When mixed projections cannot be arguments: evidence from (Greek) gerunds*

Abstract

This paper takes a comparative look at idiosyncratic instances of mixed projections in Hebrew, Korean, Japanese and Greek, arguing them to be genuine mixed projections, despite their inability to function as arguments – which is a well known characteristic of other members of the class, such as English gerunds. By looking at their syntactic behaviour, I argue that these non-argument mixed projections are embedded within a prepositional phrase headed by a null temporal preposition. This derives their peculiar properties while successfully capturing their differences from infinitivals.