THE GERUND
The gerund, or infinitive in _-ing_, is substantive in its nature, for
like the root infinitive it _names_ the action or state asserted by
the verb. It is not so easily identified in the sentence as the root
infinitive, however, for in form it is precisely like the participle,
from which it has to be distinguished entirely by its use.
=The forms of the gerund= are shown in the following examples:--
1. The transitive verb _see_:
Active--seeing, having seen.
Active progressive--having been seeing.
Passive--being seen, having been seen.
2. The intransitive verb _rise_:
Common form--rising, having risen.
Progressive form--having been rising.
=The use of the gerund= is almost entirely restricted to that of the
noun. When found without adjuncts it does not materially differ from
the noun; for example, _Painting_ is a fine art. But usually the
verb-nature of the gerund is prominent as well as its noun-use, for
usually it is accompanied by a complement or adverbial modifiers;
as, “The need of _feeling responsible all the livelong day_ has been
preached long enough in our New England.”--_Wm. James._ The gerund
together with its adjuncts forms a gerund-phrase. It has certain
advantages over the root infinitive. In many places it is preferable
because it gives the idea of an action in progress. It is also
employed in relation to some words where usage does not permit the
root infinitive. Furthermore, its substantive nature comes out more
prominently than that of the root infinitive, for like the noun it may
be modified by an article or a possessive; thus, “Pascal said that most
of the evils of life arose from _man’s being unable to sit still in a
room_.”--_Bagehot._
I. The gerund used as a noun.
1. Subject of a verb; as, “_Lying in bed and listening to their dreary
music_ had a pleasure in it.”--_Holmes._
2. Object of a verb; as, “I remember _being told that it was the sound
of the waves_.”--_Holmes._
3. Objective complement; as, “If a child finds itself in want of
anything it runs in and asks its father for it--does it call that
_doing its father a service_?”--_Ruskin._ Here the gerund phrase helps
to complete the verb _does call_ and at the same time is an attribute
of the direct object _that_.
4. Subjective complement; as, “The first of all English games is
_making money_.”--_Ruskin._
5. Appositive modifier; as, “I recommend this most faithful form of
reading--_learning by heart_.”
6. Object of a preposition; as, “Nelson attributed all his success in
life to _having been a quarter of an hour before his time_.” This is
the commonest use of the gerund, for while the root infinitive may be
used after very few prepositions, the gerund may be used after many.
7. Objective adverbial.--The adjective _worth_ is usually followed by a
noun that expresses a measure of value, answering the question _worth
how much?_ or _worth what?_ It may be followed by a gerund answering
the same question; as, “That is worth _paying for_.”--_Warner._
II. The gerund used adjectively.--We find the gerund used
adjectively in such expressions as _sleeping_-car, _mourning_-robes,
_dining_-table, _eating_-apples. These gerunds seem at first like the
participles in such expressions as _singing_-bird, _shooting_-star,
_barking_-dog; but they are not like participles in meaning, as can
be proved by changing them to equivalent elements of other kinds. A
singing-bird is a bird _that sings_, but a sleeping-car is not a car
that sleeps; it is a car _for sleeping in_.
* * * * *
=Peculiar Constructions.=--It cannot always be settled to one’s entire
satisfaction whether a certain element is a participle or a gerund.
In order to decide one must know just how a certain expression came
to be, that is, of what earlier and older form it is a development.
Sometimes it seems impossible to ascertain this. For instance, take the
sentence, “Nanny has been busy ironing this evening.”--_George Eliot._
Is _ironing_ a participle, and does the order of words in this sentence
arise from a transposition of the sentence,--“Nanny, ironing, has been
busy this evening”? Or is _ironing_ a gerund, and is this sentence a
parallel construction with, “Nanny has been busy _at her ironing_ this
evening”? Either interpretation of the sentence is a sensible one.
Another puzzling instance is found in the sentence,--“He was two weeks
learning to use his flippers.”--_Kipling._ Is _learning_ a part of the
progressive verb-phrase _was learning_, and does the sentence mean, “He
was learning to use his flippers during two weeks”? Or is _learning_
a gerund, object of _at_ understood, that is, is the sentence a
parallel construction with this,--“You were a long time _at it_”? One
cannot pronounce with certainty on this point, but must choose the
construction that seems to him most reasonable.
Exercise 26
Dispose of all gerunds or gerund-phrases in the following sentences.
1. A serious percentage of books are not worth reading at all.--_F.
Harrison._
2. After a quarter of an hour’s chipping and hammering with very
little result, he paused to rest.--_J. Hawthorne._
3. The cat did not like being whipped, and she was still more annoyed
at having been caught stealing.--_Old Deccan Days._
4. Answering of this question is giving us the soul of the history of
the man or nation.--_Carlyle._
5. The only drawback to my rejoicing over the finishing of the first
hoeing is that the garden now wants hoeing the second time.--_Warner._
6. I wonder when Englishmen will learn these hospitable graces. They
are worth learning.--_Stevenson._
7. What was called governing them meant only wearing fine clothes and
living on good fare at their expense.--_Ruskin._
8. There are but three ways of living; by working, by stealing or by
begging.--_Froude._
9. He spent all the day roaming over the house.--_Kipling._
10. I believe they find adorning the body a more profitable vocation
than adorning the mind.--_Miss Mitford._
11. She promised to befriend him and advised his disguising himself,
lest the Magician should see him and turn him likewise into
stone.--_Old Deccan Days._
12. The buying a new coat is as to the cost of it a much more
important matter of consideration to me than building a new Exchange
is to you.--_Ruskin._
13. She had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and
sponge-cakes.--_Mrs. Gaskell._
14. It is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of
it after it is found, that is of consequence.--_Lowell._
15. A perfectly truthful man, who loves truth for its own sake, is not
contented with being as truthful as other people.--_J. F. Clarke._
16. It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying, “Come
up again, dear!”--_Lewis Carroll._
Exercise 27
Analyze the following sentences:--
1. Miss Binson was, to quote her neighbors, a little too
sharp-set.--_Miss Jewett._
2. On she came, swaying, rocking, plunging, with a great whiteness
wrapping her about like a cloud, and moving with her moving.--_Hearn._
3. A mind must work to grow.--_C. W. Eliot._
4. Everybody loves to hear of strange cases; people are eager to
tell the doctor of the wonderful cures they have heard of; they want
to know what is the matter with somebody or other who is said to be
suffering from a complication of diseases, and above all to get a hard
name, Greek or Latin, for some complaint which sounds altogether too
commonplace in plain English.--_Holmes._
5. And at the same time he hated having to break with old
associations, and to part from anything to which he had been long
accustomed.--_Ainger._
6. It paused there an instant, with its fore quarters in the doorway,
one fore foot raised, the end of its long tail waving.--_J. L. Allen._
7. To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is
power.--_MacDonald._
8. The sergeants, seeing these things, told him secrets generally hid
from young officers.--_Kipling._
9. Children learn to speak by watching the lips and catching the words
of those who know how already.--_Lowell._
10. Strength of will is the power to resist, to persist, to endure, to
attack, to conquer obstacles, to snatch success from the jaws of death
and despair.--_J. F. Clarke._
11. The waves of yesterday are gone today; and the calm of today will
be tumultuous tomorrow.--_Beecher._
12. To suffer and to do, that was thy portion in this life.--_De
Quincey._
13. The city seems to burst into song with the advent of these golden
days and silver nights.--_Howells._
14. To tell the truth, the day was so fine that he regretted going
in-doors.--_A. S. Hardy._
15. It (_education_) meant the leading along the baby till he became
the quick, honest, and fearless boy.--_Hale._
16. The potato, usually planted in the vegetable mold left by recently
exterminated forests, yielded its edible tubers with a bounteous
profusion unknown to the husbandry of our day.--_Greeley._
17. Born in the country he was ignorant as a sign-post of what came
out of the soil.--_J. T. Fields._
18. It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about
it.--_Moody._
19. An hour’s reading of these newspaper paragraphs made a boy’s heart
sick within him and caused a resolve to shoot up in it that he would
turn him right about and classify him in future with quite a different
order of boys.--_Annie Preston._
20. He was never known to laugh.--_Irving._
21. He must have had rather dull feelings not to have looked forward
with some interest to her entrance into the room.--_George Eliot._
22. The strength of the British Empire lies in the strength
of character of the individual Englishman taken all alone by
himself.--_Wm. James._
23. For a time he was afraid of being dropped; then he grew
angry, but he knew better than to struggle; and then he began to
think.--_Kipling._
24. Artists, poets, and musicians are apt to be irritable.--_J. F.
Clarke._
25. The best way to put boyishness to shame is to foster scholarship
and manliness.--_C. W. Eliot._
26. At any rate, I used to hide my eyes from the sloops and schooners
that were wont to lie at the end of the bridge.--_Holmes._
27. We were dismayed to behold the injured husband and his abandoned
foe playfully scuffling behind the scenes.--_Howells._
28. He was always being cured without improving his
health.--_Stephen._
29. What distinguishes the Norseman above other nations is,
generally speaking, an indestructible self-respect and force of
individuality.--_Boyesen._
30. He was too shackled with weakness to cry out, to stand up.--_J. L.
Allen._
31. He had spent half his youth with an older brother hunting horses
in Texas.--_Hale._
32. Those who work deserve to eat; those who do not work deserve to
starve.--_Froude._
33. At present the penny was doubly dear to him, having been long lost
and lately found.--_Barrie._
34. Sunday is coming to stand for perspiration, not
inspiration.--_Hillis._
35. The art of knowing when one is needed is more difficult than that
of helping.--_A. S. Hardy._
36. I cannot but think that the tennis and tramping and skating habits
and the bicycle craze, which are so rapidly extending among our dear
sisters and daughters in this country, are going also to lead to a
sounder and heartier moral tone, which will send its tonic breath
through all our American life.--_Wm. James._