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"English language Gerund."
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Non-finite complementation : a usage-based study of infinitive and -ing clauses in English
This book presents a comprehensive guide to the way speakers of British English use infinitive and -ing clauses as verbal complements. It contains details of the non-finite complementation patterns of over 300 matrix verbs, with a particular emphasis on verbs that occur with more than one type of non-finite complement. Drawing upon data from the British National Corpus, the author shows that some of the views which are to be found in the existing literature on these sorts of clauses are in conflict with the evidence of actual usage. He also shows that there is actually much more regularity in this area than has often been taken to be the case. Moreover, this regularity is shown to be motivated by cognitive-functional factors. An appendix contains details of the relative frequency of all of the constructions dealt with in the study, together with an example of each of them. The book is of interest to language teachers as well as linguists, both theoretical and applied.
eBook
A principle of economy in derivation in L2 grammar
This article proposes a novel account for the overuse of free morphemes and underuse of bound morphemes in English as a second language (L2) based on the framework of Distributed Morphology. It will be argued that an Economy Principle ‘Do everything in Narrow Syntax (DENS)’ operates in the L2 learner’s computational system. Consequently, derivation in Morphology becomes as limited as possible except when applying Vocabulary Items to syntactic objects (Vocabulary Insertion). This results in non-target-like use/acceptance of certain morphemes: Bound morphemes are often omitted in early L2 grammar, and alternative free morphemes may apparently be used instead. Two types of data, namely the overuse of be reported in previous research, and the preference of to-infinitives over -ing gerunds in early L2 grammar, will be presented in support of the proposal, and the plausibility of the operation of DENS will be discussed.
Journal Article
Syntactic Variation and Sociocultural Identity in Southeast Asian Englishes: A Study of Subjectless Nonfinite Clauses in Philippine and Singaporean English
This study explores syntactic variation and sociocultural identity in subjectless nonfinite clauses within Philippine English (PhE) and Singaporean English (SgE), focusing on to-infinitive and -ing gerund constructions. Using data from the International Corpus of English for the Philippines (ICE-PHI) and Singapore (ICE-SIN), it examines the distribution of these constructions across spoken and written registers to uncover their sociocultural underpinnings. The findings reveal a shared preference for to-infinitive constructions in both varieties, reflecting their role in expressing intention and purpose. PhE’s adherence to prescriptive norms stems from colonial history and formal education, while SgE’s multilingual and pragmatic linguistic ecology fosters greater syntactic flexibility, exemplified by the innovative want + -ing construction absent in PhE. Although gerunds are less frequent overall, they consistently occur with verbs like enjoy in both varieties, signaling habitual or ongoing actions. Sociolinguistic distinctions also emerge in constructions like [Negator] + try + Nonfinite Clause, where PhE employs elaborative commentary aligned with its expressive narrative tendencies, contrasting with SgE’s concise, context-driven usage. By investigating this underexplored syntactic phenomenon, the study demonstrates how localized Englishes adapt grammatical structures to reflect sociocultural priorities, advancing the understanding of World Englishes and their sociolinguistic diversity.
Journal Article
What It Means to Verbalize: The Changing Discourse Functions of the English Gerund
The English gerund system consists of two types of gerunds: a nominal gerund (the learning of a language), and a verbal gerund that developed out of the nominal gerund (learning a language). While the formal aspects of this diachronic verbalization of the gerund are well documented, much remains to be said about the discourse-functional side of the change. In this paper, it is argued that the formal verbalization of the gerund is accompanied by an important change in the discourse-functional organization of the gerund system. Based on functional characterizations of noun phrase (NP) behavior in the literature, the prototypical behavior of complex NPs is operationalized as (i) functioning as manipulable discourse participants that are important enough in the following discourse to be susceptible to anaphoric targeting and (ii) being inaccessible to anaphoric targeting of internal participants. The results of an analysis of a set of nominal gerunds, verbal gerunds and regular complex NPs covering the period 16401914 (taken from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Early Modern and Modern British English) shows that the increasingly clause-like appearance of the verbal gerund is in fact accompanied by atypical NP behavior. Moreover, the paper makes clear that the changes in the discourse-functional organization of the gerund system did not only affect the verbal gerund, but also had some implications for the nominal gerund. These findings shed new light on the (diachronic) processes of verbalization and nominalization, and on what they mean on a discourse-functional level. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc., copyright holder.]
Journal Article
Ezafe, PP and the nature of nominalization
In the paper we argue that the English VP/NP structures in (i) a-d have exact counterparts in the i(ranian) Persian PP/NP structures in (ii) a-d, where P1-P3 are three different classes of iPersian Ps and where-EZ is the so-called “Ezafe” morpheme. (i. a) John [VP destroy the evidence] “Pure VP”; (i. b) John-’s [NP destroying the evidence] Nominalized VP; (i. c) John -’s [NP destroying of the evidence] Nominalized V; (i. d) John -’s [NP destruction of the evidence] Deverbal N; (ii. a) NP [PP P1 NP] “Pure PP”; (ii. b) NP -Ez [NP P2 NP] Nominalized PP; (ii. c) NP -Ez [NP P2 -Ez NP] Nominalized P; (ii. d) NP-Ez [NP P3-Ez NP] “Deprepositional” N. The notion “nominalization” is thus shown to be relevant to both of the lexical categories - V and P - identified by Chomsky (1974) as [-N]. Our demonstration proceeds in three steps: 1) We establish a common syntactic function for English -’s/of and iPersian-EZ, viz., case-assignment, following Samiian 1994; Karimi and Brame 1986/2012; Larson and Samiian 2020; 2) We argue for a shared cross-categorial structure for VP-PP, developing proposals by Jackendoff 1973; van Riemsdijk 1990; Svenonius 2003. We show that if Jackendoff’s (1977) “scopal nominalization” analysis of gerunds is extended to iPersian PPs, the parallelism in (i) and (ii) is accounted for; 3) We show that the full extension of nominalization to iPersian PPs suggests a more general view of nominalization than has been recognized previously, viz., a “split-feature” view of category specification. This has a variety of implications, which we briefly explore.
Journal Article
Using Digital Games for Enhancing EFL Grammar and Vocabulary in Higher Education
The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of digital games to enhance English as a Foreign Language (EFL) grammar and vocabulary in the English Major of Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, in southern Ecuador. A total of 68 students from B1 level, according to the Common European Frame-work of Reference for Languages (CEFR), participated in this study. All the par-ticipants were enrolled in two different classes of a Communicative Grammar course. A mixed-method approach was used to collect and analyze data in this study. Pre and post-questionnaires as well as writing rubrics were applied as in-struments. Digital games were implemented throughout an academic term of 5 months in which students received permanent feedback. The results show that digital games were useful to improve learners´ grammar in aspects concerning the use of modals, gerunds, and infinitives; also, students showed an improvement in their vocabulary knowledge, especially in topics related to jobs and education.
Journal Article
TWO TYPES OF DEVERBAL NOMINALIZATION IN NORTHERN PAIUTE
Why do nominalizations mean what they do? I investigate two deverbal nominalizers in Northern Paiute (Uto-Aztecan, Numic: Western United States), -na and -di̵, which create nominalizations that describe either an event (like the POSS-ing gerund in English) or an individual (like agent nominalizations with -er). I propose a syntax and semantics for these deverbal nominalizations that account for their interpretive variability. On the syntax side, I argue that -na and -di̵ overtly realize the nominal functional head that canonically assigns case to possessors when this head takes a vP complement. On the semantics side, I propose that Northern Paiute has operators that abstract over a variable inside nominalizations. This accounts for the meanings that deverbal nominalizations in Northern Paiute have, and it highlights their relationship to nominalization patterns in other languages.
Journal Article
Latin in Modern Fiction: Who Says It's a Dead Language?: Aldous Huxley
The three areas of fiction constituting the main scope of the book are indicative of my major interest and preference, as well as the subject matter of my extensive researches, both prior and current, the former related to my already published books. While E. Christian Kopff's amazing treaty The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition (1999) and R. J. Schork's excellent work Latin and Roman Culture in Joyce (1997) admittedly share some goals with this book, they hardly constitute any competition to it due to their significantly different scopes. The Latin references presented in my book, all listed in the Index (the size of which alone is a strong argument for the thesis), can be classified according to their theme or provenance into the following categories: literature, philosophy, history, mythology, culture, education, religion, medicine, law, sciences, politics, military and others. A purely adult and realistic novel, it has hardly any action or twists of the plot; it consists of dialogues, both external and internal, which collectively prepare the reader for the inevitable ending. Because of the abundance of Latin quotations, let me start with the presentation of the most interesting ones.
Journal Article
Analyzing the Gerundial Patterns of prevent: New Corpus Evidence from Recent English
One well-known difference between British and American English concerns the verb prevent. In both varieties, the verb is commonly found in constructions with NP from -ing, as in […] the extreme temperature of the cold tenderises the flesh and prevents it from becoming tough (NOW Corpus 2010), and in British English it is also commonly found in corresponding constructions lacking the preposition from, as in Morgan […] fastened a belt around his wrists to prevent him saving himself (NOW Corpus 2011). There are major unresolved issues relating to the two types of constructions illustrated. One question is whether the constructions involve object control or a Raising rule. One novel idea proposed is that an ACC -ing analysis should be available for the pattern without from. The British and American segments of the NOW corpus offer good sources of data, which have not been used in earlier work on prevent.
Journal Article