Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)

Csaba Ceglédi: On the Constituent Structure of Infinitives and Gerunds in English

104 CSABA CZEGLÉDI (83) a. John's book b. DP When the analysis is extended to Poss-/#g gerunds like (84a), they can be assigned the structure in (84b): (84) a. John's hitting the ball b. -DP On this analysis, -ing is Infi, which is a natural assumption, and 's is D, which assigns Case and the Possessor theta-role to the external subject in [Spec, DP]. D takes IP as complement, and D and -ing occupy two distinct functional-element positions, as is natural to assume. The structural parallel with Acc -ing and PRO-ing gerunds is obvious: -ing is Infi in all, and all three are essentially clausal. The nominal distribution of Poss-/«gis predicted

—IP is embedded in DP, with the subject occupying an operator position in [Spec, DP]. As Abney notes, "in effect, this analysis involves the embedding of a PRO-ing structure under a nounphrase specifier" (1987:200).

9 9 D in this structure corresponds to C in CP gerunds, and DP corresponds to CP. In fact, another option would be to extend the CP analysis to Poss-/«£ gerunds, with 's generated in C position. On these assumptions, Acc -ing and Poss-wg would still be assigned different structures, as apparently desired. The structure of Poss-;>zg gerunds would still be reminiscent of the structure of Hungarian possessive DPs (a chief motivation for Abney's DP analysis of noun phrases and Poss-/«i> gerunds): the subject