Chapter 7. Two infinitives

The grammar of Frisian contains two morphologically different infinitives, INF_e and INF_n. In this paper, we discuss and compare syntactic properties of (constructions with) INF_e and INF_n. We illustrate that both infinitives can be part of a verbal complex. Traditionally it is assumed that only INF_n can be head of phrases that have nominal function. Here we show that phrases with INF_e also can be nominal. We study external syntactic properties of nominal INF_e. In addition, we compare internal syntactic properties of nominal INF_e and INF_n. The internal structure of INF_e turns out to be similar to verb phrases and that of INF_n to noun phrases.