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4. The English gerund

The gerund is characterized by the following features:
1) its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of “an action
partially viewed as a substance”;
2) the typical group morpheme –ing;
3) the grammatical category of voice.
The gerund has the category of tense (the present and the perfect
forms), which is expressed relatively. The category of aspect of
gerund forms is connected with the category of tense and is
subordinated to this category. Whereas the category of state is
expressed very distinctly: both tense forms of gerund have passive
forms: reading – being read, having read – having been read;
4) the combinability resembling that of the verb (the
gerund is associated with verbs, with nouns or pronouns, denoting
the object of the action) and that of the noun (the gerund is
associated with prepositions, with possessive pronouns, nouns in
the possessive case), e.g.: The district is justified in blindly
ignoring the federal land.
The characteristic feature of the gerund is its usage in
collocation with the noun (in possessive case) or with the
possessive pronoun, which denote the subject of the action
expressed by the gerund, e.g.: The student’s (his) knowing English
will help him. – Те, що студент (він) знає англійську,
допоможе йому. Very often the role of the gerund subject
fulfilled by the noun in the common case or by the demonstrative
pronoun or indefinite pronoun altogether indeclinable, e.g.: We
insisted on the contract being signed.Ми наполягали на тому,
щоб угода була підписана.
The gerund, like the infinitive, combines verbal and noun
features, yet the gerund is more of the noun than the infinitive,
which is to some extent explained by the fact that the gerund
became part of the verb system much later than the infinitive.

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