The function of the IPI depends on the syntactic position in which it is found, or with which it is indirectly connected by means of an anticipatory pronoun. IPIs bearing the function of subject, object or prepositional complement tend to be connected to the relevant syntactic position by means of an anticipatory pronoun. This is illustrated below for the subject and the object:

The IPI occurs at the end of the clause, and the anticipatory pronoun it it occurs in the syntactic position to which the IPI is linked. The same holds for the IPI functioning as prepositional complement, except that the anticipatory pronoun is the R-pronoun der there, it, as in (2).

In addition, the IPI is also found as the complement to a functionally premodified adjective, as in the following example:

Here the adjective is premodified with the functional element sa so, which licenses a complement in the form of an infinitival clause, which may take the form of a to-infinitival clause or of an IPI, see also high degree specification sa so. The IPI cannot be linked to an anticipatory pronoun in this usage. Correspondingly, the IPI cannot be pronominalised, neither by a Noun Phrase (NP) nor by an Adposition Phrase (PP).

The IPI is also found in a peculiar construction in which it occurs as some kind of selected adjunct in a rhetorical construction. In this construction, no anticipatory pronoun can be used. An example is given below:

The construction has a negative entailment implying that the addressee has no reason to do what he does. In addition, the construction expresses strong emotion. The construction has the outward appearance of an adjunct IPI, as is clear from the presence of a modal verb in the matrix clause. However, unlike adjunct IPIs, it resembles argument IPIs in that it can be replaced by a to-infinitival clause:

See also As an adjunct specifying an activity to do in an exclamative interrogative. It seems that the complementiser may only be present in the to-infinitival if it has a purpose interpretation, which implies animacy. The following example refers to an impersonal type of event, and the complementiser must be absent:

However, the example improves considerably in case the IPI refers to a specific event:

The IPI is also found as the complement to a noun, as in the examples below:

The IPI cannot be linked to an anticipatory pronoun in this usage. Correspondingly, the IPI cannot be pronominalised, neither by an NP nor by a PP.

The following example is not an IPI but an imperative embedded in the quotative construction signalledd by fan of, like:

What is peculiar about the example above is that the imperative is homophonous to the infinitive, which must be due to the author's dialect. However, it is clear that an imperative speech act is involved, contrary to what is the case in the IPI.