0 INTRODUCTION

3. NOMINAL COMPLEMENTATION AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE
becomes internalized, and therefore does no longer coincide with the external argument. In
other words, the argument structure of a passive verb would be (x-ø (y)), while the
argument structure of the corresponding nominal would be (Ev (x-ø (y))) (Grimshaw 1990:
141). Hence, while in passives the by-phrase is licensed by the external argument (which
coincides with the suppressed argument), in nominals the by-phrase cannot be determined
by the external argument, since this has not been suppressed. This implies that by-phrases
occur freely in passives, but are thematically restricted in nominals.
3.3.2.3. Other PPs
In addition to of, complements of certain nominalizations can be introduced by
prepositions such as at, for, from, on, to and with, which are grammatically selected by the
relevant nouns (see Pullum and Huddleston 2002b: 654-661). By way of illustration,
consider the examples below.
(90) a. Her attempt at a compromise
b. Consideration for others
c. Protection from the sun’s rays
d. An improvement on his first attempt
e. A hindrance to progress
f. Comparison with the first verb
3.3.2.4. NPs
It is usually the case that nouns cannot have other nouns as their post-head dependents. For
this reason, the object argument in nominalizations is usually an of-PP (cf. [91a]) (see
Section 3.3.2.1 above). However, as a consequence of the process of verbalization of –ing
nominals that started in ME, verbal gerunds can govern object NPs as in (91b) below (see
Chapter 2 for further details).
(91) a. She had witnessed the breaking of the seal.
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