Gerunds

Question

In this sentence, "After that day, his ruling passion became restoring old cars," there appear to be two gerund phrases; "his ruling passion," and "restoring old cars." My daughter's teacher says that restoring is a verb. I'm not sure I understand. Isn't "became" the verb? And isn't it a linking verb? I guess "became" could be a helper...so passion became restoring? It just doesn't appear to be an active verb in this sentence.

Again, in this sentence, "People walking down the street stopped and watched the clown's juggling in the corner." Like the first, there appears to be two gerunds, "walking down the street," and "clown's juggling." The teacher says that walking is one of the verbs. It just doesn't seem quite right. Can anyone clear this up for me?

Thanks,
Mollie

Canadian45 · Accepted Answer

Anonymous"After that day, his ruling passion became restoring old cars."

1) "ruling" is an adjective.
2) I am pretty sure you are right in saying that "restoring" is a gerund.

Anonymous"People walking down the street stopped and watched the clown's juggling in the corner."

1) "walking" is an adjective. (a present participle)
2) With the possessive, "juggling" is a gerund.

I am not a grammarian.

BillJ · Answer

AnonymousIn this sentence, "After that day, his ruling passion became restoring old cars," there appear to be two gerund phrases; "his ruling passion," and "restoring old cars." My daughter's teacher says that restoring is a verb. I'm not sure I understand. Isn't "became" the verb? And isn't it a linking verb? I guess "became" could be a helper...so passion became restoring? It just doesn't appear to be an active verb in this sentence.

Your daughter's teacher is correct. At word level "restoring" is a verb that has "old cars" as its object. "Became" is indeed the verb of the matrix clause (the sentence), and "restoring old cars" is an embedded subordinate clause (with its own verb "restoring") functioning as predicative complement of "became".

There is a relation of identity between "his ruling passion" and "restoring old cars" (the equivalent of the noun phrase "the restoration of old cars"), which is why we talk of "became" as being a linking verb.

AnonymousAgain, in this sentence, "People walking down the street stopped and watched the clown's juggling in the corner." Like the first, there appears to be two gerunds, "walking down the street," and "clown's juggling." The teacher says that walking is one of the verbs. It just doesn't seem quite right. Can anyone clear this up for me?

No, "walking down the street" is not a gerund; it's a participial clause modifying "people". Unlike gerunds that function as or like nouns, participles function as or like adjectives. "Walking" is a verb and "down the street" is a preposition phrase telling you where they were walking. "The clown's juggling" is a gerund here - a noun phrase, the object of the verb "watched". The participle "juggling" is functioning as a noun here; it's the head of the noun phrase "the clown's juggling". It's no different to the phrase "the clown's antics", where "antics" is clearly a noun.

BillJ

Canadian45 · Answer

Hi Bill:

I would like your further comments on my understanding of gerunds and present participles. I prefer calling continuous- tense verbs just that, rather than lumping them in with the participles.

1) "People walikg down the street stopped and watched.....".
Isn't "walking" an adjective modifying people, with the actual verbs being "stopped' and "watched"? (just as 'The man standing outside is my uncle.'?)

2) "After that day, his ruling passion became restoring old cars,"
You said "At word level "restoring" is a verb that has "old cars" as its object."
'After that day, restoring old cars became his ruling passion.'
Is "restoring" a gerund in either version of the sentence?

also in...

'Golfing is my hobby.'
'My hobby 's golfing.'

BillJ · Answer

canadian45I would like your further comments on my understanding of gerunds and present participles. I prefer calling continuous- tense verbs just that, rather than lumping them in with the participles.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'rather than lumping them in with the participles'. All verbs have 'gerund' and 'present participle' in their paradigm, though of course they have the same shape. To call present participles 'continuous tense verbs' is potentially misleading since it implies that their only use is in forming the progressive (continuous) aspect. They also play an important role in heading gerund-participial clauses, as in "Bringing your dad along was a good idea", as well as sometimes functioning as nouns and adjectives in their own right, as in "I witnessed the killing of the birds"; "The show was entertaining".

canadian451) "People walikg down the street stopped and watched.....".Isn't "walking" an adjective modifying people, with the actual verbs being "stopped' and "watched"? (just as 'The man standing outside is my uncle.'?)

No, the participle "walking" is not an adjective. It's a verb heading the participial clause "walking down the street" which modifies the noun "People". The noun phrase "People walking down the street" functions as the subject of the sentence. The clause itself does function very much like an adjective, of course, but at word level "walking" is a verb - notice how it takes the adjunct (adverbial) "down the street" - adjuncts modify verbs and verb phrases, not nouns. "Stopped" and "watched" are the main verbs of the sentence.

canadian452) "After that day, his ruling passion became restoring old cars,"You said "At word level "restoring" is a verb that has "old cars" as its object."'After that day, restoring old cars became his ruling passion.'Is "restoring" a gerund in either version of the sentence?

Yes, "restoring" here is a gerund; its category (part of speech) in the sentence is verb. Don't forget, a gerund is a verb form that functions 'as or like a noun'. In this case, it's the 'like a noun' component of that definition that applies. You can tell that "restoring" is a verb because it has "old cars" as object. Nouns don't take objects.

BillJ

Canadian45 · Answer

BILLJ in black
canadian45 in blue
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"I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'rather than lumping them in with the participles'."
What I mean is that some people talking about particples and gerunds say that any -ing verb-form that is not a gerund is a present particple. So according to them, that would include -ing verb forms acting as adjectives and those that are continuous tense verbs.
The underlining below is mine.

"No, the participle "walking" is not an adjective. Then why is it called a (present) participle? It's a verb heading the participial clause "walking down the street" which modifies the noun "People". The noun phrase "People walking down the street" functions as the subject of the sentence. The clause itself does function very much like an adjective, of course, but at word level "walking" is a verb - notice how it takes the adjunct (adverbial) "down the street" - adjuncts modify verbs and verb phrases, not nouns. I don't think the adjunct issue is relevant.
"Stopped" and "watched" are the main verbs of the sentence."
Consider the sentences below.

'The man sitting (on the bench) is Mr. X.'
'The man standing (on the bench) is Mr. Y.'

Do "sitting" and "standing" both not modify/describe "The man" ? The adjunct seems to be irrelevant. To me, it seems clear that both "sitting" and "standing" are adjectives.

All I can say is that the ideas I expressed in this thread are what I have been taught. Thanks for your input, and feel free to respond further if you wish.

Gerunds

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