Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Grammar) Infinitive, uninflected; -- of verbs. Opposite of
finite .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of verbs; having neither person nor number nor mood (as a participle or gerund or infinitive)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Incidentally, there seems to be some uncertainty as to what this area of grammar (where verbs are followed by other, non-finite, verbs) is called.
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The fact of the matter is that want is a transitive verb, and hence requires an object, whether that object is a noun phrase, or a non-finite clause (formed with an infinitive), as in We want to learn English.
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In the case of Computers, there are all sorts of tricks we use to establish a non-finite Virtual Memory.
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In the case of brains, our neurons may grow and form new connections at any time, changing the NUMBER of state REGISTERs in a dynamic and non-finite way.
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In a nutshell, if my quadripartite system distinguishes four sets of endings exemplified in the 1ps with *-mi (objective progressive), *-m (objective non-progressive), *-h₂ór (subjective progressive) and *-h₂e (subjective non-progressive), then it stands to follow that there may likewise be four non-finite forms, participles, corresponding to each of the four categories I describe.
Archive 2009-09-01 2009
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In a nutshell, if my quadripartite system distinguishes four sets of endings exemplified in the 1ps with *-mi (objective progressive), *-m (objective non-progressive), *-h₂ór (subjective progressive) and *-h₂e (subjective non-progressive), then it stands to follow that there may likewise be four non-finite forms, participles, corresponding to each of the four categories I describe.
The PIE *to-participle in my subjective-objective model 2009
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And so we are able to speculate about the case of a non-finite presence-in-absence by starting with but moving beyond the limits of the presence and absence we are familiar with in the realm of limited things.
Cusanus, Nicolaus [Nicolas of Cusa] Miller, Clyde Lee 2009
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My take on it is that the religious conception is not just about downloading the Platonic forms of "us" out of our meat bodies and uploading them into another substantial -- albeit "spiritual" -- form in another (higher, purer, but nevertheless existential, which is to say experiential) "reality", one which just so happens to be temporally non-finite.
On Existence And Eternity Hal Duncan 2006
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My take on it is that the religious conception is not just about downloading the Platonic forms of "us" out of our meat bodies and uploading them into another substantial -- albeit "spiritual" -- form in another (higher, purer, but nevertheless existential, which is to say experiential) "reality", one which just so happens to be temporally non-finite.
Archive 2006-07-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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Conversation: "an unfigurable Universe (a term henceforth deceptive); a Universe escaping every optical exigency and also escaping consideration of the whole — essentially non-finite, disunified, discontinuous" (350).
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