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