Verbs and Verbals (3)

前麵簡單地複習了各類動詞的名稱與基本概念，第三篇我們開始介紹有關非謂語動詞的一些概念和名詞。

Verbals

Verbals are words or phrases that seem to carry the idea of action or being but do not function as a true verb.  They are called non-finite (unfinished or incomplete) verbs, as we discussed before.  There are three kinds of verbals or verbal phrases in English:  participle, infinitive, and gerund. 

 

Participle

participle is a verb form acting as an adjective.  "the running dog chased the fluttering moss" is an example.  A present participle like running and fluttering describes a present condition; and a past participle describes something that has happened or used as the passive voice:  "The completely rotted tooth finally fell out of his mouth."  The distinction can be important to the meaning of a sentence:  there is a huge difference between a confusing student and a confused student.  Are you boring or bored?  Hope you are just bored, but you are not boring[1]. 

 

Infinitive

Infinitive form of a verb is just the root (i.e., the base form) of a verb plus the word "to", which is called the infinitive article:  To sleep, perchance to dream.

A present infinitive describes a present condition:  "I like to sleep", while the perfect infinitive describes a time earlier than that of the verb of the main clause:  "I like to have won that game."

 

Split Infinitive: an infinitive is said to be "split" when an adverb or a phrase sneaks between the infinitive article "to" and the root of the infinitive: "to boldly go".  There is an argument against use of "split infinitive".  This argument is based on shaky historical grounds stating that the infinitive is a single unit and therefore should not be divided.  In more recent development regarding infinitive usage, many believe that there is nothing wrong with such split infinitives:  "He thinks he'll be able to more than double his salary this year.".  But, do not use the word "not" to split any infinitive.  We say: "He decided not to talk to her,"  instead of "He decided to not talk to her."

So, the general rule is that you can use any adverb except "not" either to split or not to split an infinitive.  Opinions regarding whether the split infinitive is acceptable or not remains divided.  Today's dictionaries allow us to split the infinitive, but it should never be done at the expense of traditional grace.  Try to be wise and know your English instructor's feelings on this matter.

Infinitives can also be used as nouns, predicate complements, objects, and adverbs (see the section on infinitive).

 

Gerund

Gerund is another verbal form ending in "-ing".  It acts as a noun:  Running in the park after dark can be dangerous.  Since gerunds or gerund phrases are nouns, they can be used in any way that a noun can be used:

            Being king can be dangerous for your health. (subject)

            He didn’t particularly like being king. (object)

            He wrote a book about being king. (object of a preposition)

 

A gerund can also have a perfect tense, indicating the time of the gerund is earlier than the verb of the main sentence, just as the infinitive can have its perfect tense:

           Having been honored this way, they went out and earned it by winning the gold. (gerund)

           The women's hockey team hoped to have won a gold medal. (infinitive)

           The women did not seem satisfied simply to have been selected as players. (infinitive)

           To have been competing at that level already was quite an accomplishment (infinitive).

           Having been through all those troubles with her, he decided to stay away from her (gerund).

 

Actual v. Potential Meanings

A gerund and an infinitive often have practically the same meaning:  Running in the park after dark can be dangerous = To run in the park after dark can be dangerous.  However, there can be a difference in meaning between the gerund and the infinitive of the same verb.  Gerunds are used normally to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action (in a general sense)" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events (in a more specific sense)"[2].

Read examples below:

 

Verbs of emotions:

            I hated practicing my violin while other kids were playing outside (practicing in general).

            I prefer to work during the day (to work with a specific aspect: "during the day").

 

Verbs of Completion/Incompletion:

           We began working on this project two year ago, and finished working on it a month ago (working has already been fulfilled).

           We will continue to work on this project for the next four months and soon we will start to wrap up this project. (to work is yet to be started, futuristically).

 

Verbs of remembering (such as remember, forget, regret)

           She forgot to deliver her promises (When the action of "forgot" occurred, the action of "deliver" has not happened yet, again, sort of futuristically).

           She forgot doing her homework (doing homework had already been fulfilled before the action of "forgot" occurred).

           He'll never forget to see her the first time (see her the first time has already happened, the first time was the specific aspect).

           He could not forget seeing her stay in another man's arms (see her stay in another man's arms has already happened in reference to the time of "forget").

 

Understandably, it won't be easy for students to get a solid hold on such delicate differences between gerund and infinitive. My personal advice will be:  remember that the gerund has as aspect of being general while the infinitive carries a characteristic of being specific.  Take the following sentence as an example:

           Generally speaking, I like swimming, but I just don't like to swim at three o'clock in the afternoon.

In this sentence, "like swimming" is a general conception, while "to swim at three o'clock" addresses the specificity of the issue.

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[1] Often we hear Chinese say:  "I am interesting in this discussion" when they really wanted to say "I am interested in this discussion".

[2] Others believe that the difference between gerunds and infinitives is that the gerund is more used to describe a general concept of things that have happened or things in progress, whereas the infinitive is more used to described a specific thing or idea that has not been happened or has happened with a specific time or other specific aspects.