The Functional Structure of the Sentence: Evidence from Non-finite Clauses

Abstract

Non-finite clauses are sentential constituents with a verbal head that lacks a morphological specification for tense and agreement. In this paper I contend that these clauses are defective not only morphologically but also syntactically, in the sense that they all lack some of the functional categories that make up a full sentence. In particular I argue that to-infinitive clauses, gerund(ive) clauses and participial clauses differ among themselves, and with respect to other subordinate clauses, in the degree of structural defectiveness they display, which goes from the almost complete functional structure of the infi nitive to the maximal degree of syntactic truncation of participial clauses (analyzed here as verbal small clauses). I also
show the significant parallelism that exists in this respect between English and Spanish non-finite clauses, pointing to the implication this may have for a cross-linguistic approach to the cartography of syntactic structures.