The Syntax of Tenselessness: Tense/Mood/Aspect-Agreeing Infinitivals

The Syntax of Tenselessness is an in-depth investigation of verb-verb agreement phenomena in Swedish, including pseudocoordinations of the form John started and wrote 'John started writing' and double participles of the form John had been-able written 'John had been able to write'. The claim is that the relevant constructions involve (disguised) infinitivals that agree with the matrix clause in tense/mood/aspect, a surface reflex of restructuring. The book is an important contribution to the syntax of infinitivals, restructuring, and agreement in natural language.

Review:

The book is an invaluable resource for syntacticians, especially those interested in working on Swedish, Scandinavian languages, and Germanic syntax in general. The breakdown of the data is very clear, making the book convenient to navigate through. Cynthia L. Zocca in: http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-1070.html