ENGLISH NOMINAL GERUND PHRASES AS NOUN PHRASES WITH VERB-PHRASE HEADS

This paper focuses on the theoretical notion ‘head’ in syntax. The English nominal-gerund-phrase construction exemplified by (your) having broken the record is examined as a case of a construction type in which there is a problem about identifying the head. The properties of the construction are sytematically enumerated; previous generative analyses of the construction are briefly examined and criticized; and a generalized phrase-structure grammar (GPSG) analysis is provided. Under the proposed analysis, nominal gerund phrases are noun phrases with verb-phrase heads. This is a possible situation in GPSG terms and by no means deprives the notion ‘head’ of content; several features on the head are assigned values via the head-feature convention despite the disagreement between head and mother in the major category features N and V. The proposed analysis is shown to entail or be compatible with all the properties of the construction. It is comparable in coverage to that provided by Abney and S'apelioi to other published analyses. Potential future lines of research are suggested, linking nominal gerunds to attributive modifiers and partitives. © 1991 Walter de Gruyter