Non-finite Clauses

in English
Properties and Function

Nadira Aljović

Sarajevo, 2017

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2
Non-finite Clauses in English
Formal Properties and Function

Nadira Aljović

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Nadira Aljović
Non-finite Clauses in English
Formal Properties and Function
Izdavač
Nadira Aljović
Lektura i korektura
Nadira Aljović
Recezenti
Prof. dr. Nedžad Leko, Mr. Feđa Imamović
Tehnička priprema
Željko Babić
Dizajn omota
Feđa Imamović
Štampa
Tehnoprint Prnjavor

-------------------------------------------------
CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji
Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka
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811.111'367
ALJOVIĆ, Nadira
Non-finite clauses in English : formal properties and function /
Nadira Aljović. - Sarajevo : autor, 2017. - 175 str. ; 21 cm
Bilješke uz tekst. - Bibliografija : str. 173-175.
ISBN 978-9926-442-50-7
COBISS.BH-ID 24296710
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Mojim roditeljima

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6
CONTENTS

PREFACE 11

PART 1

SUBORDINATION 13
1. General remarks about subordination 15
1.1 Basic sentence elements 15
Verb 17
Subject 19
Objects 19
Predicational Complement (Pc) 20
Adverbial Complement (Ac) 20
Adverbial (A) 21
1.2 Compound vs. complex sentences 21
1.3 Classification of subordinate clauses 22
2. General Remarks on Non-finite and Verbless Clauses 25
2.1 Types and properties 26
2.1.1 Subject 26
2.1.2 Objects 27
2.1.3 Adverbials 27
2.1.4 Subordinators 27
2.1.5 Modals, auxiliaries 28
2.2 From non-finite to verbless clauses 28
2.3 Null subjects of non-finites 29
2.4 Visible subjects of non-finite and verbless clauses 33
2.5 Functions of non-finite clauses 34
2.5.1 Infinitive clauses 34
2.5.2 Ing-Participle Clauses 36
2.5.3 Ed-Participial clauses 37
2.5.4 Verbless clauses 38
2.6 Exercises 38
PART 2

NON-FINITE CLAUSES 43
3. Gerund nominals 45
3.1 Morphology, Selection, Temporal Interpretation 45
3.2 Structure of gerund nominals 49

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 3.2.1 Determiners 50
3.2.2 Of-phrase 51
3.2.3 Modifiers: adjectives, prepositional phrases, relative clauses
52
3.2.4 Noun compounding with gerunds 53
3.3 Function of gerund nominals 53
3.4 Exercises 55
4. Participial clauses 57
4.1 Morphology and Temporal Interpretation 58
4.2 Structure of –ing Participial Clauses 60
4.2.1 Subject 61
4.2.2 Object 65
4.2.3 Adverbials 66
4.2.4 Negation 68
4.3 Functions of –ing clauses 68
4.3.1 Subject function 68
4.3.2 Predicational complement 70
4.3.3 Appositive modifiers of nouns 71
4.3.4 Adjectival complement 71
4.3.5 Object function 71
4.3.6 Complement of preposition 73
4.3.7 Adverbial function 77
4.3.8 Postmodifiers of nouns 81
4.3.9 Exercises 81
4.4 Structure of -ed Participial Clauses 84
4.4.1 Subject 84
4.4.2 Object 85
4.4.3 Adverbials 85
4.4.4 Subordinators 86
4.5 Functions of -ed Participial Clauses 88
4.5.1 Adverbial function 88
4.5.2 Predicational complement function 89
4.5.3 Postmodifiers of nouns 90
4.6 Object function 91
4.6.1 Complex transitive verbs 92
4.7 Absolute participial clauses 94
4.8 Exercises 97
5. Infinitive clauses 103
5.1 Morphology and Temporal Interpretation 103
5.2 Internal structure of infinitive clauses 105
5.2.1 Interrogative infinitive clauses 108
5.2.2 Existential infinitive clause 108

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 5.3 Functions of infinitive clauses 109
5.3.1 Subject function 109
5.3.2 Object function 110
5.3.2.a Monotransitive complementation by infinitive clauses 110
5.3.2.b Complex transitive complementation by infinitive clauses 113
5.3.2.c Ditransitive verbs with infinitive clauses 121
5.3.2.d Ditransitive complementation vs. complex
transitive complementation 123
5.3.4 Adjective complement function 127
5.3.5 Nominal complement function 128
5.3.6 Complement of a preposition 130
5.3.7 Predicational complement function 131
5.3.8 Modification by infinitive clauses 132
5.3.8.1 Modification of nouns 132
5.3.8.2 Infinitival modification with correlative quantifiers 134
5.3.9 Adverbial function 135
5.3.10 Absolute infinitive clauses 137
5.4 Ellipsis after infinitival to 138
5.5 Appendix: additional examples with interrogative
and relative infinitivals 139
5.6 Exercises 140
6. Verbless clauses 143
6.1 Internal structure 143
6.2 Functions of verbless clauses 145
6.2.1 Adverbial function 145
6.2.2 Absolute verbless clauses 146
6.2.3 Object function 147
6.2.4 “Push the Door Open” 150
Appendix 1: Absolute constructions 153
Appendix 2: Complex transitive complementation 157
Appendix 3: Survey of functions of non-finite clauses 161
Appendix 4: -ing or/and infinitives 163
Bibliography 173

List of Tables

Table 1: sentence elements 15

Table 2: verbal inflection in E and BCS 17
Table 3: English and BCS non-finites 25
Table 4: Functions of infinitive clauses 34

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Table 5: Functions of -ing clauses 36
Table 6: Functions of -ed clauses 37
Table 7: Functions of verbless clauses 38
Table 8: Gerunds vs. Participles vs. Finite Verbs 46
Table 9: BCS Nouns in –nje vs. Verbs 46
Table 10: Gerunds vs. process nouns in -ion/-al etc. 47
Table 11: Structure of gerund nominals 49
Table 12: gerund vs. participle premodifiers 54
Table 13: -ing and -ed participles 58
Table 14: -ing clauses structure 61
Table 15: Infinitive forms 103
Table 16: Complex transitive (infinitive) vs. monotransitive
(finite and infinitive) 117
Table 17: Expletive and idiomatic subjects 127
Table 18: Absolute clauses 154
Table 19: Complex transitive construction 159
Table 20: Verbs selecting -ing participle 163
Table 21: Verbs [3] selecting -ing clauses with monotransitive or
infinitives with ditransitive verbs 167
Table 22: Verbs [4] selecting -ing clauses or infinitives
(similar meaning) 167
Table 23: Verbs [5] selecting -ing clauses or infinitives
(different meaning) 168

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P refac e

Aims
The aim of this book is to provide a detailed description of the
structure and use of non-finite clauses in English. At the same time it
provides an introduction into basic syntactic tools for analysing phrases
and clauses and can be helpful in achieving a solid understanding of
the internal structure of English sentences. Although the perspective
adopted is not entirely a contrastive one, the book also provides practical
observations and comments about a number of contrasts between
English non-finite structures and their Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
equivalents.
English seems to be very fond of non-finite structures: infinitive
and participial clauses, as well as verbless clauses – at least, this is an
impression a Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (henceforth BCS) learner of
English would have from his/her native language perspective. BCS is
a language with non-finite clauses which have a relatively restricted
distribution and very often uses finite structures as correlates for
English non-finite structures (for example, BCS has no participial
clauses used as objects of complements or prepositions, or in absolute
constructions). Due to these structural differences between the two
languages, BCS learners need to focus and learn especially those uses
of English non-finite forms that do not exist in their native language.
I hope that the detailed descriptions in this book will help them achieve
this goal.

Organization, conventions
The book is organized as a university guide and a reference book and
is based on materials I have been gathering for and using in the courses
I have taught at the University of Zenica’s English Department. It
is suitable for students of English (linguistics) who study English
structure and grammar and need a detailed and practical reference

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guide on English non-finite verbs and clauses. With its BCS-English
contrastive orientation, it can also be useful for teachers of English as
a foreign language and BCS-English-BCS translators and interpreters.
Each chapter is followed by exercises, with model answers provided
when I believed they were necessary. Moreover, I have worked
through many of the book’s exercises in my courses and developed
them so that students can use them to eliminate the commonest errors
they make in analysing English non-finite clauses.
Most examples used for illustrations are given in separate paragraphs,
but when they appear inside the running text, they are given in italics.
Ungrammatical sentences are indicated by *. All terminology, when
mentioned for the first time, is also given in italics. Cross-references
are provided whenever I estimated them useful and/or necessary.
A bibliography of linguistic literature used in the preparation of the
manuscript and examples is provided at the end.

Acknowledgments
My thanks go to all those who read and commented on earlier drafts
and portions of the manuscript, my students whose dilemmas and
questions motivated me to clarify a number of sections and examples.
My collaboration with late Prof. Lada Šestić was particularly useful
and it inspired my own course materials, which I subsequently
used in preparing the first draft of the present book. For an in-depth
reviewing of the final version of the manuscript, I am also grateful to
Prof. Midhat Riđanović, whose comments and suggestions helped to
eliminate a number of inconsistencies and mistakes of all kind. I owe
a number of example sentences with non-finite clauses to my students
Ramiza, Katarina, Tarik, Dževad, Ajla, Naim, Malik, and Nedim, to
whom I thank for their kind help. The formatting of the text and the
cover page were kindly provided by Željko Babić and Feđa Imamović.
Finally, I would like to thank my reviewers, Prof. Nedžad Leko and
Mr. Feđa Imamović, who read the manuscript with great care and
contributed precious comments. All remaining errors are only mine.

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 Par t 1
Subor dinatio n

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14
1. General remarks about subordination

1.1 Basic sentence elements

We begin by taking a brief look at basic elements of the simple
sentence. In fact, by “sentence elements” we imply immediate
constituents of a clause, such as subject, verb and object. Table 1
below introduces sentence elements and their respective labels to be
used throughout this book.

Sentence element Example in a sentence Realized by:

(italicized)
Subject (S) The sun is shining NP
Direct object (DO) That film bored me Pronoun (NP)
Indirect object (IO) I must send my parents an NP
anniversary card
Predicational Your dinner seems/is ready. AP
complement (Pc)
Adverbial We went upstairs AdvP
complement (Ac) Mary put the book in her pocket. PP
Adverbial (A), We met Mary in a pub. PP
optional
Verb (V) The sun is shining verbs
That lecture bored me.

Table 1: sentence elements

A clause is a constituent which contains a predicate and its subject,

and which may or may not contain one or more complements
and/or adjuncts. The predicate part of the sentence includes the verb
element and its complements and adjuncts, if any. A clause which is
independent, i.e. can stand on its own is called sentence. A sentence
may be simple (only one clause) or complex (with one or more

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embedded/subordinate/dependent clauses). Other constituents which
are not either clauses or sentences are phrases. They consist at least of
a head word (the central word of a phrase). The head determines the
syntactic category of the phrase (for example, nouns, adjectives, and
adverbs project noun phrases, adjective phrases, and adverb phrases,
respectively) and can be accompanied by other elements such as
modifiers and complements. For example, noun phrases contain
determiners and may contain modifiers before and after the head
noun; adjective phrases can also contain modifiers and complements;
prepositional phrases contain complements obligatorily; etc.
In order to represent the structure of non-finite clauses, we will
be using a format of Immediate constituent analysis illustrated below,
which consists in successively identifying immediate constituents
in the structure by identifying their function, phrasal category and
hierarchical position.

1. The sun is shining

S  S V S  NP NP D N D the N sun

V  is shining
2. That film bored me
S  S V DO S  NP NP  D N D  that N  film
V  bored
DO pers.pron  me

In (1) the sentence’s immediate constituents are a subject (S)

and a verb (V). The subject is realized by a noun phrase NP whose
immediate constituents are a determiner (D) and a head noun (N). D is
realized by the, N is realized by sun; the verb is realized by is shining.
This is a very simple way of representing sentence structure but it
will suffice for our present purposes: understanding internal structure
of non-finite clauses as well as their position (i.e. function) in larger
constituents which contain them (phrases, clauses and sentences).
Sentence elements can be realized by clauses, finite or non-finite.
Such clauses are called subordinate (or embedded/dependent) clauses.
One type of subordinate clause is relative clause; it functions as
postmodifier of nouns in NP and is illustrated in (2), where a partial
structural representation is achieved through the use of square brackets

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and labels. Sometimes, we will use this means of representing
structure, too.

2. [NPThe man [Rel.cl. who is over there]] is my brother.

Sentence elements are also realized by phrases: noun phrase or NP,

adjective phrase or AP, adverb phrase or AdvP, prepositional phrase
or PP; the verb element (or verbal part of the predicate) is realized by
a verb which is either simple or complex (e.g. works or is working),
but is not a complete phrase, syntactically speaking. For this reason
we will refrain from calling it a verb phrase, and will simply use the
term Verb (V) to represent it. Subject and object are typically realized
by noun phrases. Adverbials (A) can be realized by various phrasal
categories: AdvP, PP, NP, and clauses. Predicational complement (Pc)
is most frequently realized by NP and AP; adverbial complement
(Ac) by PP and AdvP.
We begin our survey of basic sentence element by verbs.

Verb
The Verb can be finite or non-finite. The infinitive and the participles
(present and past) are non-finite verb forms in English. Non-finite
verbs do not express the grammatical property of person (first, second,
third). Tense verb forms like Present simple, Past simple are finite
verb forms – they express the property of person although the form
of the verb does not change significantly in English to show the first,
second or third person. This is the reason for considering tense as a
defining property of English finite verb forms. Languages vary in the
morphological means (inflections) they use to express different person
(and number) values overtly. Compare English finite verbs and the
corresponding BCS ones in Table 2:

English BCS
I type Ja kucam
You type Ti kucaš
S/he types On/a kuca(Ø)

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 We type Mi kucamo
You type Vi kucate
They type Oni kucaju

Table 2: verbal inflection in E and BCS

Below we summarize properties of the Verb element in English sentences.

• Finite Verb elements express agreement and tense in English:
they agree with their subject and have tense inflections and
temporal interpretation – past/present/future (or hypothetical).
The tense/agreement morphology is simple in English, meaning
that there are not many distinct inflectional forms for the
three persons (1, 2, and 3) and the two numbers (singular and
plural). Another property of finite verbs in English is that they
require a visible subject in nominative (e.g. I, not me).
• Non-finite verbs do not express person or tense (do not agree
with the subject and have implicit and dependent temporal
interpretation, but no tense inflection for past or present).
Non-finite verbs need not have a visible subject in English;
if visible, their subject is usually in the objective form
(accusative case): e.g. me, not I.
• Clauses whose predicate is a finite verb are called finite clauses.
Clauses whose predicate is a non-finite verb are called non-finite
clauses. Only the former can function as independent units
i.e. sentences. Non-finite clauses are always subordinate.
• English modal verbs, such as can or must,1 are always finite;
lexical and tense/aspect/voice auxiliary verbs can appear in
non-finite or finite forms (e.g He has done... (finite) vs. ...him
having done... (non-finite))

Here are some examples to illustrate these points:

3. a. He typed a letter while at the same time making very few

typos. (past)

1 Modals: will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must.

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 b. She is typing a letter while at the same time making very
few typos. (present)
c. I considered [myself to be humiliated]. / I considered
[you to be humiliated]. (no agreement) vs. I was / You were
humiliated.
d. We wanted [(S) to pass this exam]. vs. *We thought [that
(S) passed the exam]. (null subject)
e. We expected [them to pass this exam]. (accusative subject)

Subject
The subject is most frequently realized as NP, which usually contains
a determiner and a noun (the head word of the entire phrase), but can
be realized as a pronoun, too. Various types of clauses can appear as
subjects, but a PP or an adverb are rarely found with this function:

4. a. Our king snores. (NP)

b. That he lied about the exam is obvious to everyone. (Finite
clause)
c. Lying about last night can cause us problems. (Non-finite
clause)
d. Under the bed is a good place to hide. (PP)

Objects
Transitive verbs require complements which we will call direct object
(DO) and indirect object (IO). When the complement of a verb is
realized by an NP (as in 5a,f,g below), its traditional name is DO;
when it is realized as a clause or a prepositional phrase (see 5b,c,d,e),
it is usually referred to just as Object (O).2

5. a. Our queen ate the soup.

b. Our teacher said that our queen does not like apples.

2 The distinction between NPs and other categories functioning as

complements of verbs is not crucial to our analysis of sentence structure,
the most important thing being the identification of verbal complements i.e.
objects (as opposed to adjuncts/adverbials) and of the syntactic categories
realizing them (NP, PP, clause).

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 c. They enjoyed swimming in the ocean this afternoon.
d. We expected you to arrive at 5.
e. The policeman inquired about the robbery.
f. Mary gave a doll to the girl.
g. Mary gave the girl a doll.

Predicational Complement (Pc)

The predicational complement appears after copular verbs (e.g. be).
Most typically, Pc is realized by NP and AP. Certain types of clauses
can also function as Pc.

6. a. The pit looked a danger to health. (NP)

b. She was beautiful. (AP)
c. The question was whether we should leave or not. (Finite
clause)
d. The question was whether to leave or not. (Non-finite
clause)
e. The conversation was about our present situation. (PP)

Adverbial Complement (Ac)

Adverbial complements, Ac, (usually denoting of place and time)
appear as complements of copular verbs, or intransitive verbs
(i.e. those that do not take DO), and sometimes transitive verbs too.
Syntactically, Ac is very similar to Pc when appearing after copular
verbs; the only difference is in their interpretation, with Ac having
adverbial meanings, and Pc expressing characterization or identity
(of/with S). Ac is typically realized by prepositional phrases, sometimes
by adverbs. Certain types of finite clauses can appear in this use, too.

7. a. He was in the library. (PP)

b. The dean remained in his office. (PP)
c. The secretary leaned against the window. (PP)
d. The ceremony lasted two hours. (NP)
e. My brothers specializes in astrometry. (PP)
f. He worded the mail very carefully. (AdvP)
g. Her mother lived to be 90. (Non-finite clause)

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Adverbial (A)
Adverbials constitute a class of adjuncts, optional sentence elements.
They are different in this respect from complements, obligatory
sentence elements selected by verbs, prepositions, etc. To see the
difference between adverbials and complements, notice that (8c) is
ungrammatical since it lacks a complement, while the omission of an
adverbial, as in (8b), does not have the same effect – the sentence
remains grammatical.

8. a. The dean remained in his office the whole afternoon.

b. The dean remained in his office
c. *The dean remained the whole afternoon.

1.2 Compound vs. complex sentences

Two or more coordinate clauses make up compound sentences (e.g.
Bob loves Mary, but Mary hates Bob). When one or more sentence
elements (e.g. subject, object) are realized by clauses, we are dealing
with complex sentences. Consider the following examples of sentences
containing subordinate clauses:

9. a. My parents decided that they should never come to London

again.
b. Everybody believed sincerely that a friendship with my
parents would be exciting.

We use brackets to show the embedded clauses within larger clauses.

In (10c) we can see that the clauses are juxtaposed (not embedded),
and they make a compound sentence.

10. a. [main cl. My parents decided [embedded cl. that they should never
come to London again]]
b. [main cl. Everybody believed sincerely [embedded cl. that a friend
ship with my parents would be exciting]]
c. [cl.1 Dickie disliked snobs intensely] and [cl.2 he never tired
of making fun of them].

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The embedded clause functions as DO in example (10a); in the
corresponding passive sentence, the same clause functions as subject
(11a); however, this clause is more natural if extraposed to the end
of the sentence, its position filled with the expletive pronoun it
(11b). Clauses can function as DO and as S.

11. a. That they should never come to London again was decided
unanimously.
b. It was decided unanimously that they should never come to
London again.

Embedded clauses can function as adverbials, in which case we call

them adverbial clauses. Such clauses describe circumstances of the
event (or state) denoted by the verb, such as time, condition, place,
manner, reason, etc.

12. a. Someone approached Roger when he was walking down

the road.
b. I will meet you at the station if I can.
c. John will come back soon, as far as I know.
d. Philip does not like it here, if I am not mistaken.

1.3 Classification of subordinate clauses

We will introduce a couple of criteria for the classification of clauses.
They will be helpful in later chapters for correct understanding of
definitions, references, and notions used in discussing the internal
structure and function of non-finite clauses. We can classify clauses
according to their form, sentence type (force), and function.

The form of the verb determines the form of the whole clause, which
can be:

1. Finite (I read the book)

2. Non-finite (reading the book)
3. Verbless (with my book on my lap)

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By its sentence type (correlating with a typical illocutionary force),
a clause can be:

1. declarative (statement) (I read the book)

2. interrogative (question) (Did you read the book?)
3. exclamative (exclaiming) (What a lovely person she is!)
4. imperative (order, request) (Read this book, please!)

By their function, we will divide clauses into three major classes:

I. Nominal clauses (obligatory elements in the sentence):

1. Complement clauses (of V ex. 9a,b; P, A, N)
2. Subject (as in ex. 11a)
3. Predicational complement (as in ex. 6c,d)
4. Adverbial complements (You put it wherever you want)

II. Adverbial function

5. adverbial clauses (12a-d), and absolute clauses (discussed in
later chapters)

III. Modifiers in NP, AdvP, AP:

6. relative clauses (finite; as in ex.2)
7. non-finite clauses (The house build last year)
8. comparative clauses (finite) (He is cleverer than we thought)

As will become clearer later, the functional classes will be often

referred to in subsequent chapters.

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2. General Remarks on Non-finite and Verbless Clauses

English non-finite verbs are the infinitive, the –ing participle and the
–ed participle (sometimes called –en participle). These verb forms do
not have morphological markers expressing person, number or tense
(compare the form singing with the present simple and past simple
forms sings, sang). English finite verbs distinguish overtly only the
third person singular in Present Tense (ending –s), and the forms of
be: am, is, are, was, were; Non-finite verbs, on the other hand, never
agree with the subject. Nevertheless, they have some kind of temporal
interpretation, which is dependent on the temporal interpretation of
the higher (matrix) verb. Unlike BCS, English makes extensive use
of non-finite verb forms. BCS has a very restricted use of infinitives; its
participles (the “present” participle3 and the past active and passive
participles) can only be used in adverbial clauses and as modifiers of
nouns. We illustrate some of these differences below:

They plan to build a house here. Planiraju graditi kuću ovdje/da

They like spending money.
Everybody needs their papers
examined by tomorrow.
happy to see you
their attempt to resolve the mystery
the girl standing in the corner
(on) the table painted in red
grade...
Vole trošiti novac/da troše...
*Svako želi njegov rad pregledan
do sutra.
(Svako želi da njegov rad bude
pregledan do sutra.)
sretna *vidjeti tebe (da/što te vidim)
Njihov pokušaj *riješiti zagonetku
(da riješe...)
onu djevojku *stojeći u uglu (koja
stoji...) na stolu ofarbanom u crveno

3 The form is called glagolski prilog, ‘verbal adverb’. The two past participles
(glagolski pridjevi in BCS) are used to form compound tenses and as
attributive and predicative adjectives; the passive past participle can head a
clause used as a postmoidifer in NP.

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 While coming here, I met John.
Having answered all questions,
we left.
With the children sleeping,
we were watching TV.
Dolazeći ovamo, sreo sam Ivana.
Odgovorivši na sva pitanja, otišli
smo.
*Djeca spavajući, mi smo gledali TV.
(Dok su djeca spavala)

Table 3: English and BCS non-finites

2.1 Types and properties

We begin by summarizing general properties of non-finite clauses. They:
- can appear with or without subject,
- can appear without a subordinator,
- cannot contain modals,
- can contain the auxiliary ‘have’ in the –ing or infinitive form
before the lexical verb to denote ‘past time’,
- can appear in passive voice,
- function as embedded i.e. subordinate clauses.
In 2.1.1-5 below, we introduce sentence elements of the following types
of non-finite clauses:

1. To-infinitive
2. Bare infinitive
3. –Ing part. clauses
4. –Ed part. clauses

2.1.1 Subject
The subject of non-finite clauses is assigned the accusative case; in
some –ing clauses it can be in the genitive case, and only in one type
of –ing clauses do we find nominative subjects. If the subject is not
explicit (if it is null), then it is either controlled by (that is, it refers to)
a nominal in a higher clause, or is understood (implied) by the context
(refers to a salient nominal in the larger context, ex. 13c-d), or it is
interpreted arbitrarily (as so-called generic person: “people, anybody”).

26
All these possibilities will be dealt with in section 2.3.

13. a. I watched my son playing with his friends in the garden.

b. I watched him playing...
c. It was not easy (S) to watch starving children of Africa.
(referring to a group of people implied by the context)
d. Has it been difficult (S) to study syntax this year? (“for you”
implied by the question oriented towards the audience)

2.1.2 Objects
Even when non-finite, transitive verbs require a complement, meaning
that we find objects in non-finite clauses too. Example:

14. to study grammar last year

2.1.3 Adverbials
Similar to finite verbs, non-finite verbs can be modified by adverbials:

15. to study grammar last year

The most obvious difference between finite and non-finite clauses

concerns the subject - it appears in the accusative case and it can be
null (implicit) in non-finite clauses.

2.1.4 Subordinators
Non-finite clauses can be introduced by subordinators, but this is not
obligatory. Infinitive clauses can be introduced by for; –ing and –ed
clauses can be introduced by with (for and with are not prepositions
in this use, but subordinators), as if, though, when, while and some
other subordinators (see 4.4.4). When non-finite clauses contain the
subordinators with and for they also contain a visible subject.

16. a. We can’t afford for everyone to travel business class.

b. With John being the most experienced of their professors,
she sought advice from him.
c. While putting on his most expensive coat, he slipped and fell.

27
2.1.5 Modals, auxiliaries
Modal verbs are auxiliaries that do not have non-finite forms. Therefore
they never appear in non-finite clauses. Auxiliaries that do appear in
non-finite clauses are aspectual and voice auxiliaries: be (progressive,
passive) and have (perfective)

17. a. She wanted to be examined first.

b. After being examined first, she decided to wait for the results.
c. Having failed once, Mary was sure that the exam questions
would be difficult.
d. She was happy to have visited him before he died.
e. She was happy to be helping with the children.

2.2 From non-finite to verbless clauses

Compare the embedded clauses in (18):

18. a. John believes that the prisoner is innocent. finite

b. John believes the prisoner to be innocent. non-finite
c. John believes the prisoner innocent. verbless

You can see that the clause in (18c) seems to be a reduced form of
the infinitive clause in (18b). Verbless clauses of this type have an
invisible variant of the verb be between their S and their Pc. They
have the following immediate constituent structure:

19. V-less Cl  S (V) Pc

(Note: The use of parentheses indicates that the element is not visible)

The invisible verb is signalled by dots in the following examples.

20. a. He found the assignment (…) more difficult than he had

expected.
b. You can count yourself (…) lucky.
c. His attitude made real communication (…) impossible.

Used adverbially, non-finite and verbless clauses with subject can be

introduced by with(out). Such clauses are called absolute constructions/
clauses.

28
21. With the children (being) at school, we can’t take our
vacations when we want to.

2.3 Null subjects of non-finites

It is quite common for a non-finite clause to appear without a visible
nominal expression functioning as its subject. Consider the infinitive
clause in (22).

22. The politician tried [to explain his position].

Although we cannot actually see it or hear it, we are able to interpret

the subject of the infinitive clause above: it is identical to the subject
of the whole sentence, namely the politician. However, it is easy to
show, and equally important to understand, that the noun phrase
the politician in the main clause does not syntactically function as
the subject of the infinitive. First, the main verb try is transitive,
which means that it denotes an activity implying two participants,
or arguments; these are realized by the NP the politician and the
infinitive clause to explain his position.4 The verb explain in the
infinitive clause is also transitive; in the sentence He explained his
position we see that it takes two arguments (realized by he and his
position). We can also see that this requirement is very strict and
that in our last sentence the subject must be present (or visible) – the
sentence would be ungrammatical without a subject (*Explained his
position.) The question then arises how it is possible for the subject
of the same verb to be invisible (or absent) in example (22) above.
A solution for this contradictory behaviour comes from a concept of
invisible or null syntactic elements which can be expressed by the
following generalization on syntactic structures:

4 If you substitute a pronoun (e.g. something) for this infinitive clause, it

will become clearer that the clause functions in the same way as the pronoun,
i.e. object of the verb ‘tried’:
(i) The politician tried something. (‘something’ replacing ‘to explain his
position’)

29
 Null Elements Generalization: A syntactic structure can
contain null elements. A null element is an element that
lacks phonological properties or content (that is, which is
not pronounced) but carries semantic properties or meaning
(it is interpreted or implied).

According to this generalization, the seemingly contradictory

behaviour of the verb explain can be resolved by postulating an
invisible subject in the infinitive clause (signalled by parentheses):

23. The politician tried [(S) to explain his position]

Summarizing, we can say that the traditional concept of implied or

understood elements in sentences can be replaced by a more explicit
concept of null elements. Non-finite clauses can be said to contain a
subject in the same way as finite clauses do (i.e. obligatorily), the only
difference being that in non-finite clauses the subject can be realized
as a null (invisible) element.5

The null subject of a non-finite clause can be interpreted in three

different ways:

1. as being controlled by an expression in the main clause

2. as referring to an expression within a larger context (paragraph,
text, situation, etc.)
3. as arbitrary or generic (‘everybody’, ‘people in general’), i.e.
as not being dependent on any element in the context or the
main clause.
Controlled subject. Consider again example (23). Its null subject is
controlled by the main clause subject (NP the politician). We call such
controlling subject control, and main verbs allowing it subject control
verbs (e.g. try, promise, want, refuse, etc.).

5 Remember that BCS not only allows null subjects in non-finite clauses
but requires them, as shown in Table 3 above. Interestingly, BCS allows null
subjects in finite clauses, too: (S) Pričao mi je tu priču sto puta.

30
Besides subject control, there is also object control: a configuration
where a direct object controls the null subject of an infinitive verb.
Main verbs allowing this type of control are called object control
verbs (e.g. persuade, make, cause, etc.; see ditransitive verbs 5.3.2.c).

24. They persuaded the politician [(S) to explain his position].

Controlled subjects are found in adverbial non-finite clauses, as in

[(S) Having written his manuscript], he began to search for a publisher.
In such cases, the controller is practically always the subject of the
main clause. However, English speakers make use of non-finite
adverbial clauses with a non-subject NP in the main clause controlling
the interpretation of the null subject of the non-finite clause. This
type of structure has often been referred to as a “dangling” participle/
infinitive. Here, we illustrate it with two –ing clauses and underline
the element controlling the non-finite subject:

25. a. Born and bred in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast was always
my preferred destination to recharge and socialize from my
teenage years.
b. While trying on a wealthy woman’s dress, a handsome and
rich politician mistakes her for a society woman.

Sometimes, no NP in the main clause provides a clue about the

interpretation of the subject in the participial adverbial clause as
illustrated in (26):

26. Being desperately poor, paper was always scarce – as was ink.

The examples illustrated above are not rare, although for some
speakers they are not acceptable, and most speakers try to avoid such
structures in careful writing. However, examples (27a,b) illustrate
dangling participials that are fully established and acceptable (here the
participial clauses function as sentence adverbials and their subjects
are identified as referring to the speaker, or as some sort of generic
discourse “we”):

31
27. a. In the long run, taking everything into account, which is the
wisest choice?
b. Strictly speaking, Great Britain consists of Scotland, Wales,
and England.

Context/situation. If we imagine a situation where several people

comment on their mutual decision to invite another person to their
party, and one of them actually says It was not clever (S) to invite Bob
to our party. He is such a kill joy!, the situation makes it clear that the
null subject of the infinitive clause is to be understood as referring
to whoever person(s) invited Bob to the party. The identity of such
persons is made clear by the situation the utterance is used in, and is
known by the participants in that situation.
A similar identification of a null subject of a non-finite clause, can
occur within a larger piece of writing or speech, containing an expression
(an NP or a pronoun) which identifies the null subject. This is illustrated
by example (28):

28. I would like you to read the two sections of the book beginning
on pages 89 and 107. You will present these sections to other
students in our next class. So, it is important (S) to understand
all points made by the author.

It is clear that the subject of the infinitive clause in the second sentence
is whoever is referred to by you appearing twice in this context: in the
first and the second sentence of the passage.

Generic/arbitrary interpretation. The null subject of a non-finite

clause can also be interpreted as referring to no particular person or
group of people. Such interpretation is said to be generic or arbitrary
(and can be paraphrased as ‘everybody’, ‘nobody’, ‘people in general’).
Example (29) illustrates this:

29. a. It is vital (S) to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

b. It is not easy (S) to learn foreign languages.

32
2.4 Visible subjects of non-finite and verbless clauses
The visible subject of a non-finite clause is typically realized in two
different forms: accusative or genitive. The accusative is different
only in pronouns, the genitive is visible in nouns and pronouns alike.
The two forms are not freely exchangeable, though. The accusative
subject appears in infinitive, participial (–ing or –ed) and verbless
clauses, while the genitive appears only in ing clauses. Exceptionally,
certain ing clauses admit nominative subjects.
Accusative. Accusative is the most usual case of a non-finite-clause
subject. In infinitive clauses, only accusative subjects are allowed.
Accusative appears in –ing clauses, too, especially in less formal
styles or when they have adverbial function. Finally, in ed clauses, we
find accusative subjects only.

30. a. I want him to answer the phone.

b. We talked about them being arrested by the police.
c. (With) them being sick, we had to cancel our trip.
d. Someone actually saw them stolen.
e. With the bicycles / them repaired, we decided to ride to the
beach.

Genitive. The genitive case is used with –ing forms that have nominal
function. In fact, taking a genitive subject is a nominal property itself
since nouns take genitives as determiners. The use of genitive instead
of accusative as in (31a) is more formal (and perhaps less frequent).
In (32b), however, the genitive is obligatory since it appears with a
“nominal” –ing form which we will call gerund nominals.

31. a. The teacher insisted on [their / the children’s not playing

computer games]. (or: them/the children not playing)
b. [The children’s playing of computer games] irritated their
parents. (cf. *The children playing of computer games)

Nominative. Exceptionally, nominative subjects can appear in very

formal styles and in a special type of structures called absolute
constructions, especially with –ing participles (see 4.7).

33
32. Everybody wanted to buy her paintings, she being the best
painter in the country. (or: with her being the best painter in
the country)

2.5 Functions of non-finite clauses

This section is intended to provide a quick survey of the functions
of non-finite clauses, and is organized according to their form:
to-infinitives, the two participles, and verbless clauses. All these
appear in a wide range of functions, classified as nominal (subject
and various types of complements), adverbial, and modifying (where
adverbial and modifying functions share the same property of being
adjuncts, i.e. optional sentence elements). Infinitive clauses have the
largest distribution of all non-finite clauses.

2.5.1 Infinitive clauses

Infinitival clauses appear in nominal functions (subject, complements)
as well as in adjunct functions (adverbial and modifier). We illustrate
all functions in Table 4:

Subject To leave without a word would be

Extraposed subject
Complement of a (transitive)
verb
Subject (predicational)
complement
Complement of an adjective
Appositive complement
of a noun
rude.
It would be rude to leave without
a word.
They want to buy a house in
Hercegovina.
They expect us to be quiet.
They persuaded us to buy a house
in Hercegovina.
The only solution is to attempt to
resolve the conflict peacefully.
He is ready to go now.
Your idea, to buy a house in
Herzegovina, was greeted with
dismay by your children.
Their attempt to resolve the conflict
peacefully failed.

34
Modifier of an adjective (detached) They are too young to get married.
Modifier of a noun
Modifier of an adverb
Adverbial
I lost my purse to keep my pencils
in. He is the only scientist to have
won this prize. You’ve got enough
money to buy his shop.
She didn’t run fast enough to catch
the train.
In order to save money, they use
scrap paper for printing.
To be honest, I haven’t seen her at
all.
You would be a fool not to apply
for that job.

Table 4: Functions of infinitive clauses

In all the above examples (except one), the infinitivals appear

without a visible subject. When a subject is present, the infinitival
clause is generally introduced by for:

32. a. For you to leave without a word would be rude.

b. The only solution is for both sides to attempt to resolve the
conflict peacefully.
c. Your idea, for your children to buy a house in Hercegovina,
was greeted with dismay by them.

Infinitival clauses functioning as subjects are often extraposed; the

extraposed sentence sounds less formal than the non-extraposed one
(see the second line in Table 4). When an infinitival clause functions
as a direct object of a verb, very often the subordinator for is not used:

33. They want us to buy a house in Hercegovina.

Interrogative infinitivals. Infinitive clauses can be interrogative and

function as complements to verbs, prepositions, nouns, and adjectives:

34. a. I don’t know whether to accept their proposition. (V)

b. They are not certain how to proceed. (A)

35
 c. Everybody was anxious about whether to leave or stay. (P)
d. A decision whether to abandon the project hasn’t been
made yet. (N)

In interrogative infinitivals no overt subject is permitted.

Bare infinitives. Infinitive clauses sometimes appear without the

marker to, and as such are restricted to the function of complements
of certain verbs, mostly. We illustrate bare infinitives in (35):

35. a. Can you help him do his homework?

b. Nobody made me do it.
c. We didn’t see them walk in the street.
d. All I did was turn on the light. (This bare infinitive is within
a pseudo-cleft sentence.)

2.5.2 Ing-Participle Clauses

Like infinitive clauses, ing-participial clauses are found in a wide
range of nominal and adjunct functions, illustrated in Table 5.

Subject of a finite, Talking about politics is his favourite

infinitive, or verbless pastime.
clause Talking to you was a great pleasure,
indeed.
I consider [his talking about politics to be
very interesting].
I consider [his talking about politics very
interesting].
Extraposed subject It was a great pleasure talking to you.
Nominal

(main or embedded) I found [it very interesting talking about

politics with him].
Object of I enjoyed talking to his parents.
a (transitive) verb
Predicational His favourite pastime is fishing in
complement mountain rivers.
Complement of He insisted on talking with his son’s
a preposition teacher.
I’m looking forward to talking to you.

36
 Modifier of a noun The professor talking to our students is
Gregory Spenser.
Adjunct

Adverbial Thinking about his work, he forgot the

teapot in the kitchen.
Absolute construction She lay for a long while, the tears falling.

Table 5: Functions of -ing clauses

Extraposition of –ing clauses (see the second line of Table 5) is not

preferred or more natural/less formal than the non-extraposed version
(the first line of Table 5), which is the exact opposite of infinitival
clauses. Prepositions do not take infinitival complements freely
(see ex. 34 above); instead, they select ing clauses. Nouns cannot take
–ing clauses as their complements, and adjectives do so rarely; –ing
clauses after nouns function only as noun postmodifiers.

2.5.3 Ed-Participial clauses

Clauses with past participles have limited distribution: they appear in
adjunct functions (modifier and adverbial), and as complements to a
restricted set of verbs (mostly causative).

Modifier of Noun He never found that old book printed in

blue ink.
Adjunct

Adverbial Published in 1941, the paper influenced

many biographers.
Absolute construction All things considered, she would be better
married.
Object We got them examined by a famous doctor
Nominal

I had my hair cut yesterday.

Table 6: Functions of -ed clauses

37
2.5.4 Verbless clauses
The function of verbless clauses is restricted to objects of a set of
transitive verbs, and to adverbials and absolute constructions:

Object They made everyone aware of his false accusations.

They believed everyone responsible for the situation.
Nominal

I consider him very clever.

Adverbial While in the restaurant, they were not allowed to

smoke.
Adjunct

Absolute The classes finally over, the students rushed out

Construction of the University.
She had been telephoning to someone, without
nobody around her.

Table 7: Functions of verbless clauses

2.6 Exercises
I - Find all subordinate clauses in the text below and state their
structural type.
I asked why a penknife or a small safety razor could not
be used instead of the thumb nail to take off the old labels
from the bottles. I was expertly informed that knives or
razors would scratch the glass thus depreciating the value of
the bottles when they were to be sold. I enjoyed meeting the
time clock, and spent a pleasant half-hour punching various
cards standing around, and then someone came in and said
I couldn’t punch the clock with my hat on.

II - What is the structural type, force and function of the subordinate

clauses in the following sentences?
1. One evening he asked her whether he might go home with her.
2. His aunt feared that he might catch something.
3. His uncle said that evil communications corrupted good manners.

38
4. John believes that Sue is a good student.
5. I wonder if he still remembers that day in April.
6. That John should have done such a thing is rather worrying.
7. Though we did not realize it then, Mrs. Harling was our audience
when we played.
8. That he will propose to her soon is unlikely.
9. I doubt whether he will ever manage to finish the book.
10. She liked to put up lunches for him when he went hunting.
11. We had jolly evenings at the Harlings when the father was away.
12. If he was at home, the children had to go to bed early.

III - Which among the underlined verbs are infinitives. Support your
answers with evidence.
1. All I did was give them your phone number.
2. You can stay at our cabin, but make sure you bring plenty of warm
clothes.
3. I recommend that the proposal be approved without delay.
4. They advised me to reject your offer.
5. Should we give more money to charity than we do?

IV - State the function of the underlined non-finite clauses.

1. It gave us an opportunity to make a quick profit.
2. This made obtaining a loan virtually impossible.
3. We’re looking forward to seeing you again.
4. I can’t decide what to do about it.
5. They arrived home to find that the house had been burgled.
6. Anyone knowing his whereabouts should contact the police.
7. I’m afraid asking for special consideration won’t do any good.

V - Rephrase the verbless clauses in the following examples using

finite that-clauses and non-finite infinitive clauses:
1. I want the dress ready by five o’clock.
2. He expects me in his office at 12.
3. He considered the girl a good student.
4. He thinks the decision very unwise.
5. He judged the man in his fifties.

39
VI - Identify non-finite clauses in the following examples (use square
brackets or copy the clauses):
1. For many centuries the farmer allowed it to continue there, leaving
his pigs to look after themselves most of the time.
2. The pig was the last animal to be fully domesticated by the farmer.
3. As the woodlands began to shrink, the pig slowly began to be kept
on the farm itself.
4. These were the Chinese pig, and its various relatives, including the
Neapolitan pig, which were descended from Chinese pigs.
5. In the early nineteenth century, all sorts and conditions of pig-farmer
worked at improving all sorts and conditions of pig.
6. The storehouse, which held foodstuffs and other goods that did not
keep, had remained open during the holidays.
7. She was neither dressed nor built for energetic activity on a hot
day, being very short indeed, and fat, so that she had to roll a little
in order to get along.
8. Her tight black dress was worn without a belt or any ornaments
other than a large metal cross, well fingered but of no special value.
9. The worn old bag she carried caused her to lean over slightly to her
right.
10. It was clear that she was used to carrying such heavy weights.
11. Reaching her usual bus stop, she put down her bag and rested.
Then, suddenly, conscious of being watched, she turned quickly round.
12. He was the only other person waiting.
13. This great nervous lump of a man, waiting for a bus or hanging
about on the footpath outside the storehouse, had become a figure
of the street for her.

VII - Say how the subject of the non-finite verb (or gerund) is interpreted
in each of the following examples:
1. Carter was usually able to catch the 6.35 train from Euston.
2. He had no wish to draw attention to himself and the source of his
income.
3. Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason
for doing so.
4. Pruning involves cutting away of overgrown and unwanted branches.

40
5. More damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving
the tree to grow in its own way.
6. Pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape
or size.
7. The object may be to get a tree of the right height.
8. You may cut out branches that are rubbing against each other and
thus causing wounds.
9. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that
are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air.
10. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce the risk of death
as far as possible.
11. It is essential to make the area which has been pruned smooth and
clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness.
12. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hours and then
paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops.

VIII - Read the text below and answer the questions.

The Ferrari automobile company is famous for producing fast
and beautiful cars. Scuderia Ferrari is the part of the company
which is concerned with racing cars competitively, while
Ferrari S.p.A. is involved in making exceptional sports cars
which even the wealthy and famous are proud of owning.
Ferrari’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, was born in Italy in 1898. He
had little formal education but he was interested in driving
fast cars. After he left the army, he applied for work at Fiat but
he wasn’t successful in getting a job there. In 1920 he started
racing cars for Alfa Romeo. After demonstrating that he was
skilful in winning small local races, Enzo was asked to race in
larger competitions. He finished his racing career in 1932.
In 1929 Enzo set up Scuderia Ferrari, where he was responsible
for building up a racing team of over forty drivers. However,
it was only in 1945 that he founded Ferrari S.p.A. Enzo
thought that selling sports cars would make it possible to
continue financing his racing activities at Scuderia Ferrari.

41
 The famous Ferrari logo, a black horse on a yellow background,
has been in existence since the 1930’s. Interestingly, however,
an Australian company called Avanti has a logo which is so
similar to Ferrari’s that it is almost identical.

Pick out all non-finite clauses from the text. Determine the function
of each clause. The first is done for you.

1. producing fast and beautiful cars FUNCTION: complement of

a preposition

42
 Par t 2
Non-finite clau s es
In this part of the book, we will examine individual properties of
phrases and clauses headed by gerunds, participles, infinitives, and
the invisible copula. We focus on the internal structure and function
of non-finite clauses, and provide useful and practical contrastive
remarks whenever we believe they are relevant for BCS learners
of English.

Non-finite clauses with a visible verb will be divided into four classes,
not only three (so far we have distinguished only three main types:
infinitive, –ing and –ed). Two types will be distinguished among the
expressions headed by ing forms: those that can be seen as having
nominal properties, and those having predominantly verbal properties.
The nominal ing participle is traditionally called gerund, and we will
call the structures headed by this form gerund nominals; they have
a typically nominal internal structure (determiners, of-phrases, etc.).
The –ing participle with more verbal, i.e. clausal, properties (such as
accusative objects, modification by adverbs) appears in clauses which
can have nominal functions (subject, object, etc.) or adjunct functions;
these constituents will be called –ing (participial) clauses. We will
discuss gerunds and non-finite clauses in four subsequent chapters:

3. Gerunds heading gerund noun phrases (gerund nominals)

4. Ing participles heading -ing clauses
-Ed participles heading -ed clauses
5. To-Infinitives and Bare infinitives, heading infinitival clauses
6. Verbless clauses

43
44
3. Gerund nominals

Gerunds are simple –ing forms that cannot be negated with not or
appear with auxiliary verbs; they are derived from dynamic intransitive
or transitive verbs; their meaning generally implies active voice. In the
following sentences, gerund nominals are italicized; gerunds derived
from stative verbs are unacceptable (signalled by *):

36. a. I was surprised at my son’s deft painting of a Viking ship.

b. The drilling for oil will cause damage to the flora and fauna
in our karst fields.
c. There is no checking of passports at the frontiers inside the EU.
d. *The loving of their homeland won’t help the victims.
e. *The feeling of pain is always a frustration.
f. *I admire his knowing of all answers.
g. John’s favourite activity is trout fishing.

3.1 Morphology, Selection, Temporal Interpretation

A gerund nominal is derived from a verb by the suffix –ing, and
inherits the verb’s requirements regarding its arguments and selectional
properties. A gerund nominal denotes a complex event and is an
abstract uncountable noun. Arguments of a verb are its subject and
object(s), which must be expressed overtly with finite verbs in English.
Each verb assigns particular semantic interpretations (“roles”) to
its arguments.6 Gerunds inherit some but not all properties of the
underlying verb’s argument structure: if they are derived from
transitive verbs they require a phrase that will receive an object-like
interpretation and that will function as their complement (an obligatory

6 For example, the subject of kill is interpreted as ‘Agent’, its object is

interpreted as ‘Patient’ (e.g. John killed a policeman). The verb frighten in
This situation frightens John is said to assign the role of ‘Cause’ to its subject,
and the role of ‘Experiencer’ to its object.

45
element). However, unlike verbs, they are not able to case-mark their
complement, which therefore must be introduced by a preposition
(typically the preposition ‘of’). The presence in a gerund nominal
of an element which receives a subject-like interpretation is not
obligatory. These properties are illustrated in the following table where
gerunds are contrasted with participles and finite verbs:

Gerunds Participles Finite verbs

Collins was arrested Collins was arrested Collins was arrested
for the sheltering of for sheltering enemy because he sheltered
enemy soldiers. soldiers. enemy soldiers.
*Collins was arrested *Collins was arrested *Collins was arrested
for the sheltering. for sheltering. because he sheltered.
*Collins was arrested *Collins was arrested
for the sheltering because sheltered enemy
enemy soldiers. soldiers.

Table 8: Gerunds vs. Participles vs. Finite Verbs

English gerunds can be compared to BCS nouns derived from

verbs by the suffix –nje. These nouns have similar “complex event”
meanings, they are uncountable nouns, and they require complements
just like their corresponding verbs. Like English gerunds, they cannot
assign accusative to their complements, which instead take genitive
forms (similar to the English of-phrase):

BCS nouns in –nje Finite verbs

Marko je uhapšen zbog uzimanja
droge.
*Marko je uhapšen zbog uzimanja.
*Marko je uhapšen zbog uzimanja
drogu.
Marko je uhapšen jer je uzimao
drogu.
*Marko je uhapšen jer je uzimao.

Table 9: BCS Nouns in –nje vs. Verbs

By their meaning and internal structure, gerund nominals can be

similar to process denoting nouns derived from verbs. Compare
gerunds and the corresponding nouns in Table 10.

46
 Process nominals
They broadcasted the destruction
of the building.
His stubborn refusal to talk was
very strange.
Everybody spoke about their
consistent description of the robbery.
Gerund nominals
They broadcasted the destroying
of the building.
His stubborn refusing to talk was
very strange.
Everybody spoke about their
consistent describing of the robbery.

Table 10: Gerunds vs. process nouns in -ion/-al etc.

Some nouns in –ing may look like gerunds but lack typical
grammatical properties and requirements of gerunds: they do not
denote complex events and may refer to concrete entities. Such
“lexicalized” gerunds are sporadic rather than regular or productive,7
resulting in nouns that can be uncountable or countable, abstract or
concrete (pay attention to the BCS translations in (37) which do not
feature nouns in –nje). They do not require of phrases, either.

37. a. How can we maintain the control of spending? (troškovi)

b. The city developed inexpensive housing. (stanovi)
c. He expressed aggressive feelings. (osjećanja)
d. The port is closed to all shipping. (brodovi)
e. In the end, drink was his undoing. (propast)

A gerund nominal receives a temporal interpretation which

depends on the temporal interpretation of the main verb in the sentence

7 By ‘lexicalisation’ we mean that the process of –ing suffixation alone

is not responsible for the derivation of such nouns. Rather, these nouns are
the result of a lexical process whereby a regular gerund (form) acquires a
new (sometimes unpredictable) meaning and becomes a lexical item in its
own right. For example, the word ‘shipping’ is given in a dictionary as an
independent entry (i.e. lexical item), a noun with its own meaning (‘ships
considered as a group’). Gerunds, however, are not listed as separate lexical
entries in dictionaries (the gerund derived, for example, from the verb ‘tuck’
does not appear as a separate entry).

47
(similarly to non-finite verb forms). A gerund can have progressive
and non-progressive aspectual meanings. Compare the sentences in (38):

38 a. They punished the =They plagiarised evidence and

plagiarising of evidence.
b. They punish severely
the plagiarising of evidence by
lawyers. ….
c. The plagiarising of
evidence will be punished
severely.
d. Our plagiarising of
evidence was interrupted by a
phone call.
they were punished.
=Whenever lawyers plagiarise
evidence, they are punished
severely.
=If they plagiarise evidence (in
future), they will be punished.
=While we were plagiarising
evidence, a phone rang.

Gerund nominals never contain temporal, aspectual or voice

auxiliaries. This is illustrated by the sentences in (39):

39. a. *John’s (deft) having painted of his dog is a sign of his love
for her. (gerund)
b. *The having tapped on the floor made him exhausted. (gerund)
c. John having tapped on the floor for hours made me
exhausted. (participle)

Some gerunds have a passive meaning, although most frequently they

are interpeted as active. Gerunds after need, deserve, require, bear are
interpreted as passive; this is illustrated in example (40):

40. a. Your shoes need cleaning (=to be cleaned)

b. This problem deserves discussing (=to be discussed)
c. His language won’t bear repeating. (=is too inappropriate
to be heard again)
d. Your joke will bear repeating. (=is amusing enough to be
heard again)

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3.2 Structure of gerund nominals
As a typical NP, a gerund nominal contains a determiner slot
and a head slot; the head (the gerund itself) can be preceded by a
premodifier (e.g. an adjective), and followed by an of-phrase functioning
as complement, or by an optional prepositional phrase or relative clause,
both functioning as postmodifiers. The structure is schematically
represented in Table 11.

Determiner (Adjective phrase) Gerund (Of-phrase)

the
his, their … monotonous
reading of the poem
this repetitive
(a) any, some, no

Table 11: Structure of gerund nominals

Examples (41a-c) illustrate premodifiers, complements and postmodifiers

(underlined) in gerund phrases (italic):

41. a. They recommended the spending of 20 million pounds on

hospital construction. (complement, postmodifier)
b. I hate this stupid quarrelling about grades. (premodifier,
complement)
c. The drilling I heard during the night stopped in the morning.
(postmodifier)

The immediate constituents of a gerund nominal could be represented

as follows (example 41b: this stupid quarrelling about grades):

NP D PreM N PP
Dthis
PreMAPAstupid
N quarrelling (gerund)
PP P NP
Pabout
NP ØD N
Ngrades

We discuss all elements of the gerund nominal in subsections 3.2.1-4.

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3.2.1 Determiners
Gerunds behave as uncountable nouns in not allowing the plural suffix –s.
Most frequently they appear with the definite article the, especially if
they contain an of-phrase. Other determiners are also allowed (a, no,
any, zero article, demonstratives, possessives). The use of the zero
article and quantifiers such as ‘any’ follows the general rules of article/
determiner use with uncountable nouns. The use of the indefinite
article a is somewhat specific as it does not seem to imply its numerical
meaning ‘one’, but rather means ‘a certain (amount of)’, as can be seen
in examples (42g,h). Demonstratives in (42i,j,k) seem to contribute a
certain speaker-oriented (i.e. modal) effect to the utterances.

42. a. In a time of depression, Roosevelt succeeded in the restoring

of hope.
b. The hotel prides itself on the maintaining of high standards.
c. The riding of bicycles was strictly forbidden.
d. (S) Melting of ice sheets and glaciers is causing sea levels
to rise.
e. Even when dozing, there was no apparent softening of his
intimidating and menacing personality.
f. This would represent a melting of roughly a quarter of
the total amount of ice tied up in mountain glaciers and
small ice caps.
g. A softening of the metal is sometimes observed on the surface.
h. The model predicts a slowing down in the reaction rate.
i. What is this Icelandic hunting of endangered whales you
keep hearing about?!
j. This arguing is becoming unbearable!
k. Is this arguing normal or do we need (S) counselling?
l. Their signing of the treaty surprised the Security Council.
m. Belushi’s foolish mixing of drugs was the cause of his death.
n. John’s continuous tapping on the floor annoyed everyone.

A possessive in front of a gerund is usually interpreted as its subject.

Sometimes, a possessive can receive an object-like interpretation.

50
This is illustrated in examples (43), where the gerunds have passive
meaning.

43. a. Everything you know about Alexander Litvinenko’s killing

could be wrong.
b. Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko
accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of
the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

3.2.2 Of-phrase
The of-phrase receives an object-like interpretation and functions
as complement of the gerund (i.e. is obligatory in the same way
that an object may be obligatory with the corresponding transitive
verb). A gerund followed by an of-phrase is usually introduced by a
determiner, very often by the.

44. a. The signing of the treaty was expected by both sides.

b. Any withholding of information will be punished.

With intransitive gerunds, it is possible for the of-phrase following

the gerund to be interpreted as its subject (45a,b). An of-phrase
appearing in the gerund phrase can be ambiguous between the subject
and object interpretation in case the gerund is derived from a verb
which can be transitive and intransitive (45c,d):

45. a. The yelling of Maria suddenly stopped.

b. We watched the landing of Alan’s plane.
c. The shooting of the hunters was condemned by the local
community. (a. the hunters are killed; b. the hunters killed
some animals)
d. The ringing of the bell (a. someone rang the bell; b. the bell
rang)

With gerunds derived from prepositional verbs, the complement PP

is introduced not by of but by whatever preposition is selected by the
underlying verb:

46. a. Their talking about the problem ... (Not: *their talking of
the problem...)

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 b. The discipline of attentive listening to one another develops
over time. (Not: *attentive listening of one another)
c. We varied stimuli and task demands in order to identify
the cortical areas that are activated during attentive listening
to real music. (Not: *attentive listening of real music)

When gerunds are derived from ditransitive verbs (e.g. give, offer),
the two complements follow the gerund and are strictly ordered so
that the indirect object (introduced by to) follows the direct object
(introduced by of), as shown in (47).

47. a. The ambassador’s presenting of his credentials to the

Foreign Minister took place in the Presidential Palace.
b. The experimenter’s generous giving of Belgian chocolates
to the participants was approved of.
Not: *The ambassador’s presenting the Foreign Minister of his
credentials ... / *The experimenter’s generous giving the
participants of Belgian chocolates

There is an important restriction on the use of personal pronouns in

of-phrases following gerunds – pronouns are generally dispreferred
(see 48a,b). This restriction occurs with BCS nouns in nje, which
often correspond to English gerund nominals (see the translations
of the examples below). Instead, we can use an ‒ing clause or a noun
with the same meaning as the gerund, as in (48c,d).

48. a. *The finding of it in Hyde Park surprised everybody.

(*Pronalaženje nje u Hajd parku)
b. *The examining of them in the laboratory was tiring.
(*Ispitivanje njih u laboratoriji)
Instead:
c. Finding it in Hyde Park (Njen pronalazak u Hajd parku)
d. Examining them in the laboratory/Their examining.../The
examination of them.../Their examination... (Njihovo ispitivanje)

3.2.3 Modifiers: adjectives, prepositional phrases, relative clauses

Gerunds can be modified by adjectives. These may express adverbial
meanings although they function as regular nominal premodifiers.
Adverbs are disallowed in gerund nominals. Adverbial meanings can

52
be expressed by the gerund’s postmodifiers realized by prepositional
phrases and clauses.

49. a. Your prompt paying of the rent may bring you a discount.
(adjective)
b. All this naive lying to people has to stop. (adjective)
c. Their arrogant refusing of the proposal will cause great
problems to the company. (adjective)
d. This arguing which hasn’t stopped since 11 a.m is becoming
unbearable! (relative clause)
e. This fighting about nesting grounds is biologically conditioned
in this species. (prepositional phrase)

Examine immediate constituents of a complex gerund nominal as

represented below (this fighting about nesting grounds):

NP D N PostM
Dthe
Nfighting (gerund)
PostMPPP NP
Pabout
NPØD PreM N
PreM participial adjective nesting
Ngrounds

3.2.4 Noun compounding with gerunds

Syntactic compounds such as ‘film production’ in which the first noun
is a kind of modifier interpreted as the object of the verb underling the
derived noun is allowed with gerunds, too. Examples:

50. a. If I have employees, how do I file [state income tax]

withholding? (=withholding of state income taxes)
b. When tempers flare, our capacity of empathy and creative
[problem-]solving go down the drain. (=solving of problems)

3.3 Function of gerund nominals

Gerund nominals function as typical noun phrases and therefore can
appear as subjects, objects of verbs, predicational complements, and

53
complements of prepositions. These functions are illustrated by the
italicized gerund phrases in examples below.

Subject: Any withholding of information will be punished. / Your

prompt paying of the rent may bring you a discount. / The
shooting of the hunters was condemned by the local community.

Object: We watched the landing of Alan’s plane. / They will punish

any withholding of information. / Both sides expected the
signing of the treaty.

Predicational complement: The impact of withdrawing the Ambassa-

dor could be the loosening of relations between countries. /
The result of the peace talks was the signing of a treaty by all
sides.

Complement of preposition: The oscillations are like the ringing of

an enormous, universe-sized glass. / All the small states fear
that any strengthening of the European Parliament will lead
to a weakening of their influence. / Both sides informed the
journalists about the signing of the treaty in separate press
conferences.

Gerunds can also be used to modify nouns and in this function

they are not formally different from –ing participles. However, the
interpretation of gerund modifiers differs significantly from the
interpretation of –ing participles. Compare the gerund and participle
modifiers in the examples below:

Example Participle Gerund

interpretation interpretation
A dancing bear a bear that dances/ -
is dancing
A dancing teacher a teacher that dances/ a teacher of dancing
is dancing
A burning candle a candle that is burning -
The withdrawing decision - the decision to withdraw (...)
An ironing board - a board for ironing
Table 12: gerund vs. participle premodifiers

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3.4 Exercises
I - Reflect on the morphology and meaning, as well as on the internal
structure and function of –ing phrases below (in italics) and decide
which of them are gerund nominals. Provide arguments in support of
your position.

1. They were sitting there doing nothing.

Model answer: The –ing phrase is not a gerund nominal since the
object nothing is not introduced by of, as is obligatory with gerund
nominals. Also, this –ing phrase does not have a nominal function
typically associated with gerund nominals, i.e. it is not the subject,
object, Pc, or object of P; in fact, it is an adverbial. Gerunds do not
function as adverbials.

2. John being at work, Mary can go window shopping.

3. They sat in the garden, admiring the singing of the birds.
4. To write a three page outline for your paper would be a good beginning
of your research.
5. All flights for Glasgow having been delayed, they decided to go to
the airport restaurant and wait there.
6. He is in the library looking up some papers.
7. The careful restoring of the painting took four months.
8. His reckless driving of the car will kill him one day.
9. Their talking during the class annoyed the teacher.

II - Do immediate constituent analysis of gerund nominals in the

examples above (exercise 1) and also of the following:
1. The result of the protest was the signing of a contract to have shorter
hours.
2. We watched the landing of Apollo 11.
3. She was arrested for the kidnapping of her son.
4. We watched the broadcasting of John’s movie.
5. A lifelong smoking can cause cancer.

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56
4. Participial clauses

Participles are non-finite verbs that form non-finite clauses. Their

verbal status is shown both by their form and by the possibility of
tense interpretation, but also by their function within their clause.
There are two types of participles: –ing and –ed participles. The
former has been traditionally known as present participle, the latter
as past participle. The past participle is formed in the usual way for
regular verbs (by –ed suffixation), morphologically indistinct from past
tense –ed suffixation. A specific past participle suffix, –en, is used with
some irregular verbs. For this reason, the past participle has often
been referred to as the ‘–en participle’. It is worth noting that –ed
participles we will be dealing with in this chapter are in fact mostly
passive participles as they correspond to passive verbs. Aspectual and
voice auxiliaries (have and be respectively) combine with the main
verbs yielding several combinations of –ing participles. All forms are
shown in Table 13 in section 4.1 below.
A reminder on –ing clauses in general is needed at this point. As
you already know from the previous chapter, we called gerund phrases
those –ing constructions that have nominal properties. What does this
exactly mean? Are the –ing constructions in (51) to be considered
gerunds and not –ing participial clauses since they are found in nominal
positions i.e. functions?

51. a. On returning home, she was enveloped in an unpleasant

odour of cigarette smoke. Object of P
b. I remember locking the door. Object of V
c. I cannot help thinking about the accident. (same as above)
d. The children were busy building a sandcastle. (complement of A)
e. His hobby, collecting World War I uniforms, cost him a
fortune already. (apposition in NP)
f. His methodology is writing instructions first and then
adding exercises. (Pc)
g. Answering your questions was not easy. (S)

57
Although the above –ing structures have clausal properties (assignment
of accusative case by the –ing verb to its complement, for example), they
have not been always considered as (–ing participial) clauses; instead,
some grammars call them “gerund phrases”.8 Here we adopt a different
view and consider that the internal structural properties determine
whether a constituent is a clause or not. As already explained in Chapter
3, only those –ing structures with clearly nominal internal structure
are called here gerund nominals. On the other hand, –ing participial
clauses, although they may function as subject, object, complement of
preposition etc., show clear clausal properties: a transitive –ing participle
is capable of assigning accusative, and only verbs can assign accusative in
English; –ing participles can be freely modified by adverbs, a typical
verbal property. For all these reasons, –ing structures dealt with in the
sections and chapters to follow will be called –ing participial clauses.

4.1 Morphology and Temporal Interpretation

As shown in Table 13, participles are interpreted either as active verbs
or as passive verbs. Both active and passive can combine with the
perfect aspect (with the auxiliary have, as in line 3 of Table 13), in
which case it is the aspectual auxiliary have that carries the –ing suffix.
All complex participles that contain an ‒ing inflection (offering, being
offered, having offered, having been offered) are to be called –ing
participles; participles in line 2 will be referred to as ‒ed participles.

active passive
1. present offering being offered
2. “past” (melted)9 offered
3. perfect having offered having been offered

Table 13: -ing and -ed participles9

8 Among them Frank (1972). A different view is adopted in Quirk and

Greenbaum (1990) who use the term ‘participial clauses’ for all –ing structures with
internal clausal properties (modification by adverbs, assignment of accusative),
independently of their (external) functional properties (nominal functions).
9 Most typically, “past” participles are passive verbs; however, it is not
impossible for an intransitive verb to appear in this form, especially as a
postmodifer in NP, in which case, they correspond to active verbs and would
fit this cell of Table 13.

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