather, would have, etc.), with the relative

why.

The infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as

a result it serves as the verbal name of a process. It has the grammatical categories

of voice, aspect and temporal correlation. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of

the infinitive includes eight forms: the indefinite active, the continuous active, the

perfect active, the perfect continuous active; the indefinite passive, the continuous

passive, the perfect passive, the perfect continuous passive.

to take — to be taking

to have taken — to have been taking

to be taken —to be being taken

to have been taken — to have been being taken