The categorial status of infinitives and gerunds in English and Czech

Abstract

This paper analyses characteristics of English "verbal" forms, concentrating first on the similarity of infinitives and gerunds as lexical heads of their phrasal projections. The data shows that both of them can fairly be labelled as verbal categories, if their head properties are considered internally to their phrases. However, this study also sums up the data showing a systematically distinct distribution of the phrases headed by infinitives and gerunds. The contrast demonstrates a categorial distinction between their phrasal labels, signalling the characteristics of DP (for gerunds) and VP (for infinitives). To explain the apparently exocentric nature of the gerundials, the study provides a theoretical explanation of the phenomena in a formal syntactic framework. It thus argues against a concept of a fuzzy categorial system proposing that if a clear distinction is made between the head label and the label of its projection, the categorial system can use clear cut labels and has the potential to predict grammatical characteristics. In the final part of the paper, some Czech equivalents of the English forms are provided to show the contrast between the two languages.