Basic English Syntax with Exercises

infinitive

6.1 The structure of IP

These data not only suggest that there is a difference between finite and non-finite clauses, but also that the infinitive and the participles have a different status, perhaps indicating that while the infinitive has an IP status, the participles are really vPs. The main point is, however, that different clauses distribute differently and this correlates with which inflectional element they contain. All this adds up to the conclusion that the inflection does behave like a head in that it projects its properties to the whole construction and as we saw in chapter 2 it is heads that do this.

Chapter8 The Syntax of Non-Finite Clauses

In this chapter we will concentrate on the non-finite clause and investigate syntactic phenomena that are exclusive to it. There is a surprising amount of this and the non-finite clause is a far more varied structure than its finite counterpart. Much of this variation concerns the subject which in many cases has connections with the verb selecting the non-finite clause as its complement. Thus the boundaries of the clause become blurred at this point. Most of the structures we will look at in this chapter are infinitives, which as they contain both a tensed element and a complementiser have the kind of structure we have been discussing over the previous chapters. Not all of them, however, have identical structures and the amount of functional structure they contain is one of the axes of variation between non-finite clauses. We end the chapter with a look at probably one of the strangest constructions in English, the gerund. This has been claimed to have a status somewhat similar to a mythical beast, being half one creature, half another. The gerund displays certain properties of clauses but also certain properties of DPs. This makes it a very interesting structure to analyse from the X-bar perspective which claims that the properties of a structure come from its head.