§ 215. The ing-form may also serve as a direct object of an ad- jective. It is lexically dependent in this case and found only after two adjectives — busy and worth.

e.g. The foreman was busy shouting orders and instructions.

The children were busy doing all the things they had been

told not to do.

He thought my idea was worth trying. It was not a witticism worth repeating.

(For comparison with the infinitive see §§ 187 and 238.)

§ 216. As a prepositional object of a verb, the ing-form is also lexically dependent. It is found after verbs that take a preposition- al object. These verbs may be divided into three groups:

1. verbs followed by one prepositional object,

2. verbs followed by a non-prepositional object and a preposi- tional object,

3. verbs followed by two prepositional objects.

I. The verbs of the first group are closely connected with a preposition whose meaning is often weakened. The following is the list of the most commonly used verbs: to admit to, to agree to, to aim at, to apologize for, to approve of, to believe in, to bother about, to care for, to come of, to come round to, to complain of, to confess to, to consist of/in, to count on, to despair of, to dream of, to end in, to forget about, to feel up to, to get to, to get down to, to go back to, to grumble about, to hesitate about, to insist on, to lead to, to long for, to mean by, to persist in, to plan on, to reckon on, to refrain from, to return to, to result in/from, to save from, to succeed in, to take to, to talk of, to tell of, to think of/about, to threaten with, to worry about and some others.

e.g. What did she mean by boasting like that?

I didn't think twice about telling her: we had no secrets. It does not seem impossible that the biologist will in the fu- ture succeed in creating life in his laboratory. The readers of a book insist on knowing the reasons of action. Let's get down to signing the papers. Towards the end of the summer, they visited me together

several times, and then Norman took to coming alone. I had never been on an aeroplane and worried about being

strapped down. I must apologize for having interrupted a conference.

Here also belong certain set phrases, such as: to find excuses for, to have no doubt about, to look forward to, to lose time in, to make a point of, to plead guilty to, to take pride in and some others. e.g. I took pride in making my lodgings pretty and comfortable. He was taking risks in speaking in that tone to them. I expect you are looking forward to seeing your fiance again- Special attention should be given to set phrases with the verb to be which are treated as verb equivalents.

e.g. Would you be up to playing with us this afternoon?

She was just on the point of going away when Betty Vane came in.

"Would you be in favour of investigating the matter?" Mon- ty asked.

The subject of the action expressed by the ing-form is generally the person denoted by the subject of the sentence (see the examples above). But occasionally we find an ing-complex (see "Verbs", §66).

e.g. I don't in the least object to your playing practical jokes on

other people. She complained about the porridge being lumpy.

The use of an ing-complex seems to be generally required by the verbs to approve of, to disapprove of, to grumble about and some others. (We usually approve of or grumble about some other people's actions — hence the agent of the ing-form is expected to be a person or thing other than the one denoted by the subject of the sentence.)

e.g. He could not approve of Guy's hiding himself away. We can't grumble about things being dull, can we?

II. Verbs requiring a non-prepositional and prepositional object are in general less numerous. Besides, not all of them take an ing- form as their prepositional object (e.g. to explain something to somebody, to dictate something to somebody, etc.).

Of the verbs taking a non-prepositional and prepositional object expressed by an ing form, the most commonly occurring are: to ac- cuse somebody of, to amuse somebody with, to ask somebody about, to charge somebody with, to coax somebody into, to give something to, to give something for, to invite somebody into, to keep some body from, to mutter something about, to persuade somebody into, to remind somebody of, to restrict oneself to, to save somebody from, to say something about, to stop somebody from, to suspect somebody of, to talk somebody into/out of, to tell something about and some others.

e.g- I am prepared for anyone to accuse me of being cowardly.

It had been easy to coax Margaret into inviting the Morgans to stay with us for a week.

Did she suspect them of trying to cheat her?

I hope you won't let Peg talk you out of joining me?

It is lack of imagination that prevents people from seeing

things from any point of view but their own. Will you be able to keep those fellows from making any more

fuss?

Of all the prepositions there is one that acquires particular importance in this construction as it may be found with a consid- erable number of verbs and is, consequently, of frequent occur- rence. It is the preposition for. It generally serves to indicate the cause of the action denoted by the predicate verb.

For is found after the following verbs: to blame somebody, to excuse somebody, to forgive somebody, to hate somebody, to like somebody, to love somebody, to pay somebody, to reprimand some body, to reproach somebody, to scold somebody, to thank somebody and some others.

e.g. I thought you had just been blaming me for being neutral. I'm not going to reproach you for interrupting the rehearsal. I was going to thank you for looking after him till I came. The major reprimanded him for being late. He scolded me for not having let him know. The subject of the ing-form in this sentence pattern is the per- son denoted by the direct object, as in She tried to talk him into doing it (see also the examples above).

After verbs of speaking we often find an ing-complex.

e.g. I told them about Gustav's wanting to come with me.

I said something about Jane being in love with him, but he

would not talk about her. I muttered something about its being a pity.

III. The number of verbs requiring two prepositional objects of which the second is an ing-form is limited. The ing-form is also in- troduced by the preposition for, as with some verbs above, e.g. I entered the classroom and apologized to the teacher for be- ing late. I should have been vexed with you for thinking me such a

fool.