why not an infinitive??

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adlerjd
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:23 pm

why not an infinitive??

Post by adlerjd » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:29 pm

A student asked me why the following sentence was not correct, and I have not been able to come up with a good answer (woe to me - how embarrassing) Can anyone help?

"Good infrastructure is important to be a developing country."

What she means is, "Good infrastructure is important in order to be a developing country."

stromfi
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu May 26, 2005 10:37 pm

Post by stromfi » Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:06 pm

Hi Adlerjd,

To be honest, I find both of the sentences awkward for the following two reasons:

1. If a country has good infrastructure, it's usually not labelled as a developing country. "Developing" is a euphamism for "poor" or "relatively poor." So, if you replace "developing" with "poor/relatively poor" in your example sentence, you will see and feel its awkwardness and how paradoxical it is: "Good infrastructure is important to be/in order to be a poor country."

2. One of the functions of infinitive is to express purpose. (See "Purpose of Infinitive' ) You do something to/in order to get somewhere, achieve something, etc. I would find it strange that any country would want to aim at becoming a developing country.

sbourque
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:32 pm
Location: USA

Post by sbourque » Mon May 29, 2006 10:17 pm

Better:
Improving infrastructure is important for a developing country.

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