0 INTRODUCTION

6. FINDINGS
As shown in the figure, nominal –ing formations most frequently appear followed by of-
PPs, especially those which are semantically identified with the object, whereas verbal
–ing nominalizations prefer a following NP.
In contrast, Romance nominalizations follow a clearly different trend from verbal
–ing nominals. They are overwhelmingly followed by of-PPs, especially those that are
semantically identified with the object. Of-PP[subject]s are also quite frequent, the
remaining post-head dependents being marginal.
Figure 4. Post-head dependents of Romance nominalizations according to their category
In short, both nominal –ing formations and Romance nominalizations behave quite
similarly: both overwhelmingly prefer of-PPs, whereas verbal –ing formations have NPs as
their preferred post-head dependents. What is surprising is that post-head dependents such
as by-phrases, which are profusely dealt with in the literature, occupy no relevant place in
real data in both –ing and Romance nominalizations, at least in this period.
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