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/

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