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Tense and control interpretations in gerund-participle and to-infinitive complement constructions with verbs of risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Patrick Duffley  and
Maryse Arseneau
Patrick Duffley
Affiliation:
Université Laval
Maryse Arseneau
Affiliation:
Collège François-Xavier-Garneau
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Abstract

This study investigates temporal and control interpretations with verbs of risk followed by non-finite complements in English. It addresses two questions: Why does the gerund-participle show variation in the temporal relation between the event it denotes and that of the main verb whereas the to-infinitive manifests a constant temporal relation? Why does the gerund-participle construction allow variation in control while the to-infinitive shows constant subject control readings? The study is based on a corpus of 1345 attested uses. The explanation is framed in a natural-language semantics involving the meanings of the gerund-participle, the infinitive, the preposition to, and the meaning-relation between the matrix and its complement. Temporal and control interpretations are shown to arise as implications grounded in the semantic content of what is linguistically expressed. It is argued that the capacity of a natural-language semantic approach to account for the data obviates the need to have recourse to purely syntactic operations to account for control.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette étude porte sur les interprétations temporelles et de contrôle avec des verbes exprimant la notion de risque suivis par des compléments infinitifs ou gérondifs en anglais. Deux questions y sont abordées : Pourquoi le gérondif montre-il une variation dans la relation temporelle entre l’événement qu’il dénote et celui du verbe de la principale, tandis que l’infinitif manifeste une relation temporelle constante? Pourquoi la construction gérondive est-elle caractérisée par une variation de contrôle alors que l’infinitif produit des lectures constantes de contrôle par le sujet? Un corpus de 1345 exemples attestés est examiné. L’explication est formulée en termes d’une sémantique de langage naturel fondée sur les signifiés linguistiques du gérondif, de l’infinitif, de la préposition to et le rapport sémantique entre le verbe de la principale et son complément. Il est démontré que les interprétations temporelles et de contrôle sont des implications fondées sur le contenu sémantique de ce qui est exprimé linguistiquement. On soutient que la capacité d’une sémantique de langage naturel de rendre compte des données élimine le besoin d’avoir recours à des opérations purement syntaxiques pour expliquer le phénomène du contrôle.

Keywords

controltenseinfinitivegerundcomplementationcontrôletempsinfinitifgérondifcomplémentation
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 31 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2012 

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