attoinfinitive

An attoinfinitive is a hypothetical linguistic concept describing an infinitival verb form intended to encode an action of extremely small magnitude. The term combines the SI prefix atto-, meaning 10^-18, with the infinitive mood. It is not part of established grammars of natural languages and is not widely used in descriptive linguistics. Researchers typically employ it only in theoretical discussions or computational models that explore micro-level action or ultra-short temporal scales within an infinitival frame.

Formation and notation for the concept are not standardized. Some writers propose simple labeling as attoinfinitive or atto-infinitive, while others suggest tagging an infinitival clause with a feature such as [atto] in formal grammars or simulation frameworks. There is no universally accepted orthography or grammatical rule associated with the form.

In usage, the attoinfinitive serves as a conceptual tool rather than a documented mood in ordinary languages. In modeling or semantic theory, it might denote an infinitival event with negligible duration relative to typical actions. This can be relevant in simulations of rapid action sequences, micro-temporal analyses, or scale-aware representations of event structure in computational linguistics.

Relation to other infinitives is primarily methodological: it is distinguished from the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive as a way to encode temporal granularity rather than classic tense or aspect. The term sits alongside discussions of SI prefixes and scale in linguistic representations, rather than as a mainstream category of grammar.

See also: infinitive, bare infinitive, to-infinitive, SI prefixes. Note that the attoinfinitive is not an established or widely adopted term in mainstream linguistics.