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This article offers a contrastive analysis of two linguistic elements: the Spanish gerund and the Chinese aspectual particle 着 (zhe). To address the problem of the use of the gerund in Spanish, Chinese students often resort to categories of words similar to the gerund in their mother tongue or English. The natural equivalent for the Spanish gerund is the aspectual particle 着 (zhe), since both share an imperfective aspectual meaning. In this study we aim to contrast these two linguistic elements through their morphological, syntactic and semantic characteristics, in order to achieve a practical result for Chinese students, as well as to help them achieve a better learning of the Spanish gerund. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies into the semantics of English gerunds have successfully uncovered meaning differences between nominal and verbal gerunds by adopting a referential perspective on their semantics. Referential research of gerundive nominalizations, however, still struggles with a number of issues, mainly centering around the position of verbal gerunds within the traditionally nominal domain of referentiality. This paper wishes to address these issues by establishing a multilayered model of referentiality which can be applied to both ordinary as well as less prototypical noun phrases. First of all, it disentangles the typically nominal feature of definiteness from the more flexible concept of specificity. Secondly, the model looks at the type of mental space in which the referent is accessed. Specific expressions are often associated with “actual” or realis spaces, whereas non-specific entities are typically linked to “virtual” or irrealis spaces. It is argued here, however, that deverbal nominalizations like gerunds realize specificity independently of the mental space the entity is located in. The multilayered model that is proposed is applied and integrated in a corpus-based analysis of Present-day English nominal and verbal gerunds. Mapping out the interactions between (in)definiteness, (non-)specificity and actuality/virtuality, it will be concluded, allows us to situate the various subtypes of nominal and verbal gerunds more accurately on the cline of functional nouniness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine gerundial constructions found in some ninth-century legal documents produced in the Lombard duchy of Salerno and passed down by the so-called Codex diplomaticus Cavensis. Special attention is devoted to three kinds of constructions: the complement gerund governed by nouns, the gerund of purpose, and the adverbial gerund. In the first two of these syntactic domains, the variation between both different types of gerundial structures and infinitive constructions is analyzed, enabling us to observe both the spectrum of syntactic variability of the gerund and the dynamics of variation between these two verbal moods. To interpret this alternation, especially on dependence on nouns, a crucial role is played by sociolinguistic factors. In the last of the mentioned domains, the alternation between gerund and present participle is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on nominal gerunds that combine verb-like semantics with the use of an indefinite article, as in Such reflection enables [a sharing of understandings]. The indefinite article in constructions like these is at first sight irreconcilable with the uncount status of the nominal gerund, and this gerund type has therefore tended to be either neglected or reduced to fully lexicalized (count) nouns. We argue that the use of the indefinite article is functionally motivated but cannot be captured in traditional referential categories, indefinite nominal gerunds being either specific, non-specific or generic and locating their referents in spatio-temporal, virtual or generic space. Instead, it is suggested, indefinite nominal gerunds impose a more schematic type of conceptualization on the event that is reified, that is they conceptualize it as a delineated event. The “particularized”, well-delineated event that indefinite nominal gerunds profile, it is shown, is either viewed directly, as a second-order entity, or the perspective that is taken is third-order, conceptualizing the event as an “idea”, “problem” or so forth. The delineation imposed by the indefinite article can be contextually supported by the syntactic function assumed by the indefinite nominal gerund, and/or through the use of lexical items. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the history of the ACC-ing gerundive, a subtype of verbal gerund differing formally from both bare gerundives (I enjoyed reading the paper) and POSS-ing gerundives (I was surprised at Jane's arriving late) in having an overt subject argument either in the common case, if it is a full noun phrase (Two people worrying about each other, with no external diversion, brews a deadly atmosphere) or in the accusative case, if it is a personal pronoun (You can't prevent me telling the truth). Findings from a corpus-based study show that early instances of ACC-ing gerundives most often functioned as preverbal sentential subjects and served as arguments to causative predicates such as brew, make and oblige. Based on this evidence, it is argued that ACC-ing gerundives have emerged as an intersection of a number of pre-existing constructions, most especially a subtype of absolute participle, now obsolete, that encoded causative (factive) semantics and preceded its superordinate clause. The development of the new gerundive subtype from this participial source, which proceeded as a succession of small discrete steps, can be fruitfully accounted for as a case of constructional change, along the lines proposed in Hilpert (2013) and Traugott & Trousdale (2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a cognitive perspective on the evolution of the semantics of English nominal gerunds (NG) (I regret the signing of the contract) and verbal gerunds (VG) (I regret signing the contract). While the formal differences between NGs and VGs are well documented, their semantics remains largely unexplored territory. The perspective that is taken here is centered on the linguistic notion of reference and various aspects of the conceptualization involved in it. As they formally hover between more nominal and more clause-like internal properties, gerunds form an interesting test case for the cognitive perspective on referentiality. Our corpus analysis describes how the situations that NGs and VGs refer to are conceptualized as deictic expressions grounded in the speech event in Present-day English, and how this has changed since the Early Modern period. It is shown that only a multi-layered model of referentiality can account for the subtle differences found between NGs and VGs: while no fundamental shifts are found with regard to the traditional referential subtypes (specific, non-specific, generic), NGs and VGs do turn out to differ in their choice for either nominal or clausal grounding mechanisms, in their status as existentially stable or flexible entities and in the mental spaces in which they situate the events that they conceptualize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do nominalizations mean what they do? I investigate two deverbal nominalizers in Northern Paiute (Uto-Aztecan, Numic: Western United States), -na and -di, which create nominalizations that describe either an event (like the poss-ing gerund in English) or an individual (like agent nominalizations with -er). I propose a syntax and semantics for these deverbal nominalizations that account for their interpretive variability. On the syntax side, I argue that -na and -di overtly realize the nominal functional head that canonically assigns case to possessors when this head takes a vP complement. On the semantics side, I propose that Northern Paiute has operators that abstract over a variable inside nominalizations. This accounts for the meanings that deverbal nominalizations in Northern Paiute have, and it highlights their relationship to nominalization patterns in other languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss about some situations of syntactical ambiguity: the Subjective Genitive versus Objective Genitive, the ambiguity of the Gerund, the syntactical ambiguity generated by interpreting the Gerundial Predicative Adjunct, the ambiguity of the Participle, the Genitive Nominal Attribute versus the Dative Indirect Object, the Dative Pronominal Attribute versus the Dative Indirect Object, the homonymous subordinate clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of one of the meanings of the French gérondif: the manner. On the basis of large data provided by monolingual as well as parallel corpora (FRANTEXT and InterCorp), the author verifies and completes thoughts on this subject by Halmøy (1982, 2003) and Kleiber (2011). The author claims that the manner meaning is, in the case of the gérondif, derived from the basic meaning (accompanying circumstance) by two different procedures: on the one hand, a lexical procedure, specifying the inherent lexical aspect of the main predicate, and on the other hand, a pragmatic procedure, based on the contextual hypotheses concerning the emotional state of the agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] This paper investigates the evaluative properties of vivir +V[Gerund] in the Spanish of Bogotá. [•] This construction denotes event frequency that deviates from a normal or sufficient number of repeated events. [•] Both nominal and verbal expressions that convey high number may receive evaluative meanings. [•] Evaluative meanings of marked plural forms are motivated by a “Division of pragmatic labor” (Horn, 1984). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study of the -ndo morpheme has raised many interesting questions and debate in the history of the Spanish language. Some researchers have argued, for instance, that the high frequency in use of the -ndo morpheme is a consequence of the linguistic contact between Spanish and other languages (e.g, English and French). However, the non-standard uses of the -ndo are found in scenarios where Spanish is not in contact with other languages. This finding has motivated other analysis and proposals for the Spanish gerundio -e.g., the semantics of the -ndo form. In this paper I analyze the distribution of the gerund periphrasis with 'estar' and 'ir' in the 13th. and 15th. century. Specifically, I study the semantic constraint that the grammatical and lexical aspects impose on the distribution of the -ndo form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on complementation in English and other languages have traditionally focused on syntactic issues, most notably on the constituent structures of different complement types. As a result, they have neglected the role of meaning in the choice of different complements. This paper investigates the semantics of complementation within the theoretical framework of cognitive grammar. In particular, I examine the extent to which two morphosyntactically different complement types in modern English, to infinitival and -ing complements, reflect differences in meaning and whether there is any semantic patterning in the sets of matrix predicates that select for each type. The analysis argues that the occurrence of one or the other complement type is not semantically arbitrary, but rather semantically motivated by the meanings of the matrix predicates and the meanings of the grammatical elements to and -ing found in each kind of complement. Consequently, in spite of its clear grammatical function, infinitival to is meaningful in all its uses, retaining aspects of its original path-like sense via well-established routes of semantic extension. In general, all to infinitival complements evoke the notion of conceptual distance of some kind between the matrix and subordinate clauses. In addition, in all its uses -ing is also meaningful in evoking some kind of conceptual overlap between the matrix and subordinate clauses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Descriptive verbs are verbal constructions that include various compound structures one segment of which often has a gerundial feature. They have shown variations in structure and meaning since the period of Old Turkish. In this article, descriptive verbs that occur in Karakhanid texts are analyzed and classified according to their structures and meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts out from the observation that the semantic labels of ‘fact’ and ‘action’ (Lees 1968[1960]) that are traditionally used in the description of English gerundive nominalizations (e.g. I worry that my posing the question defines me as a depressive) cannot distinguish gerundives from so-called action - ing nouns (e.g. Saddam's targeting of Israel) and also fail to capture the more subtle semantic distinctions within the system of gerundive nominalization. The descriptive analysis that is presented tries to move beyond the action/fact dichotomy, is firmly grounded in the nominal-constructional properties of the system and covers all subtypes of gerundive nominalization. Building on Schachter (1976), it argues that gerundive - ing nominalizations have shifted from the representational semantics of action - ing nouns to a more schematic, constructional semantics: gerundives, it is suggested, nominalize either a type or kind of process, with no subject implied, or they nominalize an instance of a process, characterized by the (clausal-)constructional link which it implies between the process type and a subject (Davidse 1997, Heyvaert 2003). The system of gerundive nominalization exploits all nominal-constructional options which it has within the structure of the NP to encode the absence or presence of this subject. Gerundives thus opt for non-specific, generic reference to encode the name of a type or class of process (with no subject implied) or to encode an instance with generic reference. They use specific (definite or indefinite) reference to designate a specific, non-generic instance. The subject is either included in the nominalized clausal unit (and in the oblique case), or it is encoded through nominal means: in the form of bare definite reference of the gerundive NP (signalling control by the matrix clause or anaphoric/exophoric reference with the co(n)text), or in the form of a possessive/genitive determiner. The analysis that is proposed sheds new light on previously undifferentiated categories of gerundive nominalization (such as the control type of bare gerundives), as well as points to interesting resemblances between gerundive nominalization and diachronic changes in other systems of deverbal nominalization. Crucially, it also allows for a better understanding of the semantics of the system and its differences with action - ing nominals, whose nominal-constructional options do not revolve around encoding the presence or absence of a subject but instead allow for a wide range of modifying elements and determiners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English physical perception verbs can appear followed by an NP (Noun Phrase) and an --ing form. In the literature, they are generally assumed to represent two separate constituents. However, we claim that an alternative interpretation is also possible: the "NP + -ing form" can be considered as a single constituent. We provide semantic, syntactic and thematic evidence in favour of this hypothesis. We will especially dwell on the relationship between physical and cognitive perception verbs. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this analysis on the possible readings of the --ing form with physical perception verbs (abstract and concrete readings). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for a constructional approach to English progressives. On this view, progressivity is a construction-level property, rather than a lexical property of the ing forms that progressive verb phrases contain or of the auxiliary. The incompatibility of ing forms with state verbs in progressive constructions provides crucial evidence in support of the construction-based perspective, given that stative ing forms are fully acceptable in gerundive and other ing constructions. Of course, underlying this approach is the proposal that gerund is neutralizable with present participle (Huddleston 1984, 2002b, c; Pullum 1991; Blevins 1994). A lexicalist and construction-based analysis of gerundive nominals, as in Pullum (1991) and Blevins (1994), offers a means of claiming that progressivity is a property of the combination of an auxiliary and ing participle, just as the perfect aspect is expressed by the combination of have and a past participle, as proposed in Ackerman & Webelhuth (1998) and Spencer (2001b), and implicitly in Curme (1935) and other traditional grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]