0 INTRODUCTION

3. NOMINAL COMPLEMENTATION AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE
their inability to modify verbs. Other adverbs such as moreover or nevertheless modify
clauses, but they are unable to modify verbs or adjectives. Finally, adverbs such as only or
even can combine with content clauses and non-idiomatic PPs, as in (76a) and (76b)
below. To make the picture even more complicated, there exist adverbs that are
homonymous with adjectives, and pairs in which the difference in meaning is very little or
null (see [77] and [78] below).
(76) a. I regret [only that I couldn’t do more to help].
b. They open [even on Christmas Day].
(77) a. She’s a hard worker.
b. She works hard.
(78) a. The wrong decision
b. He guessed wrong.
c. He acted wrongly (Pullum and Huddleston 2002a: 567-568).
3.3.2. Post-head dependents
The most common dependents of nominalizations in post-head position are PPs, especially
of-PPs and by-phrases, and to a lesser extent other PPs, as well as NPs and sentential
complements. They are analyzed in further detail in what follows.
3.3.2.1. Of-PPs
As pointed out by Koptjevskaja-Tamm (1993) (see also Section 3.3.1.2 above), English is
a rare example of a language which has two formally distinct genitives (PossPs and of-
PPs) occupying two different ‘genitive’ positions within an NP. As a consequence, the
agent and the patient are marked differently. Although there is some overlapping between
the PossP and the of-PP (the Saxon genitive and the of-genitive in Kopjevskaja-Tamm’s
terminology), they do not have exactly identical functions. Quirk et al. (1985: 321) discuss
these at length. With general nouns, in many cases both forms are acceptable because of
their similarity in meaning. Take, for instance, examples (79a) and (79b) below.
76