The Semantic Analysis of Infinitives in the English Language

The area of English infinitive construction constitutes one of the greatest challenges to a theory of syntax based on semantic foundations. This paper aims to find the deep semantic meaning of the infinitive as a complement clause. It analyzes the semantic meaning of the infinitive, including the marker TO. It argues that the marker TO cannot be perceived as the mere marker and that it has its own meaning in an infinitive construction. It also argues that the TO infinitive as a complement clause has the meaning of "wanting" and indicates the speaker's opinion and emotion. It also discusses the semantic meanings of the FOR TO structure. It concludes that the meanings of the TO structure and the FOR TO structure are different. FOR TO complements are "habitual", and less confident. Another conclusion is that OF TO is a little different from FOR TO in that the OF TO pattern is used in evaluating a person and an act at the same time, while the FOR TO pattern is used for evaluating an act, rather than an act and a person.