infinitival
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.03 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, pertaining to, or formed from an infinitive.
adj
Having a function or usage similar to an infinitive.
Example Sentences
- "For example, we want to be able to stipulate in the lexical entry for persuade simply that it takes an NP and a clausal Complement ([...]). From the meaning of persuade, it will follow that the clausal Complement cannot be interrogative or exclamative. From independent word-order restrictions (an NP Complement must be positioned immediately adjacent to its sister V), it will follow that an NP Complement must precede the clausal Complement. Given that both Exceptional Clauses and Small Clauses must immediately follow a transitive Verb, it will follow that the clausal Complement of persuade cannot be an S or an SC, but rather must be an S-bar. Given that S-bar can be either finite or infinitival, we should expect to find that in the unmarked case, either type of clausal Complement is possible with persuade: and examples such as the following suggest that this is correct: (64) (a) Mary persuaded John [_(Sʼ) [_C that] he should resign] (64) (b) Mary persuaded John [_(Sʼ) [_C e] PRO to resign]"
- "The verb following a modal auxiliary must be in infinitival (untensed) form, such as chase (and not chased, chases, chasing)."
Etymology
From infinitive + -al.
Inflected Forms
more infinitival (comparative)
most infinitival (superlative)