The Gerundor the object in (81b) as the referential possibilities in this case are grammatically and
not pragmatically determined. We call this property of PRO having to take its
reference from one place or another control. Specifically, (81a) involves object
control while (81b) involves subject control. It seems that what determines the
control properties of PRO is the governing verbs: ask is an object control verb while
promise is a subject control verb. Obviously when there is no object, subject control is
the only possibility. When there is an object, overwhelmingly verbs tend to be object
control and only a very small number of verbs behave like promise and have an object
and yet control from the subject.
Again, here we have only just scratched the surface of some very complicated
phenomena, a lot of which remains mysterious to this day. As I have no contribution to
make to this area we will leave the topic at this point.
3 The Gerund
Finally in this book, we will touch on what is probably one of the oddest constructions
in the English language: the gerund. It is odd because, like some mythical beast it
seems to be half one animal and half another. In other respects, it is like another
mythical beast, having more than one head! Even from a morphological point of view
it is difficult to categorise the morpheme involved: ing.
The gerund from one perspective is a kind of non-finite clause inasmuch as it
expresses something which is typically related to clauses, i.e. a proposition, and can
contain elements such as aspectual morphemes which are related to some portion of
the clause while excluding elements of finiteness such as tense and agreement
(including modals). From another perspective the gerund is a nominal form and many
of its properties are those of standard DPs. Thus, it is something which oscillates
between clause and DP status.
Let us consider an example:
(83) the doctors were worried by [the patient’s refusing the medicine]
Here we see a verb refuse in its ing form. This form is used in a number of contexts
which should be separated. Obviously it is the form used to express continuous aspect,
as in he is running. It may also be used to form an adjective from a verb, as in his
smiling face. Whether or not these are connected or totally distinct morphemes is an
issue we will not attempt to fathom and we will concentrate only on the use of this
morpheme in the gerund. In the gerund, the ing could be taken to be a ‘nominalising’
morpheme, turning a verb into a noun. Indeed, there are cases where this is exactly
what it is:
(84) a the building
b the painting of a landscape
In this case, the ing element behaves exactly like a noun syntactically. For example it
heads a phrase which can be the complement of a determiner. As we know determiners
take NP complements, so the ing element must have the category of a noun. A further
fact about nouns is that their DP complements cannot be assigned case, which is why
there is an of preposition inserted into the structure. With a verb, its light verb will