Disterheft examines the syntactic shift from the proto-IE nominalized verb to the morphologically distinct infinitives of the daughter languages. For this she focuses on the syntax of the infinitives in three groups (Indo-Iranian, Celtic, and Hittite) that have morphologically conservative infinitives. Applying internal reconstruction and the comparative method, the author concludes that purpose clauses and complements to verbs whose subjects control coreferential noun phrase deletion employed the still-nominal form during the PIE period. In the Rig Veda and Old Irish the reanalysis of nominalizations as non-finite predicates can still be seen in progress.

"...a good book. It is to be recommended as a model for sound comparative IE syntactical research..." (Celtica)