Infinitive, Gerundive, Participle

Abstract This chapter concludes the discussion of the spread of -ingfrom nominal to clausal categories. In Old English, infinitive (-an/-enne), PrP (-ende), noun (-ing,etc.), and (late) gerund (-ung) were distinct; there was no -ingger- undive. As discussed in previous chapters, the first change was generalization of -ingunder Scandinavian influence to replace the incipient gerund in -ung. This was a simple morphological generalization/restriction. Subsequent changes were driven syntactically. The question was whether there would be one morphological supercategory encompassing the PrP, infinitive, gerund, and gerundive, which overlapped in several functional domains and required checking in M °, or whether the feature differences would be manifested as morphologically distinct categories. Although -ingwas generalized from nominals to clauses, the gerundive was normally blocked by infinitives. If (any of) the competing infinitives and gerundials were to survive as separate entities, each had to have a syntactic domain. The Early Middle English split between toINF+ object and P+ gerund (no object) was syntactically arbitrary.