Assignment 21

The present participle form of the verb shows up in a construction
that does not necessarily involve be1:

(1)   Harvey's bringing a snake to the party was a surprise.
(2)   We did not approve of your brother's taking the last slice of pizza.
(3)   I didn't like the chairmanship's being forced on me by the committee.
(4)  *I didn't like the chairmanship's being forced on myself by the committee.

There is some speaker variation about the presence vs. absence of the
Poss ('s) suffix in examples like these.  That will not really matter,
so don't obsess about it.

First, discuss these examples and propose an analysis.

Now consider the following:

(5)   My dog likes licking himself.
(6)   My dog likes licking my cat.
(7)   My cat likes being licked by my dog.
(8)  *There likes being a cat licked by a dog.
(9)  *Advantage likes being taken of a cat by a dog.

What is your analysis of this?

Now consider something else:

(10)  It kept raining.
(11)  There have kept being bugs in the program.
(12)  Everybody keeps asking her for help.
(13)  She keeps being asked for help by everybody.
(14)  Advantage keeps being taken of her by everybody.

What is your analysis of this?