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标题：External arguments and gerunds
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作者：Keir Moulton
期刊名称：Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics
印刷版ISSN：1718-3510
出版年度：2004
卷号：22
期号：0
语种：English
出版社：Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto
摘要：Certain English nominalizations present evidence that the absence of accusative case assignment does not necessarily correlate with the absence of an external argument (one half of Burzio's generalization). Nominal gerunds (NGs), or ing-of constructions, contain an external argument position even though accusative case is not observed on the object. The hypothesis posits a defective light v, which introduces external arguments but does not value accusative case. We then make the following testable predications about the structure of nominalizations of this type: (i) Spec,D hosts both moved and merged arguments, although it remains a theta-assigning position (cf. Alexiadou 2001); (ii) English gerunds are limited to a nominalizing head selecting fully saturated predicates (vP, vPdefective, TP) or forming a nominal in the lexicon. The behaviour of NGs in contrast to unaccusatives and passives and the variability of the semantic interpretation of the external argument of NGs bear out the predictions.
关键词：Nominal Gerunds;Verbal Nominals;Case;Argument Movement