Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)
A. I. Pronichev: On the Question of Distinguishing Between Syntactic Constructions in English
50 Difficulties of the same kind also emerge when the substantive is followed by the infinitive, especially when sucli word combinations occur after the verbs to want, to need, to like, to wish and the infinitive is used with the particle '"to". The infinitive in this position can have various syntactic connections with the previous words and, for this reason, may be ambiguous. Let us take this examaple: 10. When other people want something to keep my dividents down, you will call out the police. (B. Shaw) As a matter of fact, the infinitive here has triple ambiguity: 1/ it may refer to the preceding sustantive as its logical subject and to the preceding verb and understood as the second part of the "Accusative with the Infinitive" construction (= people want that something should keep); 2/ it may refer to the preceding substantive only and understood as its attribute (= people want something that would keep); 3/ it may refer to the subject of the sentence (people) as its logical subject and understood as an adverbial modifier of purpose (= people want something in order to keep). No difficulty emerges when the infinitive is retroactive 1 1'that is active in form and passive in meaning. In this case the infinitive is used as an attribute to the preceding substantive. For example: 11.1 often feel I want someone to talk to. (A. Cronin) There is no problem when the infinitive is used without the particle "to" after the verbs to see, to hear and so on. In this case it is, of course, the second part of the "Accusative with the infinitive" construction. Difficulties arise, as we have already said, when the substantive and the infinitive are used after the verbs to want, to wish, to need, to like. Let us take this example : 12. She is going to the States and she wants a caretaker to look after her house. (I. Murdoch) In this sentence after the verb "to want" there is the substantive and the infinitive. Formally, this word combination coincides with the construction "Accusative with the Infinitive". But it is not. Transformations (chosen by English informants) show that the infinitive here is used as an attribute to the preceding substantive (=she wants a caretaker who would look) . Here, too, the meaning of definiteness or indefiniteness can help us distinguish between the infinitive as the second element of the construction "Accusative with the Infinitive" and as an attribute to the preceding substantive. If the substantive is indefinite, then the infinitive is most probably used attributively. And if the substantive is definite in meaning, then the word combination is the "Accusative with the Infinitive"
