In the OE absolute participial clause, its subject was usually realized as inherent dative case in the CP‐oriented and focalized element‐prominent structure. During between LME and EModE, dative absolutes were changed into nominative absolutes, which was derived by the reanalysis of SOV as SVO and the change from the OE structure into the TPoriented and subject‐prominent structure. But nominative absolutes were substituted with accusative absolutes from LModE. Such a change as this was triggered by analogy and assimilation with verbal gerunds that became grammaticalized as C-fin-T+def in their internal structures. Nominal gerunds in OE and EME began to acquire verbal properties from LME and onwards. Verbal gerunds in PDE are composed of mixed projections [＋N,＋V] with functional category Gerund Phrase. The [＋N]‐feature selects a gerund's logical subject and the [＋V]‐feature licenses its verbal complement. The Gerund as functional head bears both an uninterpretable verbal feature [uV] that is checked against the interpretable feature of a verbal complement and an interpretable nominal feature [iN] that guarantees a gerund's logical subject. As for the case identification of a gerund's logical subject, it is spelled out either as genitive at the DP level when it is selected as the genitive form morphologically or as accusative when EPP attracts a nominal element as a clausal gerund's logical subject onto the CP-fin-TP+def level where the [FinP nonfiniteness] renders a default case feature to be accusative.

• 박상수(부산외국어대학교))