Gerund or not ?

"Wanting to believe the best about people doesn't make it true." iIn this sentenceno space, ''nospacewantingno space'' is a gerund, right ??


Yes

As far as I can tell, wanting is not a gerund; it’s a present participle.

Aspara GusI’m a little confused about the term gerund. I always thought that a gerund was simply an -ing form functioning as a noun would, but lately, I have been hearing the term used to refer to words that certainly do not have the function of a noun and can’t be replaced by a noun, as in the OP’s sentence. As far as I can tell, wanting is not a gerund; it’s a present p

I am afraid that analysis does not make any sense to me.

verb complement subject modifier

1. Learning English is fun.
2. Wanting to believe the best about people doesn’t make it true

OK, I over-simplified my argument by separating the gerund from the complete subject.

However, I did not claim that gerunds were nouns. I wrote, "Gerunds are -ing forms that have properties of a noun and of a verb". Similarly, I wrote, "Present participles have more adjectival properties". Perhaps it would have been better to write what I thought

fivejedjonI'd better stop and see whether or not you agree with the parts I have coloured red.

I don’t completely. In my opinion, the only time a gerund has properties of both a noun and of a verb is when an -ing form is intransitive and is functioning as either a subject (Learning is fun) or a preposition complement (love of learning

The only difference I see between Learning is fun' and Learning English is fun is that learning is intransitive in the first and transitive in the second.

You say that the -ing form in There is a sleeping baby is adjective-like. I agree. It is also verb-like in that the baby is sleeping. That's what makes it a participle.

I suspect there may be

The standard British view is that gerunds can be transitive. Swan (p 293) gives as examples:

Smoking cigarettes can kill you.
My favourite activity is reading thrillers.

Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, both Americans, appear to think the same. Their examples of gerunds include (pps 648 and 652):

She remembered doing her homework.

fivejedjonThe only difference I see between Learning is fun' and Learning English is fun is that learning is intransitive in the first and transitive in the second.

I see another difference: in the first, learning is the subject. In the second, learning is not the subject. This tells me that only the former can reasonably be called a gerund and t

Aspara GusI see another difference: in the first, learning is the subject. In the second, learning is not the subject. This tells me that only the former can reasonably be called a gerund and that the latter is purely verbal.

There have been discussions, sometimes heated, about the difference between gerunds, participles and false/fused particples since the Fo