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a. We sent enough soldiers to the city to keep it from falling to the enemy.

What is the 'agent' of 'to keep' in (a)?

I think it could either be 'we' or 'soldiers'. If we had 'in order to keep...' it would clearly be 'we'.

At the end of the day, it doesn't make much difference. This is just a grammatical issue.

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Grammatically it could be either

I sent a cat to the city to eat the mice.

(clearly the cat eats the mice)

I sent a car to the city to drive around in.

(apparently I will drive around in the car)

So the subject of the infinitive is determined pragmatically, not grammatically. In your example, I'd say that it is the soldiers who keep the city from falling from the enemy so "soliders" is understood to be the subject of "keep".

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  • Thank you very much James K, Is this sentence correct: We have soldiers to keep the city from falling to the enemy in the city. (I have taken out 'enough' and changed the order of the words. I think in this sentence the soldiers are going to do the keeping. The sentence sounds a bit strange to me.
    – azz
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 8:55
  • 1
    The sentences seem correct to me.
    – James K
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 9:10

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