English To-Clauses: Usage and Structure
Post-Predicative To-Clauses Controlled by Adjectives
These clauses fall into five semantic categories:
- Degree of Certainty: Express possibility or conviction (e.g., certain, liable, sure, unlikely, likely). Example: He is liable to leave the job.
- Ability or Willingness: Indicate capability, awareness, or obligation (e.g., willing, prepared, ready, inclined). Example: He is prepared to answer the questions.
- Emotion or Stance: Show feelings or reactions (e.g., glad, joyful, happy, relieved, sorry, pleased). Example: I am relieved to finish the exams.
- Ease or Difficulty: Reflect the speaker’s opinion on task difficulty (e.g., it is a hard job to do).
- Evaluation: Assess actions or situations (e.g., nice, smart, bad). Example: It is nice to meet you.
Subject-to-Subject Raising with To-Clauses Controlled by Verbs
In this structure, the subject of the dependent to-clause becomes the subject of the main clause. This occurs with verbs of probability and simple facts (e.g., turn out, seem, tend, appear).
Raising with To-Clauses Controlled by Adjectives
The relationship between the implied subject of the to-clause and the main clause subject varies.
- Simple Form: The implied subject of the to-clause is the same as the main clause subject. Example: Joan was strongly motivated to succeed.
- Certainty Adjectives: Adjectives like likely, unlikely, sure, certain control subject-to-subject raising. Example: The parents are unlikely to protest against the new school rules.
- Adjectives of Ease or Difficulty: Adjectives like hard, difficult, easy, impossible, simple, complex control object-to-subject raising. Example: Without vaccines, it would be impossible to control some illnesses.
Raising vs. Extraposition
Subject-to-Subject Raising vs. Extraposed That-Clauses
Verbs of probability, adjectives of certainty, and passive voice mental verbs can use either subject-to-subject raising with to-clauses or extraposed that-clauses. Subject-to-subject raising is more common due to information flow. Extraposed constructions are preferred when a prepositional phrase precedes the clause or when modality or tense needs emphasis.
Extraposed To-Clauses
Some verbs control extraposed to-clauses, often with the copula be and a subject predicative noun or prepositional phrase. Example: It is very common to visit Topkapi Palace if you visit Istanbul.
Semantic Domains for Adjectives Controlling Extraposed To-Clauses:
- Necessity and Importance: interesting, important, necessary, essential, vital. Example: It is vital to provide countries in difficulties.
- Ease and Difficulty: easy, easier, difficult, hard, tough, possible, impossible. Example: It is easy to commit the same mistake twice.
- Evaluation:
- General Goodness or Badness: bad, worse, good, nice, better, best, wonderful. Example: It is wonderful to see the kids have fun.
- Specific Evaluation or Assessment: inappropriate, awkward, desirable, improper, convenient, safe, stupid, useful, useless, reasonable, unreasonable, smart, surprising, wise, wrong. Example: It was stupid to throw that stone at the window.
Extraposed vs. Subject Position To-Clauses
Subject to-clauses can often be rephrased as extraposed clauses. Extraposed clauses are more common due to:
- Register: Subject to-clauses are rare except in academic prose.
- Information Flow: Subject to-clauses provide cohesion with previous discourse or create impact through parallel structures.
- Grammatical Complexity: Subject to-clauses can increase complexity, leading to the preference for extraposed clauses.