Translation of the English infinitive is greatly predetermined by its form and sometimes by its function in the sentence. The infinitive functioning as a single part of the sentence, i.e., not being a component of a secondary predication complex, has usually corresponding equivalents in Ukrainian. The latter are a single infinitive or infinitival phrase when the infinitive functions as
1. The subject:
It was pretty nice to get back
to my room. /Salinger/ .
get Irene out of London... ...
that was the thing. /Galsworthy/ - !
There was no need to desribe He
the Kelseys. (Christie) .
2. The simple nominal predicate:
A gentleman to strike ࠠ /
lady! (B.Shaw) !
His son - descend to this! ...
(Norris) !
This function of the infinitive is often observed in Ukrainian literary speech style, eg: Hi. He ! () ... (.) . ()
3. Part of a compound modal or aspect predicate /or predicative:
No, you couldn't have called Hi,
her beautiful. (Mansfield) .
"We are bound to win our next "
game", their coach promised (The ' "-
Jordain) .
... the company began to mark ... /
252
253
the time. (LDurrel) .
Her next step was to sgeak to
Llewellyn. (Cronin) .
You will ha ve to wait until you .
hearfrom me again. (Dreiser) .
4. The Object (simple, extended or expanded):
Julia found it very pleasant to 볿
sjt then in the shade looking at
the river. (Maugham) /.
She taught him to sit at a ta-
ble and not gut his elbows on it.
(Ibid.) .
The infinitive has also its equivalents in Ukrainian when it is
used as a complement to an adjective or adjectivized past participle:
I'm very glad to have seen you ,
again... (Cronin) /
...
Very often the English infinitival object may have in Ukrainian an equivalent infinitival phrase introduced by the conjunction:
/ was too much disturbed to -
|
|
|
go to bed. (C. P. Snow) , .
5. An attribute (which is less often used in Ukrainian) as in the sen
tence below:
Can I give you anything to eat
or to drink? (Lawrence) ?
He had a strong wish to win. ³ .
Attributive infinitives can also be conveyed with the help of at
tributive subordinate clauses: ,
We made a list of things to be /
taken... (Jerome) .
This same attributive syntaxeme may also be translated as / .
Some English attributive syntaxemes can be conveyed in Ukrainian with the help of an attributive subordinate clause:
... he wasn't a sort of boy to ... ,
be moved from a purpose...
(Ibid.) .
Some English attributive infinitives may have apart from subordinate clauses or infinitival phrases/infinitives also prepositional nouns for their semantic equivalents in Ukrainian:
... there were instructions to... /
be carried out. (Cronin) dm (
).
Note. This function of the infinitive is often observed in Ukrainian colloquial speech: / . ³ /.
6. An adverbial modifier (usually of purpose, result or consequence) may be conveyed in Ukrainian with the help of an infinitival -phrase, a prepositional noun or a noun word-group:
She wanted time to think
over. (Galsworthy) /
.
It was too dark to distinguish ,
anything. (Lawrence) -.
These were the main Ukrainian semantic equivalents for single English infinitives performing different functions in the sentence.
