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A gerund may function syntactically as the head of a verb phrase: for instance, the gerund of a transitive verb may take a direct object in the accusative case, e.g., ad discernendum vocis verbi figuras 'for discerning figures of speech', hominem investigando opera dabo 'I will devote effort to investigating the man'.
A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for nouns. In English, a gerund has the same form as a progressive active participle and so ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear as subject or object noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition:
When used as a gerund or present participle, the -ing form is a non-finite verb, which behaves like a (finite) verb in that it forms a verb phrase, taking typical verb dependents and modifiers such as objects and adverbs. That verb phrase is then used within a larger sentence, with the function of an adjective or adverb (in the case of the ...
Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include adverbial participle, conjunctive participle, gerund, gerundive and verbal adverb (Ylikoski 2003). Converbs are differentiated from coverbs , verbs in complex predicates in languages that have the serial verb construction .
One can compare the construction and meaning of noun phrases formed using the -ing form as a gerund, and of those formed using the same -ing form as a deverbal noun. Some points are noted below: The gerund can behave like a verb in taking objects: crossing the river cost many lives.
A conjunction may be placed at the beginning of a sentence, [1] but some superstition about the practice persists. [2] The definition may be extended to idiomatic phrases that behave as a unit and perform the same function, e.g. "as well as", "provided that".
When i-adjectives are in -te form, the final い -i is dropped and くて -kute is added as a suffix instead. On the contrary, when na-adjectives are in -te form, the final な -na is dropped and で -de is added as a suffix. As we can see, instead of a particle, a suffix is added to the first adjective to show coordination of adjectives.
In linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium 'a sharing, partaking'; abbr. PTCP) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. [1] More narrowly, participle has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective, as in a laughing face ".