Double Nature of the Gerund

Nominal character	Verbal character
1. It can be used as a subject of a sentence e.g. Seeing is believing.	1. It can take a direct object (transitive verbs) e.g. He likes doing it.
2. It can be used as an object e.g. He likes doing it.	2. It can be modified by an adverb e.g. They burst out laughing loudly.
3. It can be used as a predicative e.g. Seeing is believing.	3. It has tense distinctionsandvoice distinctions(transitive verbs)
4. It can be modified by a noun in the genitive case or a possessive pronoun e.g. I’m not surprised at his coming so late.
4. It can be preceded by a preposition e.g. I’m not surprised at his coming so late.

The gerund is a categorially changeable form. It distinguishes two grammatical categories, namely, the aspective category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), and the category of voice (passive in opposition) (Fig. 72).

Fig. 72

Thus, the categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms (Table 10).

Table 10

Forms of the Gerund

	Active	Passive
Indefinite	doing	being done
Perfect	having done	having been done

Fig. 73

Fig. 74

The gerund performs the functions of all types of notional sentence-parts, i. e. the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier (Fig. 73, Fig. 74). In all syntactical functions it has peculiarities of its own. It may function alone, without modifiers, or as the headword of a gerundial phrase, or as part of a gerundial predicative construction.

A gerundial construction contains some nominal element denoting the doer of the action expressed by the gerund and the gerund itself with or without some other words depending on it. The nominal element can be a noun in the genitive case or a possessive pronoun (if it denotes a living being), or a noun in the common case (if it does not denote a living being). There is a growing tendency, especially in informal speech, to use the pronoun in the objective case and a noun in the common case to denote the doer of the action expressed by the gerund with reference to living beings too. The gerundial constructions are usually translated by clauses.

The Participle

The participle is a non-finite form of the verb. There are two forms of the participle – participle I and participle II (Fig. 75).

Fig. 75

The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. Since it possesses some traits both of adjective and adverb, the present participle is not only dual, but triple by its lexico-grammatical properties, which is displayed in its combinability, as well as in its syntactic functions (Fig. 76).

The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying-processual name.

Fig. 76

The verbal character of participle I is manifested morphologically in the categories of voice and perfect and syntactically in its combinability. Thus, like the other non-finites, it may combine: with a noun or a pronoun as direct, indirect or prepositional object; with an adverb or a prepositional phrase as an adverbial modifier; with a noun or adjective as a predicative. The adjectival and adverbial features of participle I are manitested in its syntactical functions as an attribute and an adverbial modifier (Table 11).

The adjectival nature of participle II manifests itself in its function in the sentence, which is usually that of either attribute or predicative. The verbal character of participle II is manifested in its combinability (Table 11).

Table 11