0 INTRODUCTION

5. CORPORA AND METHODOLOGY
respective formations. Since be is a copular verb and walk (in the relevant sense) is
intransitive, they cannot take a DO. 16 This explains why the post-head dependents of his
own properties in (128) and the hair of a mans head in (129) belong exclusively to the
nominalizations shewing and climbing up respectively, whose base verbs are transitive and
require a DO as complement.
5.3.2.2. Differences between nominal, verbal and mixed –ing nominals
As pointed out in Chapter 2, the deverbal noun ending in –ing has acquired verbal
characteristics over time. This has led to the distinction between nominal and verbal
gerunds in PDE. However, during the EModE period this distinction had not yet been fully
established and, therefore, mixed forms, characteristic of a transitional stage, are found.
Verbal gerunds are characterized by showing features typical of verbs, such as the
ability to take a subject not marked for the genitive, as in (130a); to take predicative
complements and NP objects, as in (130b) and (130c); to be passivized and to show the
perfect form, as in (130d) and (130e); and to be negated by the particle not, as in (130f)
below. Furthermore, verbal gerunds can be modified by adverbs and adverbial adjuncts
that are not possible with nouns. Thus, while (130g) is perfectly grammatical, (130h) is not
allowed (Fanego 1996: 109):
(130) a. Emma reading the poem
b. I don’t like being ill
16 Although walk up does exist and can be followed by a NP (e.g. walk up the street), the context indicates
that it is being used intransitively in this sentence.
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