Б. С. Хаймович, Б. И. Роговская теоретическая грамматика английского языка

The Infinitive

§ 311. The infinitive is a verbid characterized by the following features:

1. Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of an action, process partially viewed as a substance.
2. The categories of voice, aspect and order (see paradigm on p. 185).
3. Its peculiar combinability resembling that of the verb, and partly that of the noun.
Like a finite verb the infinitive is associated:
a) with adverbs, e. g. to speak fluently;
b) with nouns and pronouns denoting the doer or the object of the action.
E. g. We expected у о и to bring the book.
Like a noun the infinitive may be associated with a finite verb: To land seemed impossible. I promised to come.
4. The word-morpheme to.
5. The syntactical functions of subject, predicative, object, attribute, adverbial modifier, etc.
6. Its participation in analytical forms like stall bring, will bring, should bring, would bring, etc.
The infinitive representing an action in its most general form is often treated as the initial form of the verb, 'the verbal nominative', in the terminology of A. A. Shakhmatov

§ 312. The infinitival to is usually called a particle, but it is never mentioned in the chapters dealing with parti­cles, and with good reason too, for it does not possess the prop­erties of a particle. Particles as a part of speech are charac­terized by their lexico-grammatical meaning of "emphatic specification" (see § 372). The infinitival to does not empha­size or specify anything. All particles have distinct lexical meanings. To has no lexical meaning whatever. Particles are characterized by extensive combinability: they form combinations with words of almost any part of speech. To is connected only with the infinitive. All this clearly shows that to is not a particle. It is a group-morpheme of the infi­nitive. Its being a word-morpheme at the same time distin­guishes it from other group-morphemes, such as -ing, -en, etc.

§ 313. Like other word-morphemes to can represent the whole analytical word.

Compare the answers to Will you go?
1) Yes, I shall, where shall represents the analytical word shall go.
2) I want to, where to represents the analytical word to go.

§ 314. Like other word-morphemes, to can be separated from the rest of the analytical word by some other word or words, in which case linguists speak of the split infinitive.

Cf. He will fully appreciate...
In order t о fully appreciate... E. g. They asked him t о personally intervene to stop the
closure of the Holyrood Knitwear factory. (D. W.).

§315. The presence or absence of this word-morpheme depends on the environment of the infinitive in speech, thus the infinitive is used without its word-morpheme to after some verbs and verbal expressions, namely: a) after modal verbs (save ought), b) verbs of physical perceptions — to see, to hear, to observe, to perceive, to watch, c) to make, to let, to bid, d) had better, would rather, etc.

§ 316. The aspect, order and voice meanings of the infi­nitive are the same as in the finites. We shall only re­mark here on some special uses of the perfect infinitive in speech.

After such modal verbs as should, ought, might, the past tense of to be (used as a modal verb) and the past tense of verbs denoting hope, intention, expectation, wish, etc. the perfect forms of the infinitive carry a peculiar modal meaning to show that the hopes, intentions, etc. have not been re­alized.
My father might have made millions in the theatres and film studios. (Shaw).
I hoped to have written you a long letter. (Gaskell).
I ought not to have stayed there so long.

The forms to have written, to have stayed in combination with the verbs hoped, ought express the modal notion of irreality.

When the perfect infinitive is used with the present tense of modal verbs, as in He must have arrived. He may have arrived, it expresses the speaker's judgement in the present concerning the probability of some prior action.
He т и s t have b e e n a rum old bird. (Shaw). Your arrival cannot have been announced to His Majesty. (Ib.).