worked to do (two meanings)

[Marika33]

Do I understand correctly that the structure "work to do smth" has both meanings: telic and atelic, so, in a sentence, depending on the context it could be either?

For instance,

1. He worked very hard to achieve this goal. — the sentence (on its own) doesn't tell us whether he did achieve the goal.
2. A conversation between two people. They want to solve (they are working on solving) some kind of a puzzle. One of them does some action. The other asks "Did it work?". The response may be "Yes, it worked" (meaning, "Yes, it worked to help us solve the puzzle" or "Yes, it worked to solve the puzzle").

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, there are two different senses of the verb 'work' there and so the structures and not comparable. (In fact, I don't think 'work to do smth' even counts as a pattern.) In sentence 1, the to-infinitive phrase expresses purpose, like 'in order to'. In 2, I don't think it's even possible.

 

[Marika33]

In sentence 1, the to-infinitive phrase expresses purpose, like 'in order to'. In 2, I don't think it's even possible.

Hmm... Interesting. Should I have written this instead?

• 2. A conversation between two people. They want to solve (they are working on solving) some kind of a puzzle. One of them does some action. The other asks "Did it work?". The response may be "Yes, it worked" (meaning, "Yes, it worked to help helped us solve the puzzle" or "Yes, it worked to solve solved the puzzle").

 

[jutfrank]

Hmm... Interesting. Should I have written this instead?

• 2. A conversation between two people. They want to solve (they are working on solving) some kind of a puzzle. One of them does some action. The other asks "Did it work?". The response may be "Yes, it worked" (meaning, "Yes, it worked to help helped us solve the puzzle" or "Yes, it worked to solve solved the puzzle").

Yes, right.