Thread View: fj.sci.lang.english
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Started by S.Murakami
Sat, 06 Jul 2002 10:42
教えてください！
Author: S.Murakami
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 10:42
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 10:42
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Hello. I came across the following sentences in a textbook, which is used
for high school students in Japan.
'Do you know what an armrest is?
'It's to rest your arm on when you want to relax.'
I want to ask you about the use of the part of infinitive, 'to rest'.
1) Is the second sentence used usually in America?
2) Is the second sentence a British way of saying?
3) The second sentence is similar to a) and b) and is it right for us to
conclude they
are of the same use?
a) The house is to let.
b) The meeting is to be held next Tuesday.
* I mean second sentence is ' It's to rest your arm....'
Re: $B65$($F$/$@$5$$!*(B
Author: Collin McCulley
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 00:45
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 00:45
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"S.Murakami" <un-mrkm@sea.plala.or.jp> wrote in message news:ag6hls$3c8$1@pin3.tky.plala.or.jp...
> Hello. I came across the following sentences in a textbook, which is used
> for high school students in Japan.
>
> 'Do you know what an armrest is?
> 'It's to rest your arm on when you want to relax.'
>
> I want to ask you about the use of the part of infinitive, 'to rest'.
>
> 1) Is the second sentence used usually in America?
Yes. The gramatical construction is common. The response to
the question is more likely to be "Of course I know what an armrest
is!"
> 2) Is the second sentence a British way of saying?
No. To me (an American) it would seem natural for any
English-speaking region.
> 3) The second sentence is similar to a) and b) and is it right for us to
> conclude they are of the same use?
>
> a) The house is to let.
Yes. This construction has the same meaning as your example
sentence, namely, "for the purpose of". To me, "to let" in this sentence
seems British (Australian, too, perhaps). An American would
say "This house is for rent." This is because of the use of the
word "let", not the gramatical construction.
> b) The meeting is to be held next Tuesday.
I think this is gramatically equivalent, but here it does not
have the meaning of "for the purpose of".
--Collin
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