SLGin grammar, the basic form of a verb, used with ‘to’ in English. In the sentence ‘I want to watch television’, ‘to watch’ is an infinitive. 〔动词的〕不定式〔英语语法中动词的基本形式,与to连用;I want to watch television一句中,to watch是不定式〕
infinitive• Independently of any other verb, the bareinfinitive here expresses an event as a possibility, a rejected possibility.• Given this shift, the appearance of to before the infinitive is not surprising.• The view of to proposed here allows one, furthermore, to account for the two major uses of the to infinitive.• The distinction between these two ways of conceiving permission accounts for the use of either the bare or the to infinitive here.• Bolinger does not mention it, but the opposite is also true: exclusively perceptual verbs refuse the to infinitive.• In some of its uses, the to infinitiveevokes an event as non-realized or yet to be realized.
Origininfinitive
(1400-1500)Late Latininfinitivus, from Latininfinitus; because the verb is not limited by person or number
ADJECTIVE | VERB + INFINITIVEADJECTIVE➤bare不帶 to 的不定式◇Modal verbs generally take the bare infinitive.情態動詞通常用不帶 to 的不定式。➤perfect不定式完成式◇You use 'have' to form the perfect infinitive of a verb.用 have 一詞構成動詞不定式的完成式。➤passive不定式的被動語態▸➤split分裂不定式◇The use of the split infinitive is now generally acceptable.分裂不定式的用法現在已被廣泛接受。VERB + INFINITIVE➤form構成不定式▸➤take用不定式▸➤split分裂不定式