Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to

Infinitives are usually thought to refer to future events relative to the time denoted by the matrix verb they depend on. But with some verbs this temporal interpretation turns out to be false. “Cease” is one of these verbs which raise questions, as the process expressed by the non-finite form has n...

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Main Author: Geneviève Girard-Gillet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2008-12-01
Series:Anglophonia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12297
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author Geneviève Girard-Gillet
author_facet Geneviève Girard-Gillet
author_sort Geneviève Girard-Gillet
collection DOAJ
description Infinitives are usually thought to refer to future events relative to the time denoted by the matrix verb they depend on. But with some verbs this temporal interpretation turns out to be false. “Cease” is one of these verbs which raise questions, as the process expressed by the non-finite form has necessarily occurred before its cessation. Still more surprising is that “cease” elicits another complementation, namely a gerundive. This article aims to show that analyses of to-infinitives have to take into account the existence of this verb if any kind of generalization is to be reached. We draw on a semantic/syntactic notion developed by research in Generative Grammar, the notion of unaccusativity to explain some phenomena. Some verbs appearing in the complementation of “cease” have two interpretations: an unaccusative one and an agentive one. The former is realized via the infinitive and the latter via the gerundive.
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spelling doaj-art-4e1b94bb8685436cb47876bd37f957a62025-01-30T12:33:36ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiAnglophonia1278-33312427-04662008-12-01129911510.4000/anglophonia.974Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease toGeneviève Girard-GilletInfinitives are usually thought to refer to future events relative to the time denoted by the matrix verb they depend on. But with some verbs this temporal interpretation turns out to be false. “Cease” is one of these verbs which raise questions, as the process expressed by the non-finite form has necessarily occurred before its cessation. Still more surprising is that “cease” elicits another complementation, namely a gerundive. This article aims to show that analyses of to-infinitives have to take into account the existence of this verb if any kind of generalization is to be reached. We draw on a semantic/syntactic notion developed by research in Generative Grammar, the notion of unaccusativity to explain some phenomena. Some verbs appearing in the complementation of “cease” have two interpretations: an unaccusative one and an agentive one. The former is realized via the infinitive and the latter via the gerundive.https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12297constructionsinfinitivesgerundivesagentivityunaccusativity
spellingShingle Geneviève Girard-Gillet
Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
Anglophonia
constructions
infinitives
gerundives
agentivity
unaccusativity
title Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
title_full Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
title_fullStr Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
title_full_unstemmed Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
title_short Les infinitives problématiques : l’exemple de cease to
title_sort les infinitives problematiques l exemple de cease to
topic constructions
infinitives
gerundives
agentivity
unaccusativity
url https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12297
work_keys_str_mv AT genevievegirardgillet lesinfinitivesproblematiqueslexempledeceaseto