A Lexicalist Analysis of Gerundive Nominals in English

Abstract Gerundive nominals in English are true categorial hybrids, combining a verbal complementation pattern with a characteristically nominal distribution and a clausal interpretation. Initial generative descriptions of gerundives attempt to resolve this conflict by assimilating these constructions to unambiguously nominal or clausal categories, or by assigning the discordant properties to different derivational levels. The alternative articulated here follows Schachter 1976 and Jackendoff 1977 in associating these conflicting properties with different projections in a phrase structure analysis. Gerundives are analyzed as nominal phrases headed by present participles, which, as verbal categories, maintain a predominantly verbal argument structure and interpretation. Following Pullum 1991, the clash between the category of a gerundive phrase and its lexical head is not simply stipulated, but rather attributed to the default projection of constitutive ‘head’ features, as proposed in extended phrase struc...

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