Can an infinitive be the object of a preposition?
"I found a place for Tom and Stacy to live."
I first thought that the prepositional phrase "for Tom and Stacy" and the infinitive "to live" were separate phrases both modifying "place".
Is it possible that "Tom and Stacy to live" is one infinitive phrase with Tom and Stacy as its subject acting as the object of the preposition for?
Solution 1:
I found a place for Tom and Stacy to live.
You can invert this:
'I found a place to live for Tom and Stacy.'
It's just an abbreviated form of
'I found a place (in which to live) for Tom and Stacy.'
The phrase '[in which] to live' is adjectival and modifies 'place'.
Solution 2:
We still strictly follow the grammatical rules in identifying the elements comprising that sentence.
First, the answer to your question
"Is it possible that "Tom and Stacy to live" is one infinitive phrase with Tom and Stacy as its subject acting as the object of the preposition for?"
is "no".
Please take note that no circumstances must you say that the object of a preposition (in this case "Tom and Stacy") can be a subject. An object of a preposition is always in objective case. Therefore, "for Tom and Stacy" is an adjectival phrase separate from the infinitive "to live".
Now, the question is, 'What are the elements that correspond to both "for Tom and Stacy" and "to live"?'
- "for Tom and Stacy" is an adjectival phrase (prepositional phrase) modifying the noun phrase "a place".
- "to live" is a full infinitive functioning as an adjective that modifies also the noun phrase "a place".
How to prove my answer?
Assuming that the sentence is in this form:
"I found a place to live."
This shows that "to live" is indeed modifying the noun phrase "a place". Adding another modifier "for Tom and Stacy" will not change the function of "to live".