A: Miriam likes singing, but she
is not good at it.
Miriam likes singing, but
she is not good at singing.
B: Miriam likes to sing, but she
is not good at it.
*Miriam likes to sing, but she is not good at to sing.
Miriam likes to sing, but she is not good at singing.
-----------------------------------------------------
Linda Di Desidero, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Assistant Academic Director of
Writing
Communication, Arts, and
Humanities
University of
(240) 582-2830
(240) 582-2993
(fax)
Linda,
I’m
not sure that this is a processing issue. You’re talking here about
reference and about how pronouns are indexed. It is certainly the case
that we can’t use a to-infinitive as object of a preposition, one of the
arguments for not calling all infinitives noun phrases. The form that the
VP will take in a particular environment tends to be tightly governed
grammatically, so the more noun-like gerund will show up after the
preposition. There are other differences between the sentences as
well. In A it isn’t necessary that Miriam do the singing. She likes
listening to it but isn’t good at singing herself. B doesn’t allow that
interpretation. Miriam has to be interpreted as subject of “to
sing.” In A she’s not necessarily in the church choir I direct. In B
she is, unfortunately. The “it” can refer to either of these
meanings.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Linda Di Desidero
Sent: 2008-03-17 12:22
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: gerund vs
infinitive
I think
that the simple explanation for the preference of A over B lies in the way in
which hearers process the sentences. It
is much easier to substitute "singing" for "it" in A, but not in B.
A: Miriam likes singing, but she
is not good at it.
Miriam likes singing, but
she is not good at singing.
B: Miriam likes to sing, but she
is not good at it.
*Miriam likes to sing, but
she is not good at to sing.
Linda
-----------------------------------------------------
Linda Di Desidero,
Ph.D.
Associate
Professor
Assistant Academic
Director of Writing
Communication, Arts,
and Humanities
University of Maryland
University College
3501 University
Boulevard East
Adelphi, MD
20783-8083
(240)
582-2830
(240) 582-2993
(fax)
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
STAHLKE, HERBERT F
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 11:35
PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: gerund vs
infinitive
Nancy,
I
like the fact that you treat verbness as a matter of degree, as, I assume, you
would also treat nouns. And you’re right that a gerund is more nouny than
an infinitive. A lot of syntacticians would not even treat the infinitive
in “likes to sing” as a noun phrase, simply as a tenseless VP serving as
complement to “likes.” The drill question, however, like so many drill
questions, oversimplifies matters. Reference doesn’t have to be
simply to a noun; it can be to a clause or even to a contextual factor.
Consider a sentence like
Finish
a direct quotation with a period and quotation marks, in that order.
The
referent of “that” is clearly the order in which the two marks of punctuation
are given, something that is not only not a noun phrase but is arguably not even
a grammatical structure. It is, rather, an ordered pair, and it’s the
order that counts. In the second sentence in the drill, the referent of
“that” is activity of singing, not a particular word or grammatical
structure. It might actually be possible to come up with situations where
one referent would make better sense than the other.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nancy Tuten
Sent: 2008-03-16 23:13
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: gerund vs
infinitive
OK, why is it that I see my
mistakes right after I hit send?
Of course, both the infinitive
and the gerund follow the verb “likes,” not a preposition. I have already
sent a correction to Diane on that point, but the question still remains: is one
a better referent than the other, and, if so, why?
Thanks,
Nancy
Nancy L. Tuten,
PhD
Professor of
English
Director of the
Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia
College
Columbia, South
Carolina
803-786-3706
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nancy Tuten
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 10:44 PM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: gerund vs
infinitive
Dear
listers,
I
received an inquiry from someone today and would like to know how you would have
responded to it had it been sent to you. The original post is at the bottom, and
my response is above it.
Thanks for your feedback—I always learn a great deal
from you.
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of
English
Director of the
Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia College
Columbia, South
Carolina
803-786-3706
From: Tuten, Nancy
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 7:11
PM
To: diane skinner
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject:
RE: gerund vs infinitive?
Diane,
You raise a very interesting
question.
I suspect that the test writers
regard the gerund as a clearer referent because you can replace “it” with the
gerund and the sentence makes sense. We can say "She is not good at
singing," but we cannot say "she is not good at to sing."
Nonetheless, as you point out,
both the gerund and the infinitive are functioning as nominals (objects of the
preposition “like”). One might, therefore, logically conclude that either would
qualify as a clear referent for a pronoun. Perhaps infinitives, although
they can function as nominals, retain more of their “verb-ness” than gerunds,
which quite strongly take on the quality of a thing or an act—something one
could place a determiner in front of: “her singing,” “the singing,” etc. but not
“her to sing,” “the to sing.”
Thank you for attending our
session at the STD conference.
Best,
Nancy
Nancy Lewis Tuten,
PhD
Professor of
English
Director of the Writing Program
for the
Pearce Communication
Center
Columbia College
1301 Columbia College
Drive
Columbia, South Carolina
29203
USA
803-786-3706
-----Original
Message-----
From: diane skinner [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:
Saturday, March 15, 2008 3:12 PM
To: Tuten, Nancy
Subject: gerund vs
infinitive?
Dear Professor
Tuten,
I met you at the Sigma Tau Delta
Conference in your Grammar Panel.
I have a question for
you.
In my writing center, during
grammar drills, a computer-generated
question asked,
"Which is the clearest
referent for the pronoun in the following sentences?"
A: Miriam likes singing, but she
is not good at it.
B: Miriam likes to sing, but she
is not good at it.
The answer was A, but no
explanation was given.
Could you please clarify this
answer since the verbs can be followed
by either an infinitive or a
gerund, and there will be virtually no
difference in the meaning of the
two sentences.
Does the infinitive "to sing" act
as an object for the verb "likes,"
or does it act as a verb to the
linking verb "likes"?
How can a distinction be made
between a gerund being nominative and an
infinitive being
nominative?
Is this a special case because of
the word "likes"?
When you have the time, I would
sincerely appreciate a response.
Thank you.
Diane Skinner
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