I am just practising some english grammar related questions , here is the question I am confused about :
Salman finished__________ two of his published compositions before his twelfth birthday.
A. Written
B. Writing
C. To write
D. Wrote
Its correct answer is B. Writing. But why should we select "writing", what's the logic or rule behind it?
This is a licensing matter: each verb “licenses” or permits only specific kinds of clausal complement. The verb finish licenses gerund clauses but not infinitive or that clauses:
okSalman finished writing two compositions.
∗ Salman finished to write two compositions.
∗ Salman finished that he wrote two compositions.
By contrast, begin licenses both gerund and infinitive clauses:
okSalman began writing two compositions.
okSalman began to write two compositions.
∗ Salman began that he wrote two compositions.
Linguists have strained for a couple of generations to discern a “logic or rule” behind specific licenses, but I have not seen a convincing account. It’s just an idiomatic property of individual words, and you have to learn it word-by-word.
Click this licensing to see more questions involving licensing by verbs and words of other classes.
∗ marks an utterance as unacceptable