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 ENGLISII 99 b. *John's being a spy, Bill thought it wise to avoid him. Acc -ing gerunds may take sentence-adverbials in adjunct positions (though not in argument positions); Poss-*«g gerunds do not allow sentence-adverbials: (71) a. John probably being a spy, Bill thought it wise to avoid him. b. *I was worried about John probably being a spy. c. *I was grateful for John's fortunately knowing the answer. Although in general both Acc-ing and Voss-ing gerunds permit pleonastic subjects, only Acc-ing permits there: (72) a. I was worried about it being too obvious that Charlie was lying. b. I was worried about its being too obvious that Charlie was lying. c. I approve of there being a literacy exam for political candidates. d. *I approve of there's being a literacy exam for political candidates. Acc-ing gerunds but not Poss -ing gerunds occur as complements on perceptual matrix verbs: (73) a. I can't hear John playing the piano. b. *I can't hear John's playing the piano. Finally, it is, I think, in order for me to point to a non-argument concerning the status of Acc-ing and Poss-/«g gerunds. Horn (1975) argues that Acc -ing gerunds do not occur in the focus of cleft sentences. He gives the following example (also cited by Reuland, who appears to adopt Horn's position on this matter): (74) *It was John kissing Mary that upset everyone. Horn's generalization is not entirely correct. Acceptability judgments concerning clefts and pseudo-clefts seem to show considerable variation.