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The gerund

The term gerund is controversial and should be clarified from the beginning. Some grammarians do not distinguish between the gerund and participle I and speak about the -ing form. The Collins Cobuild English Grammar (London 1995) prefers the term -ing noun to gerund. There are grammars which use the term gerund, but the functions of the gerund are not the same from one grammar to another. In this grammar we do not use the term -ing form and distinguish between the gerund and participle I, which, in spite of having the same form, function differently in a sentence. The gerund is close to a noun (pronoun) and has many nominal features, while participle I is close to an adjective and has adjectival features. Therefore, some of the functions of the gerund and participle I do not coincide. Thus, the gerund, unlike participle I, can function as subject and object. As to the functions of attribute and adverbial modifier, the gerund, when used in these functions, is always introduced by a preposition, while participle I is either introduced by a conjunction (adverbial modifier of comparison and concession) or by nothing at all (attribute, adverbial modifier of time, cause, manner). The only functions in which participle I and gerund can be confused are those of the predicative and complex object. Compare:

  • His behaviour was annoying (participle).

  • What she liked most was listening to the music (gerund).

  • We saw him leaving by the back door (participle I in a con­struction).

  • We saw his leaving by the back door as something strange (gerund in a construction).

The difference between participle I and gerund in these examples is clear. It should be noted that the present participle, unlike the gerund, can never be preceded by a possessive (compare him and his in the constructions).

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Минченков А. Г.

Verbals

The gerund is so close to the noun that it can be easily confused with it.

Compare:

  • The counting of votes will take a lot of time [verbal noun].

  • Counting votes will take a lot of time [gerund].

Note the use of the definite article and the preposition of with the verbal noun.

1. Forms

In modern English the gerund has the following forms

INDEFINITE ACTIVE GERUND: reading

I like reading.

PERFECT ACTIVE GERUND: having read

He admitted having stolen the ring.

INDEFINITE PASSIVE GERUND: being read

She insisted on being treated with respect.

PERFECT PASSIVE GERUND: having been read

т.

He recalled having been taken for a foreigner once.

The use of the perfect gerund, both active and passive, is very often unnecessary, for the time relationship of gerunds is normally clear from the context:

They reported seeing the murderer (= They reported having seen the murderer).

However, with a number of verbs we often find a perfect gerund, although an indefinite gerund would be sufficient. These verbs include: admit, celebrate, deny, mention, recall. Thus, Mary denied having seen him is often preferred to Mary denied seeing him.

Sometimes the use of a perfect gerund becomes necessary, it happens when we specially want to emphasize that the action expressed by the gerund precedes the one expressed by the finite verb. Compare:

  • He admitted having had the intention to assassinate the prime-minister (= 'He admitted that once he had had this intention').

  • He admitted having the intention to assassinate the prime-minister (= 'He admitted he still had this intention').

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