Learn English – Particle or preposition

particlesparts-of-speechprepositionssyntactic-analysis

I'm studying Spanish and I have some questions about the grammatical parallels in English.

Le gustan cocinar y hornear.

He likes to cook and (to) bake.

When an infinitive is used in Spanish, there's no ambiguity, because an infinitive has a unique spelling from the rest of the forms of the verb.

So my question is this:

I'm here to help.

Is to part of the infinitive help or is it a preposition?

In Spanish, this type of construction would use a preposition:

Estoy aquí para ayudar.

or

He yells to alleviate stress.

Él grita para aliviar el estrés.

You could rephrase these sentences to say "for alleviating…" or "for the alleviation of…" which is what really makes me want to say it's a preposition, but I'm still doubtful.

This obviously isn't a major issue but it's a thought that pops into my head a lot.

Best Answer

The Spanish infinitive marker -Vr is part of the same sound unit as the verb stem it attaches to (it affects the placement of stress), and it can only appear after a verb stem, so it is classified as an affix (in this case a suffix).

English to is normally considered to be its own word (rather than an affix) because it is not all that exclusive about where it can appear w/r/t other words: it can come before a noun phrase, it can come at the end of a sentence, or it can come before a verb in its base form:

...to Rome.
...the door she went to.
...to walk.

English verbs have a base form which shows up after modal auxiliaries, and after to in forming the infinitive:

...will walk; ...can walk; etc.
...to walk.

Spanish has no special verb form corresponding the English base form, but the Spanish infinitive is a pretty close fit.

Note also that the English infinitive has more than one function. Just to name a couple:

  • The infinitive is required as a complement after certain verbs: e.g., ...hope to walk.
  • The infinitive may have purposive meaning: e.g., ...(in order) to walk.
  • The infinitive may be used to refer to a verb phrase in the abstract: e.g., to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles

These functions tend to be translated by the Spanish infinitive, but there are some uses of the Spanish infinitive that are better translated with the English present participle (-ing form). But the English present participle itself is sometimes best translated with the Spanish infinitive, sometimes the Spanish present participle (-Vndo form), and sometimes with the Spanish simple present...

Related Topic