Infinitive Subjects or Subjectless Infinitives?
Infinitive Subjects or Subjectless Infinitives?

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues against the view that infinitive, or to be more precise, definitized clauses have subjects. The so-called infinitive subjects occur in three main types of construction: (i) subject of the infinitive introduced by the preposition for; (ii) either nominative or oblique (accusative) subjects of infinitives, and (iii) covert subjects of the infinitives. It is shown that these putative subjects have none of the relevant coding or behavioural properties of typical subjects. The so-called subjects of the infinitive are clearly semantic arguments of the non- finite predicate and their semantic interpretation depends on the meaning of the non-finite predicate, but they have not been grammaticalized as subjects.

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