The Present-day English Gerund System

A Cognitive-Constructionist Account

Charlotte Maekelberghe

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110686814
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This study offers a first comprehensive synchronic account of the Present-day English gerundial system. Most synchronic studies of gerunds have hitherto focused on the verbal gerund, scrutinizing its categorial status or comparing it with other non-finite clausal structures. A systematic comparison with its nominal counterpart, however, is lacking. Based on a detailed empirical analysis of lexico-grammar and semantics, this study develops an innovative cognitive-constructionist model of the English gerund system which depicts the usage profiles of nominal and verbal gerunds in terms of probabilistic trends rather than by means of categorical labels. It is shown that a better understanding of the functioning of the English gerund system requires a description that operates on multiple levels, accounting for both the abstract construal gerunds can impose on an event as well as the token-level constraints on variation between the two gerund types. This multifaceted approach, it is argued, not only offers a new perspective on the configuration of ing-forms in Present-day English, it can also be of relevance to the description of other complex grammatical structures.

Part I: Preliminaries

1 Introduction

This study is concerned with the Present-day English use of gerunds, nominal (as in [1]) and verbal (as in [2]). Although both gerund types have the external distribution of noun phrases, they are formally quite distinct. While verbal gerunds have a clausal internal syntax, taking adverbial modification and realizing their participants clausally, nominal gerunds have the formal properties of a noun phrase and thus allow for determination and adjectival modification. Despite the fact that nominal and verbal gerunds are historically related, with verbal gerunds developing out of nominal gerunds around the Middle English period, little is known about the relation between both gerund types in Present-day English. By assuming a multifunctional and quantitatively-oriented perspective, this study aims to map out the functional profiles (or usage profiles) of nominal and verbal gerunds. Establishing their functional niches allows us to pinpoint the distinctions between both constructions, while areas of functional overlap can provide new insights into the variation between nominal and verbal gerunds.

(1)

What we didn’t know was whether he would be able to tolerate the day-to day playing of baseball. (COCA)

(2)

The degree of risk and confrontation will be reduced by sharing information amongst employees as fully and regularly as possible. (BNC)

Synchronic studies of the English gerund have tended to focus on only one gerund type – typically the verbal gerund – as a result of which a systematic synchronic comparison of both gerund types is lacking. Yet, nominal and verbal gerunds offer a unique window on the functional cline between nominals and clauses and on processes of nominalization and verbalization. In addition to unravelling the specificities of nominal and verbal gerunds, the analysis of gerunds can therefore also contribute to our understanding of the categorial distinction between nouns and verbs/clauses, and shifts from one category to the other.

One of the major challenges involved in the study of gerunds is to develop a descriptive model that makes detailed comparison of their various functional properties possible. Prevailing analyses of English gerunds have tended to focus exclusively on their formal peculiarities (see, amongst others, Chomsky 1970; Fraser 1970; Pullum 1991; Yoon 1996; Malouf 2000) and those that do assume a more functional perspective are often limited to one particular dimension (e.g. Schachter [1976] and Heyvaert [2008] on reference and Brinton [1998] on aspect). By unifying and operationalizing a number of concepts that have figured in cognitive-functional approaches towards syntactic categories in general and nominalization specifically, I will map out a multifunctional framework that allows for a detailed functional description of the gerund system. Furthermore, this study wishes to examine potential variation between nominal and verbal gerunds at different levels of abstraction. In order to do so, I will also incorporate insights from Construction Grammar. More specifically, the constructionist framework allows for a more detailed description of lexical constraints on variation between nominal and verbal gerunds on the one hand, and an interpretation of these constraints in terms of paradigmatic relations in the constructional network on the other.

This work is also set off against previous synchronic studies methodologically, viz. through its use of corpus data and quantitative methodologies. A corpus-based approach not only makes a more comprehensive assessment of the gerund system, which also comprises infrequent and hence underresearched constructions, possible; it also improves our understanding of the actual usage of nominal and verbal gerunds. By introducing a number of methodological innovations into the study of Present-day English gerunds, I wish to address some of the lacunae that still remain in current research. While a collocational analysis can offer more insight into the variation between nominal and verbal gerunds on token-level, statistical techniques such as hierarchical clustering and regression analysis present quantitative models of gradience and variation within the gerund system itself.

The combination of a multifunctional and quantitative, variationist perspective paves the way for a semantic description of nominal and verbal gerunds that is both richer and more nuanced at the same time. By viewing the semantics of gerund constructions as resulting from a complex interplay of interrelated factors and by studying these factors at token-level, I aim to overcome the often simplistic and binary approaches towards the meaning of gerunds that have long dominated the literature. Through quantitative analysis, the usage profiles of nominal and verbal gerunds can be more accurately depicted in terms of probabilistic trends rather than by means of categorical labels.

The study of gerunds, finally, also bears relevance to that of more general processes of nominalization and verbalization. Because they display nominal and clausal traits to different extents, nominal and verbal gerunds have been situated on a gradient cline of “nouniness”, which has primarily been defined in structural terms (Ross 1973; Aarts 2007). A better understanding of the semantics of both constructions, however, can yield valuable insights into gradience as a functional phenomenon. Likewise, while many studies focus on the order in which morphosyntactic features are lost and gained in nominalization processes (see, amongst others, Lehmann 1988; Malchukov 2004), little is known about the functional properties that are most readily acquired or lost. Statistical approaches such as regression analysis quantify the relative importance of each functional parameter, which allows us to assess the prevalence of functional dimensions in nominalization.

This study consists of three major parts: Part I, which introduces the topic of Present-day English gerunds and the data that were used for the analyses; Part II, which presents the results of the multifunctional analysis; and Part III, which examines potential variation between nominal and verbal gerunds. In Chapter 2, I provide a brief overview of the literature on gerunds. It is shown in this chapter that, although English gerunds are well-studied, the bulk of the existing studies focuses on the lexicogrammatical status of the verbal gerund and its relation to participial and infinitival constructions. Studies that explicitly contrast nominal and verbal gerunds and integrate formal and functional features are scarce. Chapter 3 then reports on the corpora and datasets that were used in this study.

The multifunctional analysis of nominal and verbal gerunds is the focus of Part II. In this part, the functional concepts that were introduced in Chapter 2 are first fleshed out in more detail to make them suitable for the comparison of nominal and verbal gerunds. The subsequent analyses are then mainly aimed at identifying the functional niche of each gerund type, uncovering a functional cline of “nouniness” in the gerund system.

Chapter 4 zooms in on the notion of reference, i.e. the mapping between a linguistic element and an entity in the real world or the discourse world (Givón 2001: 438). Referentiality, being closely associated with noun phrases, is typically viewed as one of the main functional motivations behind processes of nominalization (Langacker 1987a; Croft 1991, 2001; Malchukov 2004). It is argued, however, that current referential models, because they have been modelled on prototypical noun phrases, fail to adequately capture more fine-grained distinctions between nominal and verbal gerunds. Chapter 4 therefore presents a multilayered account of referentiality which attempts to draw a clearer line between concepts of definiteness and specificity on the one hand, and which incorporates the role of mental spaces in establishing reference, on the other. As will be shown, the representational semantics of nominal and verbal gerunds can best be described in terms of the different ways in which they engage with each layer of the referential model.

Chapter 5 turns to the aspectual semantics of gerunds, or the way in which they conceptualize a situation as unfolding over time. Over the years, many aspectual labels have been attributed to both nominal and verbal gerunds, and to the -ing suffix in general. Most of these aspectual claims, however, are formulated in very general terms, and they are rarely based on...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Part I: Preliminaries
• Part II: A multifunctional perspective
• Part III: A variationist perspective
• Part IV: Conclusions
• Index