Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Csaba Czeglédi: On the Distribution of Infinitival and Gerundive Complements in English

CSABA CZEGLÉDI ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF INFINITIVAL AND GERUNDIVE COMPLEMENTS IN ENGLISH In this article I will first review briefly some of the major issues in the grammar of nonlinite complements in English that have emerged since the puolication of Rosenbaum (1967), the first major work on nonfinite complementation in a generative framework to my knowledge. In the discussion that follows I will focus on some general questions of both theoretical and descriptive interest concerning the problem of how to account for the distribution of nonfinite complements in English and I will consider some concrete proposals. Finally, I will present the outlines of an alternative hypothesis on the distribution of nonfinite complements in English and provide some theoretical as well as empirical arguments in its favor. The problem of constituent structure There are two mutually and closely related fundamental issues, neither conclusively settled thus far, that must be resolved in a grammar of nonfinite complements in English. We must (a) determine their syntactic category and constituent structure and (b) formulate the principles in terms of which we can account for their distribution. Two major classes of competing hypotheses have been proposed on the syntactic category and constituency of nonfinite constructions in English in generative grammar, or frameworks sympathetic to it Chierchia (1984) argues that English infinitives and gerunds are verb phrases, while in 11