Ways of rendering the lexico-grammatical meanings and functions of the English infinitive

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/

To get Irene out of London... that was the thing. /Galsworthy/

There was no need to desribe

the Kelseys. (Christie)

2. The simple nominal predicate: «A gentleman to strike a lady!» (B.Shaw)

This function of the infinitive is often observed in Ukrainian
literary speech style, eg: Hi. He бути панам на Вкраїні!
(Сосюра)

Вже скоро бути бабиному літу. (Дмитерко)

3. Part of a compound predicate /or predicative:

No, you couldn't have called Hi, її не можна було назвати
her beautiful. (Mansfield) гарною.

... the company began to...товариство заходилося/

mark the time. (LDurrel) розпочало відраховувати час.

Her next step was to speak її наступним кроком було

to Llewellyn. (Cronin) ^ поговорити з Ллевеллином.

«You will have to wait until you «Вам доведеться почекати.

hear from me again.» (Dreiser) доки я знову сповіщу про себе».

4. The Object (simple, extended or expanded):

~i- --- - -,

Джулїі дуже подобалось тоді сидіти в затінку і дивитися на річку/воду.

Вона вчила його сидіти за столом і не класти на нього руки.

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 «я дуже радий, що зуст-

you again...» (Cronin) рівся з вами знову/що побачив

вас знову...»

Very often the English infinitival object may have in Ukrainian an equivalent infinitival phrase introduced by the conjunction:

/ was too much disturbed to Я був аж надто стурбова-
go tQ bed. (C.P.Snow) ний, щоб іти спати.

5. An attribute (which is less often used in Ukrainian) as in the sen­tence below:

«Can I give you anything to «Дати вам щось поїсти чи.
eat or to drink?» (Lawrence) попити?»

Attributive infinitives can also be conveyed with the help of attributive subordinate clauses:

We made a list of things to be Ми склали список речей,
taken... (Jerome) щоб узяти з собою/які візьме­
мо з собою.

This same attributive syntaxeme may also be translated as які/що треба було взяти з собою.

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 «... він був не з тих хлопців,

bje moved from 3. purpose... (Ibid.)

Some English attributive infinitives may have apart from sub­ordinate clauses or infinitival phrases also prepositional nouns for their semantic equivalents in Ukrainian:

... there were instructions to... були дані інструкції до /
be carried out. (Cronin) для виконання (які треба було

виконати).

Note. This function of the infinitive is also observed in Ukrain­ian: мати бажання поїсти/щось випити. Він мав надію ще зустрітися.

6. An adverbial modifier (usually of purpose, result or con­sequence) may be conveyed in Ukrainian with the help of an infinitival щоб-phrase, a prepositional noun or a noun word-group:

She wanted time to, think it їй треба було часу для
over. (Galsworthy) обдумування/щоб обміркува­
ти це.

It was too dark to_ distinguish Було занадто темно, щоб
anything. (Lawrence) розрізняти що-небудь.

These were the main Ukrainian semantic equivalents for sin­gle English infinitives performing different functions in the sentence.