The "to~" infinitive always implies the future, except for preference Like and Love

Question

A fellow teacher said to me that the to~ infinitive always implies the future..."to eat", "to swim" etc. I disagreed and said that I thought it was abstract and had no tense in of itself.

He pointed out that most of the uses of the infinitive are always to do with the future....obligation, plans, promises, expectation, orders etc.

So, "I promise to eat my vegetables" is correct, because it implies the future...

but the gerund form "verb/noun +ing" cannot be used because it doesn't imply the future: "I promise eating my vegetables".

So far so good...but, I said, what about one of the most basic gerund/infinitive questions asked by students:
 I like swimming +
 I like to swim.

Here, "to swim" implies an ongoing habit. So it is not inherently in the future-tense...

My colleague countered that through usage, probably over hundreds of years, a usage developed to do with preference...(like, love etc) which formed an exception to the basic rule: Infinitive "to~" = Future.

So, my colleague believes that the infinitive is inherently in the future tense.....and the "I like to eat pineapples" preference usage is just an EXCEPTION that developed through possible misuse over time.

Is he right?

Colin Fine · Answer

I think your colleague is wrong. Somebody has noticed a partial pattern and has elevated it to rulehood.

The use of infinitive (with and without to) vs gerund is purely syntactic, depending on the subcatgorisation frame of the matrix verb. It is only incidentally and weakly semantic.

Greybeard · Answer

A fellow teacher said to me that the to~ infinitive always implies the future.

The teacher is wrong.
By their very nature, "to" infinitives do not have a tense. Any time frame comes entirely from the context and usually the active verb.
He will tell me how to do it. / He is telling me how to do it. / He told me how to do it.
There is a "past infinitive using the "to have" infinitive: "To have lost one parent is unfortunate." but the "to have" infinitive, itself does not have a tense.

The "to~" infinitive always implies the future, except for preference Like and Love

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question