Some remarks on the infinitivus indignantis. Is this label necessary?

Abstract

Abstract The present paper focusses on the issue of the terminological labels used in grammatical descriptions and to what extent they are necessary. The label discussed here is the so-called infinitivus indignantis, mainly employed to express emotions like surprise, disdain, indignation. To this construction handbooks and grammars generally devote just a few lines. In this paper it will be shown that the syntactic features associated with this pattern occur with other similar constructions and are not exclusive thereof. The question is raised whether this pattern could be analyzed and subsumed under the category of mirativity. At the end of the analysis of this type of infinitive, it is claimed that infinitivus indignantis is not a necessary label.