Non-finite clauses

Definition

Finite

The finite clauses are the ones that are complete, much like main clauses, with subjects, and tense, and agreement in inflection on the verb.

Non-finite

Non-finite clauses, by contrast, are always subordinate, don’t show tense or agreement information, often don’t have a subject, and often refer to a mere possible situation rather than an actualized one.

Important

CGEL perspective

There is no verb form in English that is appropriately called ‘the infinitive’. That term isn’t used in this book at all.

Infinitival clauses are simply non-finite clauses with the head verb in the plain form. But the plain form also appears on the head verb of some nite clauses: imperative and subjunctive clauses. Just as no verb in English has distinct‘gerund’ and ‘present participle’ forms (hence our term‘gerund-participle’), there is also no verb in English with a special ‘infinitive’ form reserved for in nitival clauses.

Subject and subjectless

• Non-finite clauses may be subjectless, and in fact frequently are, so the predicand typically needs to be figured out from the larger construction.

• Finite clauses without subjects are few and exceptional

Go home! (imperatives)

Nearly missed it! (main clauses with dropped subjects in casual speech)

… of larger than [was intended]. (comparative clauses)

• Certain non-finite clauses also have a non-subject NP missing

worth looking at

• Non-finite clauses with personal pronoun subjects have various forms, those with nominative case (which is required in finite clauses)

• None of the non-finite clauses in have subjects. But they still have to have the semantic equivalent, a predicand – something for the predicate of the non-finite clause to apply to.

I want to write a novel (we understand “me” to be the predicand not only of want but also of write, even though the 1st-person singular pronoun is not actually present in the write clause)

Interpreting subjectless clauses

Syntactic determination:

Ellen asked [to leave] (infinitival subject: understood = Ellen)

Ellen asked Max [to leave] (infinitival subject: Max, overt, the object of ask must be understood as the predicated)

Non syntactic determination:

It is unwise [to go swimming straight after a heavy meal]

It is unwise for anyone to go swimming straight after a heavy meal] (inference meaning, could mean “for you” or other option in another context)

It was unwise [to invite Buster to the party]

It was unwise by …specific someone who issued the invitation… [to invite Buster…](It might have been explicitly stated earlier in the preceding discourse, not necessary for any NP referring to the inviter to be located in some designated syntactic position in the matrix construction of the infinitival clause)

Important

In the non syntactic the infinitival clause is an extraposed subject, not a controlled complement.

There is no controller licensed by “unwise” or by the extraposition construction. The understood subject is interpreted generically: “one should not…”

Non-finite functioning as adjuncts

Falls between the determined and non-determined constructions. If there is a competition, we might get “dangling participles/modifiers”. Typical at the start of a sentence.

The predicand may be derivable from some entity previously introduced in the discourse:

Marisa… While trying on a wealthy woman’s dress, a handsome and rich politician mistakes her… (who is trying? Marisa? The politician?)

Or the predicand may be understood as a participant in the speech act:

Walking in the park, several new ideas for the story development came to mind. (probably the speaker)

Some expressions of similar structure involve phrases that have become more conventionally established as non-finite clause adjuncts; they do not seem puzzling to interpret, and they could be paraphrased with “one” or “you” or “we”:

In the long run, [taking everything into account], which is the wisest choice?

[Considering the recent economic turmoil], these figures are not bad.

[Speaking of heroes], there’s something kind of heroic about this show.

Non finites with subjects

Non-finite clauses with an overt subject are useful when you want the benefits of non-finite compression but cannot or do not want to leave the subject implicit.

Use	Example	Rhetorical effect
Avoid ambiguity	She arranged for John to speak first.	Makes the performer of the action explicit.
Highlight a desired or required situation	All I want is for us to be reunited.	Focuses on the state of affairs rather than the wanting.
Express requirements or conditions	She insisted on there being a counsellor present.	Presents the requirement as a circumstance rather than a full assertion.
Maintain a compact style	We waited for the rain to stop.	More economical than an equivalent finite clause.

[For them to refuse her a visa] was quite outrageous.

All I want is [for us to be reunited]

Note

In to-innitivals a personal pronoun with distinct nominative and accusative formsalways takes the accusative

Gerund participle as complement:

She insisted on [my /me being present at the interview].

She insisted on [her father’s /her father being present at the interview].

She insisted on [there being a counsellor present throughout the interview].

Note

Here and in most other complement functions, we nd both genitive and non-genitive (accusative or plain case) subjects.

Some NPs like the meaningless dummy “there” can’t take genitive case

Gerund participle as adjunct:

She sought advice from Ed, [he being her most experienced colleague].

(?) She sought advice from Ed, [him being her most experienced colleague]. (construction formal, accusative informal, so not entirely acceptable)

Subordinators

The distinctive infinitival subordinators to (before the verb) and for (before the subject) occur only in non-finite clauses.

Subjectless to-infinitivals are marked by the initial word “to”. It’s not a preposition now - it’s a special marker for VPs infinitival clauses, functioning rather like a subordinator.

When a to-infinitival contains a subject, it also contains the subordinator for:

[For John to lose his temper like that] is highly unusual

We’ve arranged [for everyone to travel business class].

The subordinator originates as the preposition for. It’s a meaningless subordinator.

There is a vague similarity in meaning between:

I longed for your return

I longed for you to return

Non-finite clause

Kinds of non-finite

I want [to write a novel] (to-infinitival)

I could [write a novel] (bare infinitibal)

I dream of [writing a novel] (gerund participle)

I have [written a novel] (past-participle)

Me a novelist! (verbless, no verb from)

Bare infinitival clauses

• Bare infinitivals lack the “to”

• Almost always have no subject.

• Occur after various auxiliary verbs such as can, may, will , etc.

She can [speak French]. (Modal auxiliaries)

I saw him [cross the street]. (verbs of perception)

They made her [redo the assignment]. (causative/dynamic Verbs)

Let us [go].

To-infinitival clauses

These are introduced by the word “to”, which is classified as infinitival marker rather than a preposition or a part of the verb itself.

In CGEL terms, to-infinitival clauses are the most widely used non-finite clause type. They occur in a broad range of functions: as complements, subjects, predicative complements, modifiers, and adjuncts.

Important

Unlike bare infinitivals, to-infinitivals are not restricted to a small set of licensers.

I want [to leave]. (to infinitival, unexpressed subject)

It is important [to be careful]

I am anxious [for him to succeed].” (to infinitival, overt subject, here him is the overt subject of the infinitival clause).

• The subject is optional and usually omitted.

• If present, it must be preceded by for, and if it’s a personal pronoun like “I , he, she, we, or they,” the pronoun appears in a different in inflectional form from the normal one for subjects in canonical clauses

It’s vital (for him) to keep us informed

Subordinates with plain form

Mandating

Commanding, urging, requiring, etc (Mandative clause is the “subjenctive”)

• Always introduced by that

• Always the subject

• If it’s a pronoun - in the nominative (I, he, she, we, they)

Verb is plain form is the formal version:

It is essential *that she be there promptly at noon

I only ask that the dog stay out of the the bedroom

The dean insisted that I attend his stupid meeting

Informal does use tensed:

that she’s there … (she is)

that the dog stays …

that I attended …

Infinitival

• to-infinitivals (not the to preposition)

• bare infinitival (less commonn)

• Many verbs, adjectives or nouns specifically select infinitival clauses as their complements

• Verbs like want, try, hope, love and more take to-infinitivals

• Modal auxiliaries take bare infinitival complements (will be careful, be careful etc)

We tried to be careful (Try verb, to-infinitival)

We will be careful (Will modal aux, base infinitival)

I’ll be happy to help you (happy, adjv, to-infinitival)

Their plan to keep it secret failed (plan, noun, to-infinitival)

Special cases:

• “Help” takes both

• “Make” takes bare in active, and to- in passive

It was made to …

Infinitival interrogative

• Closed or open (like interrogatives)

• No subject

• No tense

I didn’t know whether to believe them of not (know, verb)

I did not know who to talk to

It’s unclear whether to … (unclear, adj)

It’s unclear who to …

Infinitival with subjects

• Introduced by the subordinator “for” (for is not a preposition here)

Jim arranged for us to be met at the airport (arranged for us to meet someone)

As for prep:

Jim arranged to be met at the airport for us (What Jim arranged he meet someone, and it’s somehow he does that “for us”)

Subordinates with gerund-participle

• Act almost as NP

• Often occur as the object of a preposition

I’m worried about going there after dark (no subject)

I’m worried about him going there after dark (accusative subject)

I’m worried about his going there after dark (genitive pronoun subject)

Subordinate with past-participle

• Complement of the auxiliary Have (aux). “Perfect” in the sense of “completed” in the past, that has present relevance.

The president has given her a job in the White House

Have you written that recommendation letter yet?

• Principle verb in a passive clause

Most of the plants in the field had been trampled by wild hogs

He produced a document written in a foreign language (noun modifiers)

Transperant verbs

Transparent (raising) verbs let the writer frame an event from a different perspective without adding an independent participant or action.

Note

A verb is called “transperant” because it does not impose its own semantic roles on the subject.

The train began to move. (with to-infinitival, the train moved, and the movement started. A train is not something that “begins”)

The train began the journey (lexical verb move, the train is not the predicand of a lower clause.)

Pattern	Analysis
begin + NP	ordinary lexical verb
begin + to-infinitival / gerund-participial	transparent catenative verb

The rain began to fall. (transparent)

The rain began falling. → (transparent)

She began the experiment. (not transparent)

“begin” is a transparent verb: its subject is the predicand of the subordinate VP, not of the VP in its own clause.
The meaning of begin applies to the situation described in the subordinate clause:

Max’s crude jokes began to offend the audience.

The audience began to be offended by Max’s crude jokes.

With transparent verbs like begin, continue, seem, appear, the matrix subject is interpreted as the subject of the subordinate clause. The matrix verb contributes only a meaning such as beginning, continuation, appearance, etc., to the subordinate situation.

Effect	Explanation	Example
Focus on the situation, not the actor	The matrix verb modifies the event itself (start, continue, appear, seem) rather than introducing a new participant	The economy began to recover.
Compact packaging	A complex event is presented as one unit	The problem appears to be worsening.
Impersonal/objective style	Common with evidence, trends, and analysis because no human evaluator is required	The results seem to indicate a decline.
Flexible information focus	The writer can choose what entity appears as subject while keeping the same event	Strange sounds began to fill the room vs The room began to be filled with strange sounds.

Raising with transparent verbs

Consider the theoretical proposition (not actual grammatical sentence): “seem [that the train is moving]”

With raising:

The train seems [__ to be moving] (the train was raised to the matrix clause)

Note

There are other types of raisings.

See reference tables

Note

We could also use dummy pronoun, with a finite clause:

It seems that the train is moving

Which forgrounds the evaluation rather than the fact itself. In raising constructions, dummy pronouns can only use transparent verbs.

See dummy pronouns

Raising example

Strange sounds began to fill the room.

Strange sounds began [__ to fill the room].

• “begin” does not mean “strange sounds begin something”.

• What began was the filling of the room with strange sounds.

• The underlying proposition is about the sounds filling:

Strange sounds filled the room. (the proposition)

• The verb begin adds the meaning:

The process of strange sounds filling the room started.

• Strange sounds = subject of the infinitival clause (fill the room)

Passive test reveals a transparent verb, raising a subject, since it’s the same meaning:

The room began [__ to be filled with strange sounds].

Here the relationship is clearer because the passive makes the lower clause visible:

The room was filled with strange sounds.

Then begin applies:

The process of the room being filled with strange sounds started.

The meaning is essentially the same as:

Strange sounds began to fill the room

Objects and internal complement clauses

to-infinitival clauses with an overt subject (predicand), where the subject of the infinitival clause is expressed as an NP rather than being controlled or raised.

Verbs that occur with an in nitival internal complement with an NP predicand

Construction	Example	Status of Lisa	Relationship to the matrix clause	General focus
For-marked infinitival	They arranged for Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	Subject of the infinitival clause only	Not an object of the matrix verb; belongs entirely to the subordinate clause	A projected situation with an explicit subject
PP + infinitival	They counted on Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	Object of the preposition and subject of the infinitival clause	Matrix PP complement and predicand of the infinitival	A participant linked to a situation
Object control	They persuaded Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	Object of the matrix verb and predicand of the infinitival	Matrix object controls the understood subject of the infinitival	A participant performing an intended action
ECM (raising-to-object)	They assumed Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	Matrix complement and subject of the infinitival	Semantically belongs to the infinitival; matrix verb predicates over the proposition	A proposition presented for evaluation

Object control:

Construction	Example	Object control?	Analysis
For-marked infinitival	They arranged for Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	✗ No	Lisa is only the subject of the infinitival clause. The matrix verb takes the whole for-clause as its complement.
PP + infinitival	They counted on Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	✗ No	Lisa is object of the preposition on, and also the subject of the infinitival clause.
Object control	They persuaded Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	✓ Yes	Lisa is object of persuaded and controls the understood subject of the infinitive.
ECM (raising-to-object)	They assumed Lisa to be at the staff meeting.	✗ No	Lisa is the subject of the infinitival clause but appears as a matrix complement; the matrix verb does not assign Lisa a semantic role like persuade does.

Note

Placement of adjuncts

They arranged only recently ]for Lisa to be present at the meeting]. (allowed, before a clasual complement)

They persuaded only recently Lisa to be present at the meeting. (Lisa is the object, can’t put adjunct between a verb and it’s object)

They assumed only recently Lisa to be present at the meeting. (again, Lisa is the object)

Pseudo clefts:

What they arranged was for Lisa to be at the staff meeting. (The for-infinitival clause is a complement of arrange, so it can be extracted and focused as a whole.)

What they persuaded was Lisa to be at the staff meeting.

What they assumed was Lisa to be at the staff meeting

See also

CGEL 14.2.2

Transitive verbs with gerund-participial complements

Gerund-participial constructions:

Construction	Example	General focus
Gerund-participial clause with overt subject (possessive form)	He resented their being given special privileges.	Presents a non-finite situation with an explicit subject
Gerund-participial clause with overt subject (object form)	He resented them being given special privileges.	Same meaning; less formal variant of the possessive construction
PP + gerund-participial clause (possessive form)	We hadn’t counted on his being so insensitive.	Presents a situation as something depended on or expected
PP + gerund-participial clause (object form)	We hadn’t counted on him being so insensitive.	Same meaning; less formal variant
Object + gerund-participial clause	We caught him mistreating the cat.	Links a participant directly to an observed/perceived action

Transitive verbs:

The focus here is on transitive verbs because transitive verbs create the structural issue CGEL wants to examine: the relationship between the matrix object and the subject of the gerund-participial clause.

Note

With non-transitive there is no NP between the verb and the non-finite clause, so there is little ambiguity.

He kept working. (non-transitive)

With transitive verbs:

We caught him mistreating the cat.

He resented their being given special privileges.

CGEL needs to ask:

• Is the NP an object of the matrix verb?

• Is the NP the subject of the gerund-participial clause?

• Can it be both?

NP role:

Example	NP role	Analysis
He resented their being given special privileges.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Their is not an object of resented; the whole gerund-participial clause is the complement of the verb.
He resented them being given special privileges.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Them is not an object of resented; object case form is possible before gerund-participials.
We hadn’t counted on his being so insensitive.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	His is the subject of the gerund-participial clause inside the PP complement of counted on.
We hadn’t counted on him being so insensitive.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Him is the subject of the gerund-participial clause; object case form is possible.
We caught him mistreating the cat.	Object of the matrix verb and subject of the gerund-participial clause	Him has both roles: object of caught and subject of mistreating.

Structure analysis:

Example	NP role	Analogue with to-infinitival
He resented their being given special privileges.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Finite analogue: He resented that they were given special privileges
He resented them being given special privileges.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Same construction with a different subject form
We hadn’t counted on his being so insensitive.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	We counted on Lisa to be so insensitive
We hadn’t counted on him being so insensitive.	Subject of the gerund-participial clause only	Same construction with a different subject form
We caught him mistreating the cat.	Object of the matrix verb and subject of the gerund-participial clause	Similar pattern: They persuaded him to leave

Verbless

There aren’t any prepositions that license ONLY a verbless complement clause, but with and without allow both non- nite and verbless clauses. A few others– such as although, if, once, and while– accept three kinds of clauses: nite, non- nite, and verbless.

Impact:

Example	Focus / rhetorical impact
He’d been there without anyone noticing him.	Presents an accompanying event; more explicit and process-oriented.
He was sunbathing without any sunscreen on.	Presents an accompanying state/condition; more compressed and immediate.
While I was working in Rome, I lived with them.	Presents a full background event with explicit time and viewpoint.
While working in Rome, I lived with them.	Presents the background activity more compactly and integrates it with the main event.
While in Rome, I lived with them.	Presents only the relevant setting/state; highly compressed and backgrounded.
Just imagine — our son being a doctor!	Presents the situation as an imagined state of affairs; more event-like.
Just imagine — our son a doctor!	Presents the imagined state directly and vividly; more immediate and emphatic.

Structure:

Example	Clause type	Grammatical explanation
He’d been there without anyone noticing him.	Non-finite gerund-participial clause	Anyone is the understood subject of noticing. The gerund-participial clause is the complement of without.
He was sunbathing without any sunscreen on.	Verbless clause	Any sunscreen is the subject, and on is a predicative complement/adjunct. The clause has no verb but has clause structure.
While I was working in Rome, I lived with them.	Finite clause	I was working has a finite verb with tense. While introduces a finite subordinate clause.
While working in Rome, I lived with them.	Non-finite gerund-participial clause	The subject is understood as I from the main clause. The clause has no tense and uses the gerund-participial form working.
While in Rome, I lived with them.	Verbless clause	The understood subject is I. The clause contains the subject-related element in Rome but no verb.
Just imagine — our son being a doctor!	Non-finite gerund-participial clause	Our son is the subject of the gerund-participial clause being a doctor.
Just imagine — our son a doctor!	Verbless clause	Our son is the subject, and a doctor is the predicative complement; the verb being is omitted.