Gerund

A Gerund is a noun based on an Action Verb, and it denotes the doing of that action.

• Context:
  • It can be the Head Word to a Gerund Phrase, e.g. “[nagging] Bill".
  • It can be:
    • a Direct Object, e.g. “I enjoy [nagging] Bill.”
    • a Sentence Subject, e.g. “[Nagging] Bill is enjoyable."
  • It (or its Gerund Phrase) can be transformed by Pronomial Substitution, e.g. “I enjoy nagging Bill]." ⇒ "I enjoy [it]”.
• Example(s):
  • “nagging” ← “nag”, e.g. “I enjoy [nagging] Bill.”, a Direct Object.
  • “nagging” ← “nag”, e.g. “[Nagging] Bill is enjoyable.”, a Sentence Subject.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • “running” ← “run”, e.g. “Jane went [running]”, a Present Participle.
  • “opening” ← “open”, e.g. “They are [opening] the gifts”, a Present Participle.
• See: Present Participle, Verbal Noun.

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References

2009

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=gerund
  • S: (n) gerund (a noun formed from a verb (such as the `-ing' form of an English verb when used as a noun))
• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund
  • In linguistics, "gerund" is a term which is used to refer to various non-finite verb forms in various languages:
    • As applied to English, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun (or, alternatively, the name of an action), which is one of the uses of the -ing form. This is also the term's use as applied to Latin; see Latin conjugation.
    • As applied to Spanish and Portuguese, it refers to an adverbial participle (a verbal adverb), called in Spanish the gerundio and in Portuguese the gerúndio.
    • As applied to French, it refers either to the adverbial participle — also called the gerundive — or to the present adjectival participle.
    • As applied to Hebrew, it refers either to the verb's action noun, or to the part of the infinitive that follows the infinitival prefix (also called the infinitival construct).
    • As applied to Frisian, it refers to one of two verb forms frequently referred to as infinitives, this one ending in -n. It shows up in nominalizations and is selected by perception verbs.
    • As applied to Japanese, it designates verb and adjective forms ending in -te or -de, the continuative stem of an older perfective auxiliary verb.
    • As applied to other languages, it may refer to almost any non-finite verb form; however, it most often refers to an action noun, by analogy with its use as applied to English or Latin.

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