Abstract This article offers a comparative analysis of “predicative” gerunds (“PGs”) and prepositional infinitives (“PIs”), focussing on perception constructions in Spanish (PGs) and European Portuguese (PIs). I demonstrate that these two constructions are diachronically related and that they still have a similar syntax. The evidence discussed suggests that both constructions are Small Clauses headed by a preposition of central coincidence. In PGs, this preposition is merged in a low aspectual projection and incorporates into the verb. In PIs, an evolution of PGs, it is merged later in the structure. This leads to a layering process, i.e. the splitting of a single head into a series of heads and transferring the semantics of one functional head to more heads. Thus, PIs have a more expanded structure than gerunds. Finally, further empirical evidence for this analysis is discussed, such as the insertion of adverbs and the use of sin (“without”) to negate the perceived event.

中文翻译：

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Gerunds在Romance Small Clauses中成为介词不定式：后来合并对句法脊柱的影响

摘要本文提供了对“谓语”动名词（“ PG”）和介词不定式（“ PI”）的比较分析，重点是西班牙语（PG）和欧洲葡萄牙语（PI）的感知结构。我证明了这两种构造在历时上是相关的，并且它们仍然具有相似的语法。讨论的证据表明，两种构造都是以中心重合为前提的小句。在PG中，此介词在低方面的投影中合并并合并到动词中。在PI（PG的演变）中，它在结构的后面被合并。这导致了分层过程，即将单个头部拆分为一系列头部，并将一个功能头部的语义转移到更多头部。因此，PI具有比gerunds更扩展的结构。最后，