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

INFINITIVES AND GERUNDS IN ENG

LISII 81 However, acceptability judgments with regard to such sentences do not seem to be unanimously positive. Quirk et al. (1985:947), for example, assert quite the contrary, saying that "the members of coordinate constructions tend to be parallel both in their structure and in their meaning" therefore "it is scarcely acceptable for different types of nonfinite clause to be coordinated, or for finite dependent clauses to be coordinated with nonfinite clauses, even where there is a strong semantic affinity between the two clauses." They assert that "it seems impossible, for example, to coordinate a nominal infinitive with an -ing clause" (ibid.): (16) *George likes going to the races and to bet on the horses. But they, too, admit that "occasional examples such as the following occur" (ibid.): (17) The empress, nearing her death and surrounded by doctors and necromancers, was no longer in control of her ministers. (18) The curfew bell rang at sunset every evening, to warn the citizens that it was time for bed, and so that secret defensive measures could be taken by the army. 2.6 WH-Movement Consider the following examples: (19) a. I wonder [

c

p [

c what] to do]. b. a topic [

c

p [

c on which] to work] The only way to account for the existence and structure of such sentences on the VP hypothesis is to assume that not only finite clauses but VPs too are introduced by C, which would raise serious problems. In addition, on this assumption we would also have to allow VPs 'to function as relative clauses' within NPs. As Köster and May (1982:133) observe, li^-movement is "a typical S'-rule moving WH-phrases to COMP." The fact that it appears to apply in 'subjecdess' infinitival complements is interpreted by Köster and May, following Chomsky (1980) and Williams (1980), as direct evidence that infinitives are sentential.