We saw on p. 37 that verbs can take a wide variety of expressions as their complements. Further study of the complementation of verbs will feature in Chapter 5. However, in order to provider representative survey of the distribution of verbs, we now need to take note that verbs can themselves occur as the complements of verbs. For instance, the verb want can have either a noun phrase or a verb phrase as its complement: He wants a permit He wants to sleep In the first of these, a permit is a noun phrase; in the second to sleep is a verb phrase. The verb sleep appears here with the word to in front of it. This word is called the infinitive particle. Expressions like to sleep, to go, to see are called infinitives, or to-infinitives. As the name suggests they are non-finite (see above, pp. 41–2), having no tense or subject agreement. Here are some further examples of sentences in which the main verb is complemented by a to-infinitive: The porter expects to find the key in the lock I am trying to close the door In the first of these, the first verb phrase is expects and it is complemented by the infinitive to find which, in its turn, has a noun phrase as complement, the key. In the second example, the first verb phrase is am trying, with main verb try, and this is complemented by to close (which, in its turn, has a noun phrase, the door, as complement). We must be careful not to confuse toinfinitives with prepositional phrases beginning with the preposition to (see Chapter 2, p. 21): to London to the coast (he alluded) to their injuries In these expressions to is followed by a noun phrase, not a verb phrase. Sometimes a verb is complemented not by a to-infinitive but by some other non-finite form, usually by an ing-form: The house wants painting
He continued singing