- Just playing lip service to encouraging people is not enough.
- Just playing lip service to encourage people is not enough.
- Playing lip service to people is not enough.
Please correct.
The word should be ‘paying’ not ‘playing’ in all cases.
1 is incorrect. ‘to’ and ‘encouraging’ are not used together.
Beeesneees,
- Just paying lip service to eradicate poverty is not enough.
- Just paying lip service to the people to eradicate poverty is not enough.
Are these two sentences OK?
yes.
The only difference is that the second makes it clear who the lip service is being paid to.
No, they are not both correct.
Look at the meaning of…
pay lip service to : express approval of or support for (something) without taking any significant action.
‘to’ here is a preposition before the noun ‘something’, not part of an infinitive (in your sentence, ‘to eradicate’)
Only (2) is correct, because the ‘to’ is followed by a noun - a ‘something’: “to the people”
Yes, they are both perfectly acceptable.
to eradicate poverty = for the purpose of eradicating poverty.
beesnees: [color=red]Yes, they are both perfectly acceptable.
to eradicate poverty = for the purpose of eradicating poverty.
We know what ‘to eradicate’ means.
The issue is whether syntax and collocation agree with…
…[color=red]‘lip service to’ (bare infinitive)…or is it, 'lip service + infinitive?
[color=indigo]‘Lip service to the eradication of poverty’ - I can grasp…
…but what you are suggesting…
…please tell me where I can read that in some authoritative source of all good things syntactical.
‘Pay lip service to’ would need to be followed by a noun. I don’t believe in this sentence:
the gap between ‘lip service’ and the infinitive ‘eradicate’ can be bridged adequately by ‘to’.
Alan
No surprises there.
Perhaps you could explain the meaning of that quip?
It’s not a quip. It’s a statement containing my opinion.
All right, so you call it a statement. Perhaps you could explain what it means?
That I am not surprised.
Oh, I see. So you knew all along that one of the sentences was incorrect although you claimed it was correct. Very strange! Surprising, even.
Alan,
According to you, how the sentence should be?
Please tell me whether I should add only noun after ‘pay lip service to’ or I can add infinitive also?
Please clarify me with your own examples.
Thanks.
I have already given my opinion at #8.