Re: off-topic: gerund/participle/verbal noun

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 18:53 10/28/99 +0200, you wrote:
> My Italian-teaching relative, my colleagues, and my big fat dictionary all
> contend that
>
> 1) A GERUND is an infinitive tense of a verb that expresses, in an invariant
> form, the idea intended by the verb itself   in terms of the circumstance
> complement (i.e. going, eating, playing...).
>
> 2) A PRESENT PARTICIPLE (not to be confused with a PAST PARTICIPLE) is an
> infinitive tense of a verb that expresses, in an invariant form, the idea
> intended by the verb itself   in terms of an adjective attached to a noun
> (i.e. a burning candle, a fattening meal)...
> Have fun
> Felina

As sometimes happens, the English have distinct ideas on
how to parse the language. They distinguish a participle,
a gerund and a verbal noun.
They all may feature the -ing ending, but briefly:

the participle is an unaltered component of a verbal construction;
(ex: he is doing a good job)

the gerund often takes the possessive pronoun, and is constructed
as a noun but able to govern like a verb -
(ex: "his doing this is doubtful"   COD)

the verbal noun is a distinctly noun form derived from the participle
  (ex: a haunting is sometimes mentioned in October.)

However, listen to this American source:
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage)
Possessive with gerund:
"The gerund, or verbal noun, in English is the present participle
of a verb used as a noun..." - as neat a blurring of distinctions
as one could hope to see.

The commentary improves as the topic is further discussed.
For example: "Jesperson makes the point succinctly with
'There is no resisting him'  in which the adjective 'no' shows
 'resisting' to be a noun and the objective 'him' shows 'resisting'
to be a verb.
[Railing against grammatical analysis treated as Latin grammar grafted
onto English and promoting a sensitive ear for native idiom.]

Sincerely

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK