verbal noun

verbal noun

1. A verbal noun (also called a gerund) is a form of a verb ending in -ing that acts as a noun, for example smoking in the phrase no smoking and in the sentence Smoking damages your health. It should be distinguished from (identically formed) participial adjectives (a smoking chimney) and participles used to form continuous tenses (The chimney is smoking).

2. Because a verbal noun is a part of a verb as well as being a noun, it can retain some of the characteristics of verbs in its grammatical behaviour; for example the forms They do not like us smoking in the house (non-possessive) and They do not like our smoking in the house (possessive) are both established in ordinary usage, although the second, in which smoking is treated as a full noun, is often preferred in more formal writing. Fowler (1906, 1926) rejected the first type as ‘grammatically indefensible’, since the words defy grammatical analysis (an example he gave was We need fear nothing from China [change to China's] developing her resources), but the basis of his argument lay in Latin rather than English grammar and has rightly been questioned since (notably by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, 1860–1943). In current use, certain patterns are discernible:

a) The possessive is the more normal choice when the word preceding the -īng form is a personal name or a noun denoting a person, but less so when the name is of an organization:

One cannot say that Kafka's marvelling at mundane accomplishments was not genuine —London Review of Books, 1987

/

I was now counting on my father's being able to make some provision somehow —Ved Mehta, 1987

/

There is no question of Gazprom cutting off supplies in Russia — Independent, 2007

.

b) When the noun is non-personal, is part of a phrase, or is in the plural, the possessive is not normally used:

They turned a blind eye to toffee apples going missing —Jeanette Winterson, 1985

/

Then we had our old conversation about the house being haunted —C. Rumens, 1987

/

I'm not averse to others making good money or big profits —Western Morning News, 2007

.

c) With personal pronouns, usage varies between the possessive and non-possessive, the possessive being more usual at the start of a sentence:

Fancy his minding that you went to the Summer Exhibition —A. N. Wilson, 1978

/

His being so capable was the only pleasant thing about the whole dreadful day —E. Jolley, AusE 1985

/

There can be no question of you disturbing the clerks —Peter Carey, AusE 1988

/

Their Aunt Martha had been remarkably circumspect on the subject of their leaving her house so soon after arriving —fiction website, AmE 2005

[OEC].

d) With indefinite pronouns the non-possessive form is more usual, the possessive sounding less natural:

He didn't think for a time of anyone clawing at his back —D. A. Richards, CanE 1981

/

There are many sound reasons, then, for everyone's wanting to join in this new Gold Rush —Encounter, 1988

/

There is nothing wrong with everyone knowing your public key, but they should verify that it is yours —Linux Journal, 2005

[OEC].

e) In sum, the possessive is on the retreat, but its use with proper names and personal pronouns and pronouns persists.

3. The to-infinitive also acts as a verbal noun (To err is human, to forgive divine), and choice between this and an -ing form is largely a matter of idiom. For example, one hopes to do something but one thinks of doing something, has a fondness for doing something, and has an aversion to doing something. Care needs to be taken not to confuse these patterns, especially when more than one is used in the same sentence.