<i>Going</i> + COMP projects PP, not AdvP: a reply to Silvennoinen (2025)

Abstract Silvennoinen (2025) analyzes the stored sequence going forward as an adverb that inherits adverb-class morphosyntax. This reply challenges that categorization on empirical grounds. The construction fails the key distributional test for adverbs: it cannot occur in integrated-medial position between subject and verb (* We going forward will prioritize replication ), the diagnostic slot for core adverbs ( We certainly will prioritize replication ). Analysis of Silvennoinen’s corpus ( n = 1,517) confirms this restriction – apparent ‘medial’ tokens prove either to be NP-internal modifiers or parenthetical supplements, never integrated clausal constituents. Instead, going forward patterns with PP adjuncts, occurring clause-initially, clause-finally, or as supplements. Internally, deverbal going heads the construction and licenses a directional complement forward ( s ), parallel to established deverbal prepositions like according [ to …] and depending [ on …]. The construction thus projects PP, not AdvP, aligning with The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language ’s flexible-complement analysis of prepositions. This case demonstrates that storage and semantic specialization do not force categorical reanalysis.