0 INTRODUCTION

2. –ING NOMINALS: ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT
(35) E3 1666-1667 Pepys Diary VII, 414: he commends the song, not
knowing the words, but says the ayre is good, and believes the
words are plainly expressed. He is of my mind, against having of
eighths unnecessarily in composition. (Fanego 1996: 134)
According to Fanego (1996: 134), mixed gerunds become common by the second
half of the 17 th century, when they represent half of all –ing nominalizations having both
pre- and post-head dependents. In an important article (2004b), Fanego further shows that
mixed gerunds were used at that time preferably in syntactic slots not governed by
prepositions, namely, as subjects, objects and predicatives (2004b: 330-331), as in these
syntactic positions fully verbal gerunds took much longer to become acceptable.
The development just discussed of –ing nominals having both pre- and post-head
dependents provides a good example of extension, defined by Harris and Campbell
(1995: 51, 97-119) as a mechanism “which results in changes in the surface manifestation
of a pattern and which does not involve immediate or intrinsic modification of underlying
structure” (Harris and Campbell 1995: 51). Extension brings about changes in the syntax
of a language by generalizing a rule; in the case under discussion, the rule in question
could be formulated as follows (from Fanego 1998: 108):
(36) In the surface configuration [Prep] V-ing XP the unmarked
realization of the object argument of a gerund is NP.
Harris and Campbell recognize (1995: 115-117) that very often the former rule
and the rule which has been extended coexist for a while. This is exactly what happens
during the EModE period, when nominal, verbal and mixed gerunds coexist. In other
words, the oldern, medieval pattern [Prep] V-ing of-phrase coexists with the innovative
pattern [Prep] V-ing XP, this being gradually extended to all functional slots (subject,
object, predicative) and to all kinds of gerundive patterns, whether containing pre-head
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