Infinitive clauses in medical English literature, a rhetorico-grammatical approach

Abstract

One hundred and fifty seven infinitive clauses we re recorded and their inmediate antecedents were grouped according to their gramatical category. The grammatic al analysis of these antecedents indicated that 94 infinitive clauses (60%) are verbal complements; 34 (22%) are adjectival complements and 29 (18%) are nominal complements. The rhetorical analysis showed that:

1) the verbal antecedents express notions of purpose; cause-effect; methodology; result;
2) the adjectlval antecedents indícate possibility; probability; or necesslty;
3) the nominal antecedents are abstract items bearing a modal connotation.

By refering to a previous study (Salager: 1983); it can be seen that most of these lexical units (86%) belong to the "fundmental ME " stratm ; thls explalns the high frequency of infinitive clauses in ME literature and indicates that they should be taught early in th e course of any sclentific reading program.