Semantics of Complement Clause as Direct Object of Verb (Part 4 of 7)
4 minute read B: Non-Finite Infinitive Clause which cannot be paraphrased with ‘THAT Content Clause’ as Direct Object Infinitive#7 (Verb + Infinitive): Verbs for onset of a future continuous / progressive / repetitive process or event or existence or verb for onset of discontinuation of an event or existence in future Examples of main Verbs which license this construction: start, begin, cease, continue has started to walk with a crutch, the rush will start to peak after 8, started to wonder, I began to play chess since I was aged 6, began to learn swimming, continued to jump again and again, you continue to surprise me, weekend study meetings ceased to continue after you left, the department ceased to function after one year Note: ‘start + infinitive’ is used for events which continues and stops after sometime; ‘begin + infinitive’ is used for a continuing action for which ending is not relevant. We do not say ‘start/begin to jump’ because ‘jump’ is a momentary non-continuous event. It is however correct to state ‘continued to jump’ which means continuing with a momentary event by repeating it. For stative verbs such as like, know, realize, understand which cannot be used in progressive continuous tense, we can instead use ‘beginning to like/know/realize/understand’. These are neither action verbs nor event verbs. ‘Beginning to’ is used to describe initial stage of a gradual progressive process such as ‘beginning to improve/ recover’ or ‘flights are slowly beginning to resume departure after the outage’ where plural ‘flights’ mean one after another flight resumed departure. Similarly ‘frogs began to jump’ is also correct whereas ‘frog began to jump’ is incorrect. Infinitive#8 (Verb + Infinitive): Mental or State Verbs used to imply whether a prospective action is potential or not. Examples of main Verbs which license this construction: can/cannot afford, dare (as main verb), dread to think, hate, hesitate, intend, like, love, plan, prefer, would prefer, want, tend
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