morphological? - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

The infinitive has many of the characteristics of a deverbal noun, and in fact it can be often
replaced by a deverbal noun.
In the literature there is some controversy about whether the infinitive in this construction has
exclusively nominal properties, or whether it may in addition have verbal properties like being
modified by adverbs, as in (13).
(13) Hasta ahí oía [ el chocar incesantemente de las bolas ].
'Out to there he heard the incessantly colliding of the balls.'
Constructions like this are not attested in the Corpus del Español.
However, native speakers accept constructions like (13), i.e., infinitive with postverbal adverb
and PPde.
A similar observations is made by Fábregas & Varela (2006), who cite examples like (14).
(14) [ el beber cerveza constantemente de Pedro ]
'Pedro's constantly drinking beer'
2.1.1 Constraints on interpretation
• In general, these nominal infinitives refer to events (Demonte & Varela 1997, 1998)
(15) [ El despertar de las conciencias ] está todavía en curso.
'The waking up of the minds is still going on.'
(16) [ El surgir de una nueva escuela literaria ] tuvo lugar en la segunda mitad del siglo.
'The emergence of a new literary school took place in the second half of the century.'
Typical construction
• perception verb + unergative verb of emission, as in (4) and (6) to (10)
[referred to as Perception Eventive Infinitives by Fábregas & Varela (2006)]
Result nouns in Grimshaw's sense
• refer to the perceptible result of the action
Preliminary claim
• do not refer to facts
(17) a. El correr del agua los alegró mucho.
'The flowing of the water made us happy.'
b. ≠ El hecho de que el agua corría los alegró mucho.
'The fact that the water was flowing made us happy.'
c. = La manera como el agua corría los alegró mucho. (cf. Di Tullio 2001)
'The way how the water was flowing made us happy.'
2.1.2 Compatibility with verbs of different verb classes
• In the 20th century, this construction is most frequently attested with unergative verbs,
as in (18).
(18) ¿Escuchan [ el ulular de las sirenas ]? [CdE]
'Do they listen to the howling of the sirens? '
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