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 101 In either case, a gerund is a CP. On these assumptions, the structure of (76a) is (76b): (76) a. I approve of John studying linguistics, b. IP Johnson (1988) also comes to a similar conclusion from quite different assumptions. His arguments derive from the assumption that clauses introduced by a temporal preposition contain an empty operator (Op), which moves to C. This is based on the observation (credited to Geis 1970) that sentences containing temporal prepositions introducing a clause are ambiguous with respect to the interpretation of the temporal preposition. Thus, (77) has the two interpretations in (78): (77) Liz left before you said she had. (78) a. 'Liz left before the time of your saying that she left'