The Gerund and the Infinitive with the Verbsintend, mean, proposeand their Close Synonyms

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates gerundive and infinitival constructions with the verbsintend, mean, proposeand their close synonyms with respect to the abstract categories of “tense” and “control”. Concerning “tense”, the gerundive construction with these verbs constitutes counterevidence to the common claim that the -ingform denotes simultaneity or temporal overlap: the explanation proposed shows that the latter does not correspond to any of the usual aspectual categories found in the linguistic literature. With respect to “control”, an explanation is offered for the tighter constraints on infinitival constructions as compared to the latitude between subject control and non-subject control readings found with the -ingform. These phenomena are explained in terms of the language-specific parameters of the basic meanings of the forms making up the constructions and the syntactic relations linking these meanings together.

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