The Gerund

The gerund is another verbid that serves as the verbal name of a process and combines verbal features with those of a noun; the gerund, like the infinitive, can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature, intermediary between the verb and the noun. It is even closer to the noun, because besides performing the substantive functions in a sentence like the infinitive, it can also be modified by an attribute and can be used with a preposition, which the infinitive can not do, e.g.: Thank you for listening to me; Your careful listening to me is very much appreciated. The functions of the gerund in the sentence are as follows - that of a subject, e.g.: Your listening to me is very much appreciated; It’s no use crying over spilt milk; of a predicative, e.g.: The only remedy for such headache is going to bed; of an object, e.g.: I love reading; of an attribute, e.g.: He had a gift of listening; of an adverbial modifier, e.g.: On entering the house I said “hello”. In these functions the gerund displays nounal combinability with verbs, adjectives, and nouns, especially in cases of prepositional connections. As for the verbal features of the gerund, first of all, there is no denying the fact, that its meaning is basically processual, which is evident when the gerund is compared with the nouns, cf.: Thank you for helping me. – Thank you for your help; in addition, the gerund distinguishes some aspect and voice forms, e.g.: writing, being written, having written, having been written. Like the finites, it can be combined with nouns and pronouns denoting the subject and the object of the action, and with modifying adverbs, e.g.: I have made good progress in understanding English; She burst out crying bitterly; Her crying irritated me.

The verbal features distinguish the gerund from the verbal noun, which may be homonymous with the indefinite active form of the gerund, but, first, it has no other verbal forms (passive or perfect); second, cannot take a direct object, but only prepositional objects like all other nouns, cf.: reading the letters (gerund) – the reading of the letters (verbal noun); and, third, like most nouns can be used with an article and in the plural, cf.: my coming (gerund) – his comings and goings (verbal noun).

Another difference between the gerund and the infinitive involves the category of so-called ‘modal representation’: the infinitive, unlike the gerund, has a certain modal force, especially in the attributive function, e.g.: There was no one to tell him the truth (= There was no one who could tell him the truth).

Constructions with the Gerund.

The gerund can form a construction which consists of a noun or a pronoun followed by the gerund, e.g. Do you mind John’s smoking in the room? The noun may be expressed either in the genitive case or in the common case, e.g. I insist on Mary’s going there. vs. I insist on Mary going there. If a pronoun is used, it may be either in the possessive form or in the objective form, e.g. I don’t like his coming here. vs. I don’t like him coming here.

The gerund and the infinitive.

As already known, some verbs can be followed by either the gerund or the infinitive (like, begin, start, continue, try, regret, remember, forget, etc.). According to D. Bolinger (1968), the gerund expresses something “real, vivid, fulfilled”, whereas the infinitive expresses something “hypothetical, future, unfulfilled”:

1. John hopes to learn French.

2. Max enjoys swimming.

D. Bolinger’s principle of factivity vs. non-factivity also helps to explain the difference between such sentences as I like camping in the mountains and I like to camp in the mountains. Camping suggests that the person has already experienced the process while to camp is a non-factive process, which is especially obvious when like is modified by a modal.

Another interesting case is presented by the verbs start and begin:

1. Helen started doing her homework.

2. Helen started to do her homework.

In the first sentence, doing suggests entry into the middle phase of the process while in the second sentence to do suggests entry into the initial phase of the process.

With factive implicative verbs, the difference between the gerund and the infinitive concerns a different temporal perspective. Consider:

I remember locking the door. vs.

I remembered to lock the door.

Both sentences speak of the process of locking as accomplished: in the first sentence locking occurred before remembering (i.e. I locked the door and I still remember this); in the second sentence, locking occurred after remembering (i.e. I remembered and, consequently, locked the door).

With non-factive verbs, the difference is more obvious: the gerund expresses factivity while the infinitive expresses non-factivity, e.g. I tried closing the window (i.e. I actually closed the window by way of making an experiment). I tried to close the window (i.e. I made an attempt to close it).

The Participle

The participle is a term applied to adjectival forms of verbs. It is a form that ‘participates’ in the features of the verb (e.g. The girl is sitting there) and of the adjective (e.g. The girl sitting here). There are two types of participle: the present participle and the past participle.

The present participle.

The term present participle may be misleading since the participle does not express tense distinctions. It is a traditional term, originally applied to adjectival forms of verbs in Ancient Greece which were inflected for tense, aspect, and case. It was borrowed from Greek grammar through Latin grammar and uncritically applied to English verbal forms which had an adjective-like use.

Participle I (present participle) is fully homonymous with the gerund: it is also an ‘ing-form’ (or, rather, four ‘ing-forms’, cf.: writing, being written, having written, having been written). But its semantics is different: it denotes processual quality, combining verbal features with features of the adjective and the adverb; participle I can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-qualifying nature, intermediary between the verb and the adjective/adverb.

Like the verb, it combines with the object (e.g. Entering the room, I was dazzled by the bright light), the adjunct (e.g. He came in laughing loudly); like the verb, it participates in the formation of the verbal predicate (e.g. Lucy is writing now).

Like the adjective, the present participle can be used as an attribute – generally as a postposed attribute, e.g. The man talking to John is my boss.

As to its temporal meaning, the present participle expresses a process simultaneous with or prior to the process of the finite verb: it may denote present, past, and future. Consider: I see/saw/ will see a child crying in the street. vs. Having heard the noise, we stopped talking.

The absolute homonymy of the gerund and participle I has made some linguists, among them American descriptivists, the Russian linguists V. Y.Plotkin, L. S. Barkhudarov, and some others, treat them not as two different verbids, but as generalized cases of substantive and qualitative functioning of one and the same “ing-form” verbid. Particularly disputable is the status of the semi-predicative construction, traditionally defined as the “half-gerund” construction, in which the semantics of the “ing-form” is neither clearly processual-substantive nor processual-qualifying and it is combined with the noun in the common case form, e.g.: I remember the boy singing in the backyard.

Like any other verbid, participle I can form semi-predicative constructions if it is combined with the noun or the pronoun denoting the subject of the action; for example, complex object with participle I, e.g.: I saw her entering the room; complex subject with participle I (the passive transformation of the complex object constructions), e.g.: She was seen entering the room. In addition, participle I can form a detached semi-predicative construction, known as the absolute participial construction, which does not intersect in any of its components with the primary sentence part, e.g.: The weather being fine, we decided to take a walk; I won’t speak with him staring at me like that.

In complex object and complex subject constructions the difference between the infinitive and participle I lies in the aspective presentation of the process: participle I presents the process as developing, cf.: I often heard her sing in the backyard. – I hear her singing in the backyard.