Please, excuse his interrupting you.

His interrupting is a complex object expressed by the Gerundial Construction in which the Indefinite Gerund Active is in predicative relation to the possessive pronoun.

1. THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INFINITIVE.

The Inf. is a non-finite form of the verb which names a process in a most general way. It has a special marker, the particle to. The Inf. has a double nature: it combines verbal features with those of the noun. The verbal features of the Inf. are of 2 kinds: morphological & syntactical. 1. Morphological: the Inf. has the verb categories of voice (active-passive), correlation (non-perfect-perfect) & aspect (common-continuous). The category of correlation. The category of correlation finds it expression in the opposition of non-perfect & perfect forms.

The category of time correlation. Inf has no tense category. The time of the action is indicated by the finite verb.” It is/was/will be exciting to study languages”. The time reference of the inf is relative: it can be understood only through its reference to the time of the finite verb. Inf express the time of the action as prior to, simultaneous with or posterior to the action expressed by the finite verb. The actions of non-prefect inf may: -take place at the same time with the action of the finite verb (“He was happy to see us”) - follow the action of the finite verb (“She is studying to become a teacher”) - precede the action of the finite verb- no time lapse between the events (“I was surprised to learn she had left”) Perfect inf - the action of perfect inf precedes the action of the finite verbs (he claims to have written the essay) -perfect inf can be used to denote actions which were not carried out (“ I hoped to have written the essay by noon”)

The category of aspect. The category of Aspect finds it expression in contrasting forms of the common aspect and the continuous aspect. The difference between the category of aspect in finite verb and the Inf. is that in the Inf. it is consistently expressed only in the active voice: to speak –to be speaking; to have spoken – to have been spoken. The passive voice has practically no aspect oppositions. The continuous aspect forms denote an action in progress at some moment of time in the present, past or future; the meaning of the common aspect forms is flexible & is easy modified by the context. The continuous aspect forms are very seldom used, & cannot perform all the functions in which the common aspect forms are used. They can function only as: subject (to be staying with them was a real pleasure); object (I was glad to be waking); attribute (It’s time to be leaving); part of a compound verbal predicate (Now we must to be getting back). The continuous aspect forms do not occur in the function of A.M. The category of voice. The Inf. of transitive verbs has the category of voice. But in the Passive voice the Inf. is found only in the common aspect forms. The active Inf. points out that the action is directed from the subject, the passive inf. indicates that the action is directed to the subject: Ex.: She was born to love. / She is born to be loved

2. THE SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INF AND THE INF AS A PARENTHESIS
The verbal character of the inf is expressed in its combinability:
a)Inf can be modified by adverbials
I am afraid I cannot drive faster.
b)Inf can take prepositional objects
He was taught to look after himself.
c)Inf of transitive verbs can take direct objects
He seemed to know everything.

Inf manifest their nominal character when they are used as subjects (to love is to victimize), predicatives (our aim is to successed), objects (I promise to wait), part of a predicative (he is hard to deal with)

There are Inf-ve phrases that operate as one syntactic whole. (phrasal subject, phrasal predicatives, phrasal objet, phrasal attributes) Conjunctive Inf-ve Phrase = wh-phrase. The phrase is introduced by a conjunctive pronoun or adverb: who, what, where, when, whether, how… “ What to say was a problem. Where to go was a question.”

Predicative complexes can operate as one syntactic whole. (complex subject/predicative/object/attribute/adverbial) “ There is much for a visitor to see in NY”-complex attribute

Inf can be used in some fixed phrases that are added to speech of writing to give extra information, to show the way the speaker thinks and feels about sb or smth, to provide an explanation upon the content of the whole sentence. these syntactically independent elements are called parentheses

- to sum up, needless to say, to begin with. Ex: Her comments were tactless, to say the least

3. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPLE

The verbal character of participles is revealed through their morphological categories. P1 has the categories of time and voice, thus appearing in 4 forms. Though P2 has one form is possesses the potential meaning of voice and correlation. (P1: active and passive, non-perfect and perfect).