Re: Grammar of "something to do."

These look to me like relative datives; "a place for-the-living-in",
"something for-the-doing-of" and so on. That's certainly how Omeina sees
them: ala allinalle (place | dwell-abstract noun-dative case with implied
relative).
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Talpas Tim" <tim@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: Grammar of "something to do."


> #
> # How in the world do you analyze phrases like "something to do," "a
> # place to live," "someone to love?"
> #
> # It looks like an English infinitive is following these nouns, but the
> # exact nature of the relationship is a little confusing to me.  Clearly
> # the "to X" phrase modifies the noun.  There's sometimes a hint of
> # obligation in these phrases, sometimes suitability.
> #
> # How do other languages handle this?
>
> Seems almost prepositional... Portuguese handles this with 'para +
infinitive'
>
> "algo pra fazer" - something to do (this kinda has a literal meaning of
>     "something for doing")
>
> and Romanian with 'de + past participle'
>
> "ceva de facut" - something to do
>
> -tim
>
> http://www.zece.com/conlang/