§ 203. The infinitive in the function of attribute immediately follows its head-noun and is used with the particle to.

e.g. There is only one way to do it. You are just the man to do it. He gave her permission to leave. Have you any complaint to make against her? He was touched by the man's desire to help him. Whether you want to do that or not is a matter for you to decide.

Note 1. The infinitive to come undergoes change of meaning — it means 'буду- щий, предстоящий'.

e.g. He looked happy, as if he were dreaming of pleasures to come. She did not realize it for months to come.

Note 2. If the infinitive is placed before a noun, it is part of a combination which tends to become a set phrase. The number of such phrases is limited, e.g. what-to-do advice, this never-to-be-forgotten day, a much-to-be-longed-for place, an ever-to-be remembered occasion and the like. Although the infinitive mainly serves as an attribute of nouns proper, it is also freely used with certain noun equivalents. Thus it is typical of the infinitive to modify the indefinite pronouns some- body, nobody, anybody, everybody, someone, no one, anyone, every- one, something, nothing, anything, everything as well as the in- terrogative pronouns what and who.

e.g. "Have you got anything to eat?" Katherine asked- The sergeant said they had nothing to do there. It's been wonderful having someone to help. "I haven't finished yet." "What is there to finish?"

The infinitive is also freely combined with ordinal numerals (mainly with the first) and the substantivized adjective the last which always have the function of the predicative in the sentence, e.g. He was always the first to enter the dining-room and the last

to leave. Andrew was the third to be interviewed.

The infinitive also serves as an attribute to nouns which are preceded by ordinal numerals or the adjective last. e.g. He was the first man ever to discuss the philosophy of sci- ence with Erik. The film star Ann Wilson is the 34th actress to play this

part on the London stage. Dear Steve, your last letter to reach me was two months old.

The infinitive may also serve as an attribute of pronouns and pronominal expressions of quantity such as much, little, enough, no more, little more, a great deal, a lot, plenty, etc.

e.g. I've got a lot to be thankful for.

I thought you had quite enough to do looking after the house

and so forth.

You are leaving me very little to say. You've got so much to learn.

Occasionally the infinitive is used to modify the prop-word one. e.g. If you, boys, want to go on I'm not the one to spoil the game. He wasn't an easy one to make friends with.

§ 204. The infinitive in the function of attribute is char- acterized by specific meanings. They are determined by the rela- tion between the head-word and the infinitive. These relations may

be of two kinds:

1) The head-word may be either the subject or the object of the action expressed by the infinitive. When the head-word serves

as the subject of the infinitive it may be either active or passive, depending on the active (a) or passive (b) form of the infinitive.

e.g. a) He was not the man to draw back when his dignity was concerned.

She pitied the poor young man for having no one to look

after him.

b) Remember, Roger is a man to be watched. There is nothing to be gained by pretending.

The head-word of an active infinitive may also be an object of the action expressed by this infinitive.

e.g. Love? It's a funny word to use.

Except in little things, he was the hardest man to influence. There was really nothing to fear.

In all the above examples we find the infinitive of verbs re- quiring a direct object. If a verb requires a prepositional object, the preposition follows the verb.

e.g. I'm not a very easy man to get on with. I had nothing to worry about.

He realized that he didn't know anyone here to talk to except

Max.

If the infinitive is a link-verb followed by an adjective which requires a prepositional object, the preposition is placed after the adjective.

e.g. We have, all of us here, a good deal to be thankful for, I'm sure you have nothing to be afraid of. I'm afraid I haven't much to be proud of.

If the head-word is the subject, active or passive, or the object of the action denoted by the infinitive, the latter acquires modal meaning. Depending on the context, it may denote either possibil- ity (a) or necessity (b).

e-g. a) Marion was not the type to put on weight. He was not the man to do rash things.

There was nothing to be seen or heard, not even a barking dog.

I had nobody to talk to.

Is there a place to get something to eat near here? b) Whenever there is any packing to be done, my wife doesn't

feel well.

I've got something dreadful to tell you. There was a quarter of an hour to kill, so we walked down

the river.

There is always a question or two to be considered. I've got enough to do without bothering about you.

Note that the infinitive is not lexically dependent here. It can modify practically any noun, concrete or abstract, as well as noun equivalents (see the examples above).

Note. There is, however, one exception to the rule — the ordinal numerals and the last (or nouns modified by them) always serve as the subject of the infinitive but the infinitive does not acquire the additional modal meanings of possibility or necessity in this case.

e.g. He was the first to speak.

2) The head-noun may be neither the subject nor the object of the action expressed by the infinitive as attribute. In this case it acquires appositive meaning, i.e. it serves to explain the meaning of its head-noun. That is why it can modify only those abstract nouns that admit of or sometimes even require an explanation of their meaning. So the use of the infinitive with appositive mean- ing is lexically dependent.

The number of nouns with which it is used is quite conside- rable. The most commonly occurring of them are: ability, advice, attempt, authority (= right), capacity, chance, command, compul sion, decision, demand, desire, determination, duty, eagerness, ef- fort, excuse, failure, freedom, impulse, inclination, instruction, intention, invitation, keenness, license, longing, matter, motion (= proposal), necessity, need, obligation, occasion, offer, opportuni ty, option, order, patience, permission, possibility, power (= right), precaution, promise, proposal, readiness, recommendation, refusal, reluctance, resistance, resolution, right, sign, suggestion, tempta tion, tendency, urge, way, will, willingness, wish and some others.

e.g. He had a keen desire to learn. He had an impulse to run away. He made an effort to collect himself.

He accepted willingly my invitation to remain for a few days

in my apartment.

He's given me permission to talk to you myself. You've no right to ask those questions. Her eyes had a tendency to shift from point to point about

the room.

He bit back the urge to tell a lie. Ralph was glad of a chance to change the subject.

For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the infinitive see "Verbs", § 166. (For comparison with the ing- iorm see §§ 227-230, 242.)

§ 205. When the head-noun is neither the subject nor the ob- ject of the action expressed by the infinitive in the attributive function, the latter may acquire the meaning of consequence. This is found in certain sentence patterns or when the head-noun has special modifiers.

1) In the sentence pattern "have (get, possess, lack) + the + noun +■ infinitive".

e.g. He had the courage to tell them what he thought of them. She had the nerve to tell me a lie!

The action of the infinitive is made possible owing to the qual- ity expressed by the head-noun.

The infinitive is lexically dependent in this sentence pattern — it modifies a number of nouns that denote mental or moral quali- ties. The most commonly occurring of them are: assurance, audac- ity, authority, cheek, courage, cruelty, decency, energy, experi ence, foolishness, good (bad) taste, guts, heart (= courage), humility, ignorance, imagination, impertinence, ingenuity, intelli- gence, knowledge, nerve, patience, power, presence of mind, sense, spirit, strength, stupidity, tolerance, vanity, willingness, will pow- er, wit(s) and some others.

e.g. They had the cheek to run away.

Why haven't you got the wit to invent something? She lacks the knowledge to do it the way it should be done. I can't think how you can have the impertinence to remain here. She possessed the will power to achieve her aim.

The subject of the infinitive in this function is the same as that of the predicate verb.

2) When the infinitive serves as an attribute of a noun modi- fied by enough. The noun can have different functions in the sen- tence. The infinitive is not lexically dependent here.

e.g. There wasn't enough air to stir the leaves of the lime trees. He isn't fool enough to believe that sort of thing. We need every man who has got enough spirit to say what he

really thinks. I noticed her curious trick of throwing questions at me when I

could not have enough knowledge to answer.

For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the infinitive see "Verbs", § 166.

3) When the inifinitive serves as an attribute of a noun pred- icative modified by an adjective that is preceded by too. The infin- itive is not lexically dependent here. (For the place of the article see "Articles", § 66.)

e.g. He was too clever a man to be bluffed.

This is too serious a business to be trifled with.

The action of the infinitive is made impossible owing to the excessive degree of the quality expressed by the adjective that modifies the head-noun.

For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted

by the infinitive see "Verbs", § 166.

4) In a sentence pattern where we find the correlative conjunc- tion such ... as.

e.g. He can't have been such a fool as to give them a definite an- swer right away.

The use of the infinitive of consequence in the last three sen- tence patterns is not of frequent occurrence.

§ 206. The infinitive may be used as attribute in a special sen- tence pattern with a formal it as subject. The infinitive is lexical- ly dependent here — it can modify a more or less limited number of nouns. Among them we find such se-mantically "pale" nouns as action, business, experience, idea, matter, problem, question, stuff

task, thing, way. As a rule, these nouns are modified by adjectives which are semantically more important than the nouns them- selves. The most frequently occurring other nouns are: achieve- ment, (dis)advantage, comfort, consolation, cruelty, custom, de light, desire, dream, duty, embarrassment, encouragement, error, folly, frustration, fun, habit, hell, honour, intention, job, joy, luxu- ry, madness, miracle, misfortune, mistake, nonsense, outrage, pity, plan, pleasure, privilege, relief, rule, shame, surprise, torture, treat, triumph, trouble, wonder and some others. The infinitive has ap- positive meaning in this sentence pattern.

e.g. It's a good idea to use both methods.

It's our job to worry about that, isn't it?

It was a mistake to deny it.

But it was a surprise to hear him insisting on it.

It was utter nonsense to suggest that he was lying.

It was my intention to show her how greatly she had underes- timated me.

"It must be a terrible thing to have received a classical edu- cation," she said soberly.

It's a great disadvantage to be held back by middle-class mo- rality.

It was a bitter experience for Philip to learn that his best friend had let him down.

For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the infinitive see "Verbs", § 166.

(For comparison with the ing-form see §§ 231 and 243.)