Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    ak>>  -----Beginning of the citation-----   
    ak>>     Harry followed his gaze up the carefully tended   
    ak>>  front path and felt his heart sink. The front door   
    ak>>  was hanging off its hinges.   
    ak>>  -----The end of the citation-----   
      
    ak>>  Why sink -- not sank?   
      
    AH>   I reckon "sink" is an infinitive in this context.   
    AH>   I'll post more examples later....  :-)   
      
    ak>   I perused my book on English Grammar and indeed I read   
    ak>   about some exotic form of the Infinitive.   
      
      
             "Exotic" meaning "foreign"... or meaning "strange & unusual"?  Not to   
   worry!  Your description works either or both ways & it gave me a chuckle.  ;-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   If I translate the Russian term back into English it   
    ak>   would probably sound like "The objective case with   
    ak>   the Infinitive".   
      
    ak>   Example:   
      
    ak>   He wanted him to come.   
      
      
             Okay.  Harry felt his heart (direct object) sink (infinitive).  Makes   
   sense to me.  If it appears I'm leaving out a step, see below....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   If "the objective with the Infinitive" is used after   
    ak>   the verbs of feelings we don't use "to".   
      
    ak>   Examples:   
      
    ak>   1. I saw her enter the house.   
    ak>   (I saw she had entered the house).   
      
    ak>   2. We noticed the captain appear on the bridge.   
      
    ak>   3. They saw the plane fly over the houses.   
      
      
             Although I'm not sure what you mean by "verbs of feelings", I avoided   
   anything which could be interpeted as a linking verb (AKA a copula verb) when I   
   was trying *to come up with* some examples... which I do intend *to share*.  At   
   any rate I agree that the infinitive is often used without "to"....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   There is also "The objective with participle":   
      
    ak>   I saw him running.   
      
    ak>   I heard her shouting.   
      
    ak>   The difference between these two cases is that the   
    ak>   Participle expresses an act in action, but the   
    ak>   Infinitive expresses a completed action.   
      
      
             I would say the participle expresses a continuing action of which the   
   observer may be seeing and/or hearing and/or alluding to only part... but AFAIC   
   you & your English/Russian grammar book are definitely on the right track.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)