This section discusses infinitival complementation of main verbs. In terms of their form, infinitival argument clauses can be divided into three main types: om + te, te, and bare infinitivals. The first type, which will be discussed in Section 5.2.1, is formally characterized by the fact that the infinitive is preceded by the element te and that the complete infinitival clause is (optionally) introduced by the element om, which is generally considered to be a complementizer. Some typical examples are given in (352), in which the infinitival clauses are italicized.

The second type, which will be discussed in Section 5.2.2 and is illustrated in (353), differs formally from the first type in that the infinitival complementizer om cannot be used; the infinitive, on the other hand, is preceded by the element te. Because of the optionality of the complementizer om in examples such as (352), it is sometimes not clear a priori whether we are dealing with an om + te or a te-infinitival, and we will therefore attempt to develop a number of diagnostics which may help us to make the desired distinction.

The third type of infinitival clause, the bare infinitivals, will be discussed in Section 5.2.3. This type can be easily recognized by the fact that the elements om and te are both obligatorily absent.

The following sections will discuss these three main types of infinitival clauses in detail, and show that they can be further divided into smaller subcategories on the basis of their semantic and syntactic properties.