Can you specify if infinites can be used as imperatives?
Is there a passage in The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins, 1874) which is full of infinitive forms of verbs? How would you phrase “Toxxx?”
What I find hard to explain is that despite the infinitives, this passage clearly functions as an imperative/directive. It contains a list of instructions to be followed. How would the phase “Walk out on South Spit” have made perfect sense without the leading “To”.
Is this an incorrect use of infinitive form, but it makes perfect sense and doesn’t grate on me as I read it.
I feel like I’ve sometimes heard or written other text in the same form.
Is this a “Poetic” style which isn’t strictly a correct use of the infinitive? Is there any other ‘tense’ which is not the infinitive?
In the beginning of this story, “Memorandum: How shall I go to the shivering Sand at the turn of the tide” To walk out on the south spit, until I get the South Spit Beacon, and the flag-staff at the Coast-guard station above Cobb’s Hole in a line together. To lay down on the rocks, a stick, or any straight thing to guide my hand, exactly in the line of the beacon and the flag-staff. To take care, in doing this, that one end of a stick shall be at the edge of the rocks, on the side of them which overlooks the sand. To feel along the stick, amongst the sea-weed (beginning from the end of the stick which points towards the beacon), a little deo, for the Chain. To run my hand along the chain, when found, until I come to the part of it which stretches over the edge of the rocks, down into the quicksand. If you want a chain to pull, then pull the chain. ”
( Online source). ( Online source) But seeing the picture in the
first paragraphs (italics are similar to the original and isn’t intended as a future
tense) makes it seem like your tense.
Wie Mitch noted above, “I want” is understood. What can “Input I want” to a sentence? What is a refusal process of word after “to” function in alliteration? Also, the passage takes place by the sea, and the repetition is probably meant to reflect the constant pounding of the waves.
Why did you omit two key points from the original Quora interview?
if the quote starts with the word ” Memorandum (— “; and
2.a) the following text immediately precedes your quote: “I
turned to the more interesting object of investigation which was presented to me by Rosanna Spearman’s letter.” “For Franklin Blake, Esq., 71, and G. H. M. Reeves, Esq. To be given into his own hands (and not to be trusted to anyone else) by Lucy Yolland. I
broke the seal of my air conditioner. I sent an envelope to the envelope and the envelope contained the envelope at the end of the envelope. I did not take a slip of paper in it, but had a slip on the envelope. I read the letter first:
“Sir,—If you are curious to know the meaning of my behaviour to you, during you were staying in the house of my mistress, Lady Verinder, do what you are told to do in the memorandum enclosed with this—and do it without any person being present to overlook you. Your humble servant,”Rosanna Spearman. ”
f I turned to the slip of paper next. What is the “commandment” contained in the letter word for
word: “Do what you are told to do as in the memo enclosed with this…” That all the “sentences” beginning
“To…” is a list of instructions to be carried out by the recipient of the letter: that is why they all begin “To…” In fact, the word “To” could have been excluded from the beginning of each instruction, such that the items in the list begin:
Go to the Shivering Sand at the turn of the tide.
On the South Spit,…. Lay down on
the rocks… With the word “to” omitted
from each instruction, they are in the normal format for instructions: “Do this…; do that…; etc.”
“So
it’s not a “poetic style”; nor misuse “of the infinitive”; nor “some other “tense” – but just a list to instructions!
What is
the difference between the instructions in the English version of the Question ‘Do & Do’ and the instructions in the English version?
If I don’t know the answer well, I have no ‘definitive’ answer. What I would point out that the book dates back to the 1870’s. I wonder whether the form “To do…” was used at that time. This is a fiction page.
In any case, we do still talk of a ” to do list “, and a ” list of things to do “, so (to my mind) there does seem to be a close connection there.
