El gerundio independiente

Abstract

This paper deals with certain constructions in which gerund seems to function as a verbal head in a independent sequence, not governed syntactically. First of all, we proceed to a classification of the sequences according to two main factors: grammatical modality and utterance type (contextual and not contextual). Afterwards, we analyze syntactically the G.I. constructions, establishing the gerund function and kind of syntactic unit. We also approach the semantics of the independent gerund and, finally, we make differences between G.I. sequences and other similar constructions.