Chapter 8 - The Syntax of Non-Finite Clausescircumstances, so there is no reason why it could not happen here. However, the point
is that, as is usually the case with nouns, this will be optional and therefore the
possessor/agent may or may not appear. When there is no possessor, there can be a
determiner and when there is a possessor there can be no determiner, as the two are in
complementary distribution:
(92) a the patient’s refusing of the medicine
b the refusing of the medicine
However, with the presence of the light verb in (91b), the agent is obligatory. As
usual, it will have to move to get Case and presumably the place it moves to is the
specifier of the DP, i.e. the genitive position. For this reason, a standard determiner
will not be possible with this kind of gerund:
(93) *the refusing the medicine
The following datum seems to suggest that it is possible for there to be no agent
with these gerunds:
(94) [refusing the medicine] is not a good idea
However, such gerunds are standardly assumed to have PRO subjects and hence the
subject position is not empty and we can account for why the determiner is impossible.
In such gerunds we might suppose that the ing morpheme is added to the structure
quite high, perhaps above the tense element. If we further assume that it is a non-finite
tense which is responsible for assigning the Null Case borne by PRO we can account
for why it is possible to have a PRO subject in a gerund.
Where the subject gets its accusative Case from in examples such as the following
is not an issue we will investigate:
(95) [him refusing the medicine] upset the nurses
One last point will be made. The assumption that the nominalising ing can be
added to a verbal structure at various points accounts for the fact that gerunds can
contain aspectual material as well as verbs. We have argued that aspectual morphemes
are light verbs, heading vPs. As the ing head can take a vP complement, it is predicted
that aspectual morphemes can be included in gerunds. To some extent this seems to be
true:
(96) a [his having refused the medicine] was a problem
b [the medicine’s being refused] annoyed the doctors
c *[the patient’s being refusing the medicine] upset the other patients
The analysis of (96a) and (b) are fairly straightforward. In both cases the nominalising
ing is inserted above the relevant aspectual morpheme, taking the vP that it heads as a
complement. The verb will move to support the lower morpheme, i.e. the aspectual
which will leave ing unsupported. As it is a bound morpheme this will trigger the
insertion of an auxiliary to bind it. The choice of the auxiliary will, as usual, be
determined by the lower aspectual morpheme: