Complementation by non-finite clauses
This AdjG structure is used to describe the relation between an Attribute and a situation. The Attribute and situation both refer to the same Subject in examples (a–g) below:
(a) The adjective evaluates the act performed by the subject:
She must be strong-willed to have survived such an ordeal.
(b) The adjective expresses an emotion caused by the situation:
Everyone was sorry to hear about the accident.
(c) The adjective expresses an attitude or state concerning the act/situation:
The police are powerless to take action in this matter.
(d) The adjective expresses a property of the subject:
Are these pamphlets free to take away?
(e) The adjective forms part of a lexical auxiliary (be sure to, be likely to, be bound to) in a VG. It denotes a degree of certainty or the tendency of the process to occur. The subject is a ‘raised subject’:
He is sure to arrive late. It is bound to rain.
(f) The adjective evaluates the process realized by an -ing clause or a to-inf:
He must have been crazy driving/to drive as fast as that.
(g) The following example refers to a process not performed by the Subject:
Smoking is hard/difficult to give up.
This sentence does not mean that smoking is difficult, but that to give up smoking is difficult. Structurally, it is a ‘raised object’.
