0 INTRODUCTION

2. –ING NOMINALS: ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT
dependents (e.g. by his writing it) or not . As a result of this process, as repeatedly noted,
EModE –ing nominals exhibit a much greater degree of hybridization and structural
instability than their PDE counterparts (see also van der Wurff 1993, 1997a, b).
2.4. Summary
This chapter has shown that PDE gerunds have their origin in –ing abstract nouns, which
over time underwent a process of verbalization that started already in ME and was almost
completed during the EModE period. However, this process was far from being uniform.
As Fanego (1998) has shown, verbalization took place first in –ing formations in the most
oral and less formal styles of writing and in those nominalizations having only post-head
dependents (e.g. by writing the book). Through a process of extension, the verbal features
acquired by –ing formations with only post-head dependents were later adopted by –ing
nominals having both pre- and post-head dependents (e.g. by his writing the book). This
development led to the frequent use of mixed formations that coexisted in the language
with fully nominal and fully verbal –ing nominalizations.
Since this dissertation intends to offer a comprehensive analysis of
nominalizations in the EModE period, the necessity of taking into account all types of
–ing formations, whether nominal, verbal or mixed, existing at the time is evident. They
will therefore be duly considered in the remainder of this corpus-based study.
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