Introduction

I am a linguist whose interests have changed over the years. Today I am interested in the role language plays in learning. However, earlier in my career I spent my time studying things like “naked infinitives.” This is, of course, a topic that sounds a lot sexier than it is. Naked infinitives are grammatical constructions like the verb “leave” in “I saw Mary leave.” In this sentence, “leave” is an “infinitive” (a verb not marked for “tense,” that is not marked as “present” or “past”). In English, infinitives are usually preceded by a “to,” as in “I wanted Mary to leave.” Since the “to” is missing in “I saw Mary leave,” “leave” is said to be “naked.” I also studied “headless relatives,” another topic that sounds more exciting than it is. Headless relatives are grammatical constructions like “who I want to marry” in “I will marry who I want to marry.” “Who I want to marry” is a relative clause. Such clauses are normally preceded by a noun phrase called their “head,” as in “I will marry the person I want to marry,” where “the person” is the head of the relative clause. Thus, since there is no head in front of “who I want to marry” in “I will marry who I want to marry,” it is called a “headless relative clause.”