THE VERB FORMS’ NETWORK: GERUND, PARTICIPLE AND INFINITIVE

English language leans on the three pillars of its’ grammar. Utterances, conversations, communication and the progress itself are formed thank to one of these - every speech makes, every sentence in a scientific article and each business meeting contains verbs, in various forms: gerunds, participle and infinitive. They are those that provide the possibility to communicate, and its’ understanding provides either the capability of encoding and decoding.

It is of course a clear moment that a gerund is the –ing form of a verb that functions the same as a noun. For example, “Eating is fun.” In this sentence, “eating” is the gerund. Although the gerund looks like a verb, it acts just like a noun and always has the same function as a noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object.

The infinitive form of a verb appears either as the basic form (with no marking) or with the word “to.” For example, you can say “I might eat all the time” or “I like to eat.” In this sentence, “to eat” is the infinitive. Basically, some verbs are followed by gerunds, some verbs are followed by infinitives, and some verbs can be followed by gerunds or infinitives.

A participle is a verb form that can be used as an adjective, to create verb tense, or to create the passive voice. Also, participles can be used to create a sentence structure that allows you to say two or more things about your subject efficiently. Its’ participle-phrase upfront structure is particularly useful when writing personal appraisals. It allows you to shoehorn in an extra observation about your subject in a single sentence.

The forms we have spoken of above are definitely connected to each other, as in the grammatical and syntactical way. “Any language is a system, consisting of certain elements. Stable connections and relations between the elements of the system form its structure. This article analyzes one of the main parts of the English language, verbs, when they act as a predicate. The predicate is the most complicated part of English grammar. It can be considered as a subsystem of the English language, where verbs are its elements. Our analysis of the structure of the English predicate shows that the most important verb of the English language is the verb to be. It is followed by the verb to have, modal verbs, the verb to do and the verbs of action. In other words, we have revealed the hierarchy of the English verbs” [1].

Thus, we can surely state that there is for sure a system, if not saying the whole universe of the verb forms and its’ adjacent. But it is not only a hierarchy consolidating those to a bunch. There is also one thing that often is missed by our teaching programs.

We all comprehend the role of the verb and its’ forms in the language, we appreciate it and at the same time forget how actually important it is. But this time it is not about an affliction on the verb, it is about reminding of its’ significance. We have become so impudent on some occasion that even have missed one precious detail – all these forms of the verb are parts of one peculiar network, non-finite verbs.

“Non-finite - a verb form or a clause that is not marked for tense; contrasting with finite. The term covers the infinitive forms of verbs (the to- infinitive and bare infinitive), the -ing form, and the past participle form, as well as the associated clauses containing these forms” [2]. The non-finite verbs look similar to usual verbs, but they act quite different than those other verbs. By definition, we can say that the non-finite verb cannot serve as the main verb in an independent clause. In practical terms, this means that they do not serve as the action of a sentence. They also do not have a tense. While the sentence around them may be past, present, or future tense, the non-finite verbs themselves are neutral. The non-finite verbs look similar to usual verbs, but they act quite different than those other verbs. There are three types of non-finite verbs: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

Gerunds all end in -ing: skiing, reading, dancing, singing, etc. Gerunds act like nouns and can serve as subjects or objects of sentences. A participle is used as an adjective or an adverb. There are two types of participle in English: the past and present participles. The present participle also takes the –ing form: (e.g., writing, singing, and raising). The past participle typically appears like the past tense, but some have different forms: (e.g., written, sung and raised). The infinitive is the basic dictionary form of a verb, usually preceded by to. Thus to go is an infinitive.

There is another variant of naming the non-finites. It is connected with their inability to show the person who said or did an action on their own, and it may be called as non-personal verbs. These forms combine the properties of a verb and a noun (infinitive and gerund) or a verb and an adjective (participle).

Examples:

I want to warn you. – Я хочу предупредить вас. (infinitive)

He likes eating candies. – Он любит кушать конфеты. (gerund)

The kid looking at the window is my son – Ребенок, смотрящий в окно - мой сын. (participle)

When a student wants to find out what the gerund or the participle is, first thing showing up before his eyes in a linguistic glossary or an educational site is that the gerund is a non-finite. “A gerund (/ˈdʒɛrənd, -ʌnd/ abbreviated ger) is any of various non-finite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object. The term "-ing form" is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically.” [3] “Participles are non-finite verbs. (A non-finite verb is a verb that, by itself, does not show tense. This means if you look at just a participle, you cannot tell if you're dealing with the past tense, present tense, or future tense.)” [4]

The non-finite form is a non-personal, which means that they do not show a person in the sentence. It is attached to the main verb or an auxiliary, and without them would not bear a sense. Here on the examples below we explain why the statement of their non-personality is

Adam decides to continue his work on the theme. – Адам решает продолжить свою работу по этой теме.

Amy has to continue his work on the theme. – Эми должна продолжить свою работу по этой теме.

We cannot separate the non-finite verb (continue, infinitive) from the main verb (decide, -s) or the auxiliary (has to), otherwise it would lead to the loss of the grammatical correctness in the sentence. – Adam continue his work on the theme.

It may remain the sense and grammar if it was composed from the position of a first (I), second(you) person or the plural (we, they, you); and one more: it loses the modality of necessity or obligation that is attached to the subject. – They continue their work on the theme. Yet, it seems questionable to us whether it does not show the person or actually does. Due to the fact that the form of a verb or auxiliary represents whether it was a first person or third (-s), we can assume that it reflects on the non-finite verb as it is attached to the main verb.

Non-finite clauses contain a verb which does not show tense. We usually use non-finite verbs only in subordinate clauses and understand the time it is referred to from the context of the main clause. We often use a non-finite clause when the subject is the same as the subject in the main clause:

Tony had something to eat before leaving. (= I had something to eat before I left.). – Тони перекусил перед тем как уйти (= перед уходом).

Supported by local volunteer teams, staff at the Sunshine beach have spent two days searching for a lost boy. – При поддержке местных волонтерских команд, сотрудники пляжа Sunshine два дня искали потерявшегося мальчика.

Here non-finite verbs are used as additional, they do not carry the main idea but supplement the clause. If we removed the word “leaving” (gerund) it would be just “Tony had something to eat”, without clarification of when he did it and, implicitly, why. As it was time to go, he had to have something to eat, so the non-finite gerund implemented the role of the time and goal bearer.

The non-personal verbs also do not show number. It is so due to the said-above fact of their attachment to the main verb in a clause or a sentence. Again, without main verb the non-finite does not bear any sense in the terms of number, or may only transfer the plural number/the first, second person.

They are going out in the evenings. – Они выходят на прогулку по вечерам.

He managed to escape the jail within three months. – Он сумел сбежать из тюрьмы за эти три месяца.

Cursed with all of the dark names, Sara went outside. – Проклятая всеми темными именами, Сара вышла вон.

“Going out” in the first sentence is not marked with tense, person or especially a number, and if it would have been left without the auxiliary (are), which indicates who is the subject, there would remain no logical clause. – They going out in the evenings. The same happens in cases of “to escape” in the second example and with “cursed” in the third. When leaving the sentence number two without the leading verb, it turns into unclear set of words.

We can say that the usage of non-finite is quiet spread, which we observe on the every-day life speaking, literature, movies and so on and that the infinitive, the gerund and the participle are applied to non-finite form of a verb, as they are used as additional units in the clauses. There should always be the main verb or auxiliary that could indicate the person, number, tense, mood. Without it, we are left without correctness in our speech and grammar, what leads to the loss of the denotational meaning of sentences.

References:

1. Kuryaeva R. I., Hierarchy of English verbs in the system of the English predicate / “Vestnik” of Tatar State University of Humanities and Education. 2017. №1 (47).
2. Bas Aarts, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (2 ed.) – Oxford University Press, 2014.
3. Blokh M.Y. Theoretical grammar of modern English. M., 1983. Pp. 85-103.
4. Grammar Monster, Free Grammar Lessons and Exercises // [https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/past_participles.htm] (дата обращения – 13.05.2021)