Composing with gerunds and QC clauses: A case of factivity alternation in Bangla

Abstract

This paper deals with a Bangla attitude verb, viz. bhab- ‘think’ which displays both factive and non-factive readings on the basis of the type of the items it combines with. It turns out to be factive with a gerundial DP, while it is not factive with QC clauses. This is a clear case of factivity alternation. I argue that this kind of alternation is caused mainly due to different compositional routes which this concerned attitude verb selects while composing with these two types of items. In case of the QC clauses, the composition happens by modifying the eventuality argument of the verb, which does not cause any sort of factive interpretation. Instead, the compositional route is of argumenthood which along with the pre-existence presupposition (Bondarenko 2020a) associated with the internal argument of this verb leads us to having factive inferences with gerundial complements.