Samuere Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The Usage of 'to'
All of this resonates across American culture to find a literary echo in William Faulkner's famous assertion that ~.
While I was studying English, I came across this particular sentence, and I could not clearly understand its meaning, especially the part where 'to' is involved.
I tried searching through dictionary, but 'to' had too many ways of translation and I could not find the suitable one.
Thus, I would like to know how I should translate 'to' in this sentence. And if possible I would very much appreciate it if you can provide other similar examples.
While I was studying English, I came across this particular sentence, and I could not clearly understand its meaning, especially the part where 'to' is involved.
I tried searching through dictionary, but 'to' had too many ways of translation and I could not find the suitable one.
Thus, I would like to know how I should translate 'to' in this sentence. And if possible I would very much appreciate it if you can provide other similar examples.
Top answer
"to" is an infinitive marker. "
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"to" is an infinitive marker. I would say that the infinitive is used in sense 1.2 at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/to:
Expressing an outcome, result, or consequence
In practice, the meaning is not very different from "All of
Expressing an outcome, result, or consequence
In practice, the meaning is not very different from "All of
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Thanks GPY for clarifying this. I can understand it much more clearly now.
Just to make sure that I understood you, does that mean that since it is 'expressing outcome', that 'thus' or 'therefore' could be used?
=> All of this resonates across American culture, thus finding a literary echo in ~
Just to make sure that I understood you, does that mean that since it is 'expressing outcome', that 'thus' or 'therefore' could be used?
=> All of this resonates across American culture, thus finding a literary echo in ~
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samuere=> All of this resonates across American culture, thus finding a literary echo in ~I would say that "thus" has a stronger sense of reason or consequence.
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samuereAll of this resonates across American culture to find a literary echo in William Faulkner's famous assertion that ~.It's typically called an "infinitive of result". The way I read it, "to find" can be paraphrased as "and finds" without distorting the idea too much.
CJ
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Thank you GPY and CJ.
So what you mean is that 'to' does have the meaning of 'consequence', but not as strong enough as to use thus and therefore right?
So what you mean is that 'to' does have the meaning of 'consequence', but not as strong enough as to use thus and therefore right?
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