Syncretism and the Historical Development of ing

Syncretism and the Historical Development of ing

  In linguistics, the term ‘syncretism’ refers to systematic identity of form. A conspicuous example of form correspondence in English is the ing form syncretism. The highly syncretic character of ing has given rise to the conundrum of how much neutralization there is in the ing system. Instead of recognizing gerund as a separate ing entry, this paper defends the view that there is neutralization of gerund and present participle (Huddleston 1984, 2002a, b; Pullum 1991; Blevins 1994; Lee 2007). Specifically, it argues that the present treatment of syncretism rests on a notable trait of the historical development of English, namely the formal identity of gerunds and present participles in Modern English.