The VP within process nominals: Evidence from adverbs and the VP anaphor do-so

Recent accounts of process nominals postulate a VP within the nominalized s tructure. A verb becomes a nominal by a head raising operation to a nominal affix. This view contrasts with analyses of process nominals as (pure) nom inals with partial verbal properties, originally due to Chomsky (1970). Con tributing to this debate, we will argue that direct evidence indicates that English process nominals contain a VR Our evidence comes from the distribu tion of adverbs on the one hand, and from the presence of the VP anaphor do so in process nominals on the other. We show that a portion of the verbal extended projection specifically excluding IP or CP is present in process n ominals. An array of word order facts about process nominals falls into pla ce when we further assume that the verb is raised from VP over the subject, the object, and adverbs, adjoining to a nominal affix. Our analysis moreov er adds to the evidence for functional structure above VP and supports part icular claims about the syntax-morphology interface.