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Re: Arguments of verbal nouns (was Re: How to kick the infinitive habit)

From:R A Brown <ray@...>
Date:Thursday, October 5, 2006, 9:58
Mark J. Reed wrote:
[snip]
> Somewhat OT, I find it interesting that the English gerund can have > both subject and object specified using the syntax of possession, e.g. > "His selling of my car was done without my consent."
But is that really the gerund? The English have _three_ (not two) distinct uses: 1. They listened in astonishment to the young man deliberately telling lies to the court. Here _deliberately_ is an attribute of 'young man', hence is adjectival; but it has a direct object (lies) and is modified by an adverb (deliberately), hence it is also verbal. That is, we have a verbal adjective or 'participle'. 2. Deliberately telling lies to the court is called perjury. Here _deliberately_ is verbal for precisely the same reasons as in (1), but it also acts as the grammatical subject of 'is' and is, therefore, also nominal. That is, we have a verbal noun or 'gerund'. 3. The deliberate telling of lies to the court is called perjury. Here _deliberate_ is also a noun; but it has *no* verbal functions as (a) it must be modified by an adjective (deliberate) and _not_ by an adverb, and (b) it cannot take a direct object. the argument 'lies' has to be liked by a 'genitive' construction with _of_. In this sentence _telling_ is clearly a *deverbal noun*, not a verbal noun. It seems to me odd to label a deverbal noun as a 'gerund'. See also Trask, page 118. -- Ray ================================== ray@carolandray.plus.com http://www.carolandray.plus.com ================================== Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu. There's none too old to learn. [WELSH PROVERB}

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>