dinition excluding

[alexchau]

Driving fast is not safe.

In this sentence, 'driving' is gerund, which is noun, should 'fast' be an adjective?

Thx

 

[riquecohen]

Driving fast is not safe.

In this sentence, 'driving' is a gerund, which is a noun; should 'fast' be an adjective?

Thx

Welcome to the Forum, alexchau. What do you think the correct answer is?

 

[Barb_D]

What an interesting question!

With "fast," of course, it doesn't matter. It can be an adverb or an adjective, but let's try some other words.

Cautious driving is encouraged. Clearly, you can't use an adverb here, and the gerund looks much more like a noun.

Driving cautiously is encouraged. You do have to use the adverb here, and the gerund looks much more like a verb.

Careful planning will serve you well.
Planning carefully will serve you well.

I would need someone with more linguistics knowledge to explain this, but it is how it's used.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'm puzzled about dinition excluding.

:?:

Rover

 

[alexchau]

Thx.

Gerund is a noun(?). How could it be more like noun or more like verb?

 

[luschen]

Try replacing fast with slow/slowly and see what happens.


*** Not a teacher ***

 

[Barb_D]

A gerund is not a noun. It is a verb form that functions in a sentence the way a noun can function -- as a subject or object.

I don't know WHY if we put the modifier before it, we use an adjective and if we put the modifier after it, we use an adverb.

I hope someone will come along and explain it.

 

[freezeframe]

A gerund is not a noun. It is a verb form that functions in a sentence the way a noun can function -- as a subject or object.

I don't know WHY if we put the modifier before it, we use an adjective and if we put the modifier after it, we use an adverb.

I hope someone will come along and explain it.

Cautious driving is encouraged. Clearly, you can't use an adverb here, and the gerund looks much more like a noun.

Driving cautiously is encouraged. You do have to use the adverb here, and the gerund looks much more like a verb.

"Driving cautiously" is a gerund phrase. Driving is a verb relative to other components of the gerund phrase. The entire phrase functions as a noun.

Adverbs of manner usually go after the verb.

In "cautious driving", driving is a gerund and cautious is an adjective modifying it.

PS I also want to know about "dinition excluding"!!

 

[5jj]

I remember reading an article on the differences between 'gerunds' and 'verbal nouns' to explain the difference between:

Smoking cigarettes is bad for you. (Gerund)......The smoking of cigarettes is bad for you. (Verbal noun)

and:

I don't approve of him smoking. (gerund)......I don't approve of his smoking. (verbal noun)

I imagine this would suggest:

I don't approve of him smoking cigarettes/[STRIKE]of cigarettes[/STRIKE]. ......I don't approve of his smoking [STRIKE]cigarettes[/STRIKE]/ of cigarettes.

and:

I don't approve of him smoking heavily. ......I don't approve of his heavy smoking.

I think it was in one of Fowler's works. I will try to track it down.

 

[stacyhappy]

i love this forum! i teach online at TutorABC and have so many questions sometimes. Maybe teaching online is not the same as face toface, but i love it because i get to stay home and make my own schedule Also the students are so respectful!

 

[Rover_KE]

I love this forum! I teach online at TutorABC and have so many questions sometimes. Maybe teaching online is not the same as face to face, but I love it because I get to stay home and make my own schedule. Also the students are so respectful!

No further comment.

Rover

 

[5jj]

I remember reading an article on the differences between 'gerunds' and 'verbal nouns' [...] I think it was in one of Fowler's works. I will try to track it down.

Well, I found a few things in Fowler's Modern English Usage and The King's English, but nothing very helpful, and nothing at all on the adjective/adverb question.

Sidney Greenbaum tries to differentiate between:
- the gerund, a verbal noun: "They appreciate my visiting their parents regularly". Like a noun, it can be introduced by the genitive my, but like a verb it takes the direct object their parents.
- a noun derived from a verb: "They appreciate my visiting of their parents".
- a fused participle. "They appreciate the neighbours visiting their parents regularly". The -ing form is preced by a non-genitive form.

Though he describes the gerund as a verbal noun in one article, he contrasts verbal nouns with gerunds in another article, saying that the gerund is syntactically a verb.


Barb's need (and mine) for someone with more linguistics knowledge to explain this has not been helped by a former Quain professor of English language and literature and director of the Survey of English Usage. It appears to me that Greenbaum is trying to cover up with authoritative sounding words the fact that he doesn't know why we use this -ing form in different ways. This does not help us at all.


Greenbaum, Sidney in McArthur, Tom (ed), (1992), The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford: OUP, pages 439 and 1085.

 

[freezeframe]

These are indeed extremely complicated matters not for mere mortals.

 

[Rover_KE]

Does anybody know what dinition excluding means?

Rover