Hagit Borer, Univ. of Southern California

In the Event of a Nominal

The paper is a detailed study of the properties of Argument-Structure derived -ing nominals versus those of -ing synthetic compounds. In particular, I show that while -ing Argument Structure nominals are compositional and have event structure, -ing synthetic compounds do not. I further argues that these contrasts may only be accounted for by a syntactic approach to the derivation of complex words. In particular, it can only be accounted for under complete syntactic event decomposition, which severs not only the external but also the internal argument(s) from the root and which allows the internal structure of complex words, so-called, to be syntactically visible.