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The Gerund and the to-Infinitive as Subject

Université Laval, Canada

This corpus-based study shows that the distinction between the gerund and the infinitive cannot be accounted for in terms of the previously proposed oppositions between particularity and generality or between reification and hypothesis/potentiality. The corpus used does reveal certain distributional tendencies that distinguish the two forms, but they are also found to occur as subjects of the very same predicates. The explanation proposed to account for both distribution and the capacity of both forms to be used with the same predicate is based on a definition of their basic meanings as the condition determining their use in discourse. The distinction in meaning between these two constructions is shown to be more complex than that of a simple binary opposition, as the to-infinitive is a composite made up of the meanings of its two component parts—the bare infinitive and the preposition to—while the -ingis part of the verb’s morphology.

Key Words: nonfinite forms • nonfinite forms • infinitive • gerund • participle • subject

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