Re: Grammar of "something to do."

 >From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
 >
 >You will be happy that Latin gives us the clue on how to call this form.
 >Indeed, Latin has a derived adjective called the verbal adjective that has
 >exactly this meaning.

        Well, I had considered that, however...

 >                       The verbal adjective has a passive obligation
 >meaning: "which must be ...-ed". So your examples are translated as "quiddam
 >faciendum" and "quidam amandus" or "quaedam amanda" (depending on the sex of
 >that person to love).

        In the examples I gave I don't perceive any obligation, which
is why my mind seized up.  I would take the "to X" construction to
mean something like "which SUB may X."  So, "something I may do."  The
sentence "I need someone to love" isn't really a statement of
obligation.

        There is a similarity, though.

--
wm

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