Name of this grammatical construction [duplicate]
for quite some time now, I've been wondering whether there is a proper name for the following grammatical construction expressing obligation:
Is/are to be + [participle]
For example, ''This paper is to be handed in before Monday''
The closest I've come to finding what this is, is a ''deontic periphrastic construction'', but that is not quite it either... I'm sorry if this is not the appropriate site to post this question, but I figured that it might be so obscure that less in-depth forums will not do.
Thank you in advance!
Edit: Thank you DW256, for your very elaborate answer! That was exactly what I was looking for!
The construction in general is called a simple catenative construction which has the template (CaGEL p1177):
(verb) + (non-finite clause allowed by verb)
helped + make dinner (plain infinitival)
wanted + to eat dinner (to-infinitival)
started + eating dinner (gerund-participial)
was + given dinner (past-participial)
The specific type of 'be' involved here which heads the clause (functions similarly to helped, wanted, started, was above) is labeled 'quasi-modal be' by CaGEL p113:
This has clear semantic affinities with the central modal auxiliaries, and syntactically it resembles them in having property [I] (as well as [A-H]). That is, it can’t appear in a secondary form: *I resent being not to tell anyone, *The meeting had been to be chaired by the premier. It lacks all the other modal auxiliary properties, however: it has agreement forms, it takes an infinitival with to, it can’t occur in a remote apodosis, and its preterites do not occur with the modal remoteness meaning. The label ‘quasi-modal’ indicates that in spite of its one modal property (and its modal meaning) this be doesn’t in fact qualify grammatically for inclusion in that class.
The properties referred to above:
Auxiliary Properties
[A] Primary Verb Negation It will not work.
[B] Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Will it rain?
[C] Emphatic polarity I WILL help you.
[D] Stranding He wont attend, but I will____.
[E] Exclusion of do in code *Ed will go, and I do too. ("I will go")
[F] Precede adverb/quantifier They will probably/all accept.
[G] Negative Forms It won't help.
[H] Reduced Forms She'll be here soon
Modal Properties
[I] Only primary forms *It's expected to will finish soon.
[J] No agreement She will/*wills win.
[K] Only bare infinitival complement It will be/*to be over.
[L] Can occur in remote apodosis If it weren't for her, I would give up.
[M] Modally remote preterite in main clause I would ask you to treat it seriously
Quasi-modal be does not have to be used with a passive to-infinitival clause:
The president is to remain impartial.
The law is to go into effect on April 3rd.
The example given contains a to-infinitival clause with a be passive construction (be + past-participial clause).
This paper is [to be [handed in before Monday]]
So, in short, according to CaGEL terminology, it's a simple catenative construction headed by quasi-modal be with a passive to-infinitival clause as catenative complement.