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

Secondly, I will attempt to demonstrate that gerundive complements on the other hand invoke an implicit contrast between the event expressed by the complement clause and any number of other events in the relevant set triggered by the complement sentence, in which the member denoted by the complement clause is thus identified, keeping the event or state expressed by the matrix verb and the entity denoted by the matrix subject constant Thus, the contrast implied in (33) John likes singing, may be spelled out like this: (34) John likes singing as opposed to jogging/drawing/etc. It appears then that infinitival complements render the meaning of the matrix verb more prominent than that of the complement clause (as though sentences with infinitival clause complements were answers to Yes/No questions, which invariably imply the contrast with their implicit negatives, and therefore the implicit negative can always be spelled out converting the sentence into an alternative question, cf. Quirk et al. 1985:239), while -ing clause complements seem to serve to highlight the embedded activity or event in a way similar in effect to focusing. Given that gerunds seem to highlight 'themselves' in contrast with potential embedded events but infinitives do not, the hypothesis predicts that gerunds can but infinitives cannot easily be made the focus of a cleft sentence. This prediction is borne out, thus confirming the hypothesis. Chierchia (1984:414) observes that gerunds can be clefted but infinitives cannot (35) It is writing papers that Mary likes and John hates. (36) *It is to write papers that Mary likes and John hates. 25