8 - ing complements

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ING COMPLEMENTS

One of the problems always present when discussing the Participle and the Gerund isthe fact that both of these moods have the same ending: -ing . This makes it sometimesdifficult for us to differentiate between them. Due to this situation, we shall have to point out the specific features of each construction. Let us start with the Participle:

8.1. The Participle

The first distinction to be made here is that between present participle and past participle . These are the tenses of this mood and they differ in point of ending: the present participle ends in ing and makes the object of our discussion. The past participle ends in en (or -ed ) and will be marginally tackled in this section. Let usnow see the main contexts where we can identify participial forms:

8.1.1. Participial Constructions

The main context in which the present participle appears is when it is part of acontinuous tense form:

(1) Susan is sleeping.(Susan doarme.)

In (1) theing form that appears within the Present Continuous VP (verb phrase) is a present participle.This fact is also true of past participle forms and perfect or passive verb phrases:

(2) a. Susan hascome .(A venit Susan) b. Susan hasbeen killed .

In (2) the formscome, been andkilled are past participle forms.

A context where the present participle frequently appears is when it is combined witha noun phrase and hasa modifying function , i.e. it functions attributively. Here wehave two situations:a) when it appears before the noun in question:

(3) Therunning man is my boss.(Omul care alearg este eful meu.)

b) when it appears after the noun in question:

(4) The manrunning on the track is my boss.(Omul care alearg pe pist este eful meu.)

As you can see in this second case, the participle may be accompanied by additionalcomplements (on the track ).This situation is also characteristic for past participles, especially when they are placed in front of the nominal and appear in compounds:

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(5) Hisclean-shaved face was shining in the moonlight.(Faa lui bine brbierit strlucea n lumina lunii.)

More infrequently, the past participle can appear after a noun, too:

(6) Her eye-lids,blood-shot and painted , were closing.(I se nchideau pleoapele injectate i date cu fard.)

The participle can also frequently appear as anadverbial and here we can notice twosituations:a) when it has no expressed logical subject

(7) a. Arriving here, they started singing. (adverbial of time )(Sosind aici, ncepur s cnte.) b. Knowing who the guy was, she ran away. (adverbial of reason )(tiind cine era el, ea o lu la fug.)c. When singing , people should pay attention to high notes. (adverbial of time +time conjunction )(Atunci cnd cnt, oamenii trebuie s fie ateni la notele nalte.)d. If provoked , a lion can attack. (adverbial of condition + conditional conjunction)(Dac este provocat, leul poate s atace.)

b) when it has an expressed logical subject :the Absolute Participle

(8) a.God willing , I will arrive there on time. (adverbial of condition )(Cu voia lui Dumnezeu, o s ajung la timp.)

b. Weather permitting , I will arrive there on time. (adverbial of condition )(Dac vremea mi permite, o s ajung la timp.)

c. Oh, he will eventually marry her,mother permitting . (adverbial of condition )(Se va cstori pn la urm cu ea dac maic-sa i d voie.)

The logical subjects in (8) areGod and weather , respectively. This construction iscalled the Absolute Participle after the model of Latin where there is the AbsoluteAblative an elliptical construction made up of nouns and non-finite forms in theAblative, which stands for an adverbial clause.

The participle may also appear in the so-calledindependent participial constructions :i. Nominative + Present / Past Participle

(9) a. He was found stealing .(L-au descoperit c fur.)

b. He was foundkilled by a bullet.(L-au gsit ucis de un glonte.)

ii. Accusative + Present / Past Participle

(10) a. I foundhim stealing .(L-am descoperit furnd.)

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b. They foundhim killed by a bullet .(L-au gsit ucis de un glonte.)

Let us make up a list of verbs and adjectives that require the presence of theindependent participial constructions :a) Verbs requiring Nominative and Accusative + Present Participle Verbs of physical perception: see, hear, smell, watch, behold, notice, perceive

(11) I felther trembling.(Am simit-o tremurnd.)

(12) He was noticedcrying .(A fost vzut plngnd.)

Causative verbs: get, have, set, start, keep, send, leave, etc.

(13) a. Ill have you all speaking fluent English soon.(O s v fac s vorbii toi curnd o englez bun.)

b. Hell soon getthings going.(O s pun repede lucrurile n micare.)c. He was sentrolling by the heavy blow.(Lovitura l-a trimis nvrtindu-se.)

mental perception verbs:remember, recollect, find , etc.:

(14) Imaginehim saying a thing like that.(nchipuiete-i-l spunnd una ca asta.)

b) Verbs requiring Nominative and Accusative + Past Participle Verbs of physical perception: see, hear, feel , etc.:(15) a. I heardit said that men are a bore.

(Am auzit spunndu-se c brbaii sunt plicticoi.)b. He was seencovered in mud from head to toe.(L-au vzut acoperit de noroi din cap pna n picioare.)

verbs of mental perception:imagine, confess, know, recollect , etc.:

(16) When she heard his words, she knewherself dismissed.(Cnd i-a auzit cuvintele i-a dat seama c a concediat-o.)

Causative verbs:get , have, make

(17) a. I must getmy hair cut .(Trebuie s m duc s m tund.)b. You must get get that leg of yours taken care of.(Trebuie s te duci la doctor s i ngrijeti piciorul.)

verbs of permission, command

(18) I orderedmy bill made out.

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(I-am spus chelnerului s-mi aduc nota.)

Verbs of liking and disliking

(19) a. Men like shopping made easy.(Brbailor le place s termine repede cu cumprturile.)

b. He wantedhis car fixed immediately.(Dorea s-i fie reparat maina imediat.)

8.1.2. Characteristics of Participial Forms

The main property participles have in opposition to gerundial forms is the verbalquality of these structures. Unlike the gerund, the participle hasno nominal propertieswhatsoever. We shall enlarge upon this point in the section on gerunds.

A second differentiating feature is the frequency with which the participle appears asa modifier or as anadverbial . The only contexts in which the participle functions asan object is when it is part of the independent participial constructions (i.e. Nominative or Accusative + Participle).

The participle lackstense but exhibits: aspectual features:

(20) Having seen this , I left.(Vznd acestea, am plecat.)

Voice (can appear in the passive)(21) Having been noticed by the teacher , I left.

(Dup ce m-a remarcat profesorul, am plecat.)

A nominative subject (inabsolute participial constructions)

(22) God willing , the rain will stop.(Cu voia lui Dumnezeu, se va opri i ploaia.)

A conjunction to precede it optionally(23) Although not knowing the language , she enjoyed her trip to Spain.

(Desi nu tia limba, a avut parte de o excursie plcut n Spania.)

8.2. The Gerund8.2.1. A Classification of Gerundial Forms

We classify gerunds, function of the presence or absence of a logical subject withinthe gerundial structure. According to this criterion, one can distinguish between:a) gerunds without an expressed logical subject:

(24) PRO seeing is PRO believing.(Dac vezi, crezi.)

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b) gerunds with an expressed logical subject:This class of gerunds can be further split into two subclasses:

the full gerund (or the possessive ING )

(25) Johns coming here was a mistake.(Venirea lui John aici a fost o greeal.)

thehalf gerund (or the Accusative ING )

(26) It all depends onhim coming here.(Totul depinde de venirea lui aici.)

We call the first subclass of b) possessive ING because of the genitive form in whichthe logical subject appears. Likewise, the second subclass bears the name Accusative+ ING due to the case of the logical subject within the gerund.

If there are two possibilities with class b) it means that there must be some differences between them. The main difference lies in the fact that theaccusative + ing is morelike a clause whereas the possessive -ing looks more like a nominal.

How do we know that?Answer: By looking at the way these constructions agree with the main clause verbswhen coordinated: The possessive -ing in a compound subject agrees with the verb in the plural, just

as it happens with any normal compound subject made up of two nominal phrases:

(27) a. His winning and your losing were both surprising.(M-a surprins faptul c el a ctigat i tu ai pierdut.)

b. His victory and your defeat were both surprising.(M-au surprins n egal msur victoria lui i nfrngerea ta.)

Coordinatedaccusative + ing requires a singular verb, just as it happens withcoordinated Subjectthat clauses:

(28) a. Him winning and you losing was surprising.(M-a surprins faptul c el a ctigat i tu ai pierdut.)

b. That he won and you lost was surprising.(M-a surprins faptul c el a ctigat i tu ai pierdut.)

8.2.2. Characteristics of Gerunds

In the previous subsection on participles I was saying that participles have [+ verbal]features, whereas gerunds have [ + verbal ] and [ + nominal ] features. In that, gerundsdiffer from participles. Consider the following table, where ING structures areordered according to their main features. Notice that part of the table is leftincomplete.

[+ verb] [+ verb, + noun] [+noun]

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Participles Gerunds ?

Below we offer a few reasons why participles are seen as [+ verb]:

1. Participles look more likeclauses and more often than not are translated by meansof a clause:

(29) I saw him smiling and was surprised.(L-am vzutc zmbete i am fost surprins.)

Unlike participles, gerunds look more likenoun phrases and are oftentranslatable by means of a noun phrase:

(30) His slapping Susan terrified the audience.

( Faptul c a plmuit-o pe Susan a ngrozit publicul.)2. An important characteristic of gerunds is thatthey do not normally extrapose (if

you remember,extraposition is one of the main syntactic features thatcharacterizesthat clauses, which are seen as [+ verb] structures):

(31) a. It was illegalto grow a beard.(Nu era legal s-i lai barb.)b. *It was illegal growing a beard .

In (31) extraposition is possible with infinitives butnot with gerunds. (31 b) is

ungrammatical because we get a double subject construction. This behaviour of gerunds concerning extraposition resembles that of relative clauses which arethemselves very similar in behaviour to noun phrases. Consider (32), which provesthat extraposed relative clauses give birth to ungrammatical structures because of thedouble-subject restriction:

(32) *It was illegal what she said.

A conclusion to this discussion is represented under the table below. A similarity isthus drawn betweenthat clauses and participles, as being verbal in nature, and between relative clauses and gerunds as being more nominal in nature:

That clauses Relative clauses

Participles Gerunds

There are very few exceptions to theextrapositon restriction under which gerundsare. The examples we can offer are analysed asidiomatic phrases:

(33) a. Its no use crying over spilt milk. (proverb)(Mortul de la groap nu se mai ntoarce.)

b. Its no good talking to her.

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(N-are sens s vorbeti cu ea.)

3. Just like in the case of noun phrases, gerunds can be combined with Prepositions :

(34) a. She was surprisedat his knowing the business so well.(Era uimit de ct de bine tia el dedesubturile afacerii.)b. He lookedat their wrestling on the muddy floor.(S-a uitat cum se lupta pe podeaua nnoroiat.)

8.2.3. Participles vs. GerundsAfter discussing the characteristics of gerunds, it would be very useful for us to have alook atdifferences between participles and gerunds , as offered in the table below:

PARTICIPLES[+ verb]

GERUNDS[+ verb, + noun]

1. Participles can be part of tense forms:continuous , perfect, passive onesShe was crying.2. Participles may be preceded byconjunctions :While sleeping , babies suck their thumb.

Gerunds may be preceded by prepositions :

She waited for his coming home.

3. Participles may function asadverbials :Coming here , he built himself a house.(adverbial of time)

Gerunds do not function asadverbials withfew exceptions:She angered himby stealing his project.

4. Participles do not function asobjectsunless they appear in dependentconstructions:I saw her crying. (Accusative +Participle)

Gerunds function as direct and prepositional objects :She startedcrying. (direct object clause)She was interestedin him marrying her.

(prepositional object clause)5. Participles may function asattributesand are paraphrasable bywho/that/whichisVerb + ing:the walking man = the man who iswalkingthe flying fish = the fish which is flying

Gerunds may function asattributes but are paraphrasable by means of the preposition for:thewalking stick = stick used for walking

the flying saucer = saucer used for flying8.3. The Verbal Noun

The verbal noun is here placed in opposition with the gerund. The verbal noun is anING form butis not part of non-finite forms : it is part of the nominal system, as it is anoun phrase which justhappens to look like a gerund or participle.

But how can we tell when an ING form is a verbal noun?

Compare:(35) The shooting of the attacker was an ugly episode.(Uciderea celui care i atacase era un episod urt.)

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Participles Gerunds Verbal nouns

(After) shooting thesheriff, Jim leftquietly.

They saw himshooting the sheriff.This shooting star isvery large.

Jims suddenly shootingthe sheriff alerted thewhole town.

Are you still interestedin shooting the sheriff?What is your opinionabout the new shootinggallery?

Jims/the suddenshooting of the sheriff alerted the whole

town.

8.4. ING Forms and Infinitives.

The aim of this subsection is mainly to help you better understand why those verbs or adjectives that can be combined both with gerunds and with infinitives have adifferent meaning in each case.It has been noticed that, whenever a verb can appear both with an infinitive and with agerund, the meaning is different. However, we can trace a common feature for allthese special verbs. All of them change their meaning according to the grammaticalinformation offered by the construction they are followed by.

For instance, whenever we meet an ing form, we expect it to have something to dowith an event that has already happened (and then we are dealing with a gerund) or ishappening (and we are looking at a participle). With the infinitive, we expect it torefer to something that might happen or that is going to take place.

Look, for example, at the following:

(38) He saw Susan crossing the street.(A vzut-o pe Susan traversnd strada.)

as opposed to(39) He saw Susan cross the street.

(A vzut cum Susan a traversat strada.)

The difference in meaning is well expressed by the Romanian translation and ismotivated by what each form means:

-the ing form ( a participle) expresses something still happening ( so the guyin the example is watching Susan as she advances across the street)

- the infinitival form (a bare infinitive) by opposition with the participle suggests that we are watching the whole event of the crossing of the street (sothe guy in the example has watched the entire crossing)

Another example, and the most well-known one, is that of the verb stop :

Compare:(40) She stopped to eat a sandwich.

(S-a oprit s mannce un sandwich.)

to(41) She stopped eating a sandwich.

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(S-a oprit din mncat.)

The first example, containing an infinitive, suggests the fact that the eating of thesandwich is going to take place (the potential, future-oriented value of the infinitive).The second example containing a gerund suggests the fact that the eating of thesandwich had already commenced and was then interrupted (the gerund expresses anevent happening in the past, prior to the one expressed by the main clause verb.)

After looking at this example, we can notice that in most cases the gerund expressessomething that has already happened, anterior to the verb in the main clause. On theother hand, the infinitive expresses something that is yet to happen, posterior to theverb in the main clause: while the gerund is past-oriented , the infinitive is future-oriented .

This is exactly why the Perfect form of the gerund (e.g.having left ) is infrequentlyused in English. Compare

(42) She remembered having posted the letter earlier in the morning.(43) She remembered posting the letter earlier in the morning.

(i-a amintit c a pus scrisoarea la pot n cursul dimineii.)

As you can see, both sentences are translated the same in Romanian, which meansthat they are similar in meaning. The fact that both (42) and (43) have the samemeaning indicates that the gerund no longer needs to specify anteriority by means of a perfect form (i.e.having posted ) since it already expresses the idea of anteriority in itssimple form. This is why the perfect gerund is nowadays an indication of educatedspeech (and will be mostly found in literary language).Let us now follow this line of thought which traces an opposition between thesemantics of the gerund and that of the infinitive. We will examine other verbs likethe ones we have already mentioned under (40) and (41), i.e.verbs that can be

followed both a gerund and an infinitive (but with a significant change in meaning):

a) Remember, recollect, forget

(44) She remembers filling the tank with petrol.(i-aduce aminte c a umplut rezervorul cu benzin.)

versus

(45) Remember to fill the tank with petrol.(Adu-i aminte s umpli rezervorul cu benzin.)

The example with the gerund suggests that the filling of the tank has alreadyhappened; the example with the infinitive suggests that the filling of the tank is goingto happen.

b) Regret

(46) I regret filling the tank with petrol.(mi pare ru c am umplut rezervorul cu benzin.)

versus(47) I regret to fill the tank with petrol, but thats it.

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(mi pare ru c o s umplu rezervorul cu benzin, dar asta este.)

The example with the gerund suggests that the filling of the tank has alreadyhappened; the example with the infinitive suggests that the filling of the tank is goingto happen.

c) Try

(48) I tried filling the tank with petrol and then I did some car washing.(nti am ncercat s m ocup cu umplerea rezervorului cu benzin, apoi m-am

ocupat de splarea mainilor.)versus(49) I tried to fill the tank with petrol but found it no easy job.

(Am ncercat s umplu rezervorul cu benzin, ns nu mi s-a prut treabuoar.)

The first example implies the fact that the guy there has already filled the tank with petrol several times. In the second example, the petrol tank is not filled yet, the actionis not completed.

d) Mean(50) I mean to tell her the truth.

(Am de gnd s-i spun adevrul.)versus(51) This means revealing her all my secrets.

(Asta nseamn s-i dezvlui toate secretele mele.)

In the first example, the event has not happened yet, it is bound to happen as a resultof the subjects intentions. In the second example,mean has the sense signify.

e) need, wantWith [+ human] objects, these verbs are used in combination with the infinitive:

(52) He wants / needs to learn English.(Vrea / trebuie s nvee englez.)

With [- human] objects, they can be combined with the gerund and acquire the same

interpretation as when they are followed by a passive infinitive:(51) a. The house needs repairing.

(Casa trebuie reparat.)b. The house needs to be repaired.

(Casa trebuie reparat.)

f) go on

(53) He goes on reading from that cheap novel.(Continu s citeasc din romanul acela ieftin.)

versus

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(54) After he talked about his plans he went on to talk about his daughterswedding.

(Dup ce a vorbit despre planurile lui, s-a apucat s vorbeasc despre nuntafiicei sale.)

In the first case we understand that the event of reading has already begun, whereas inthe second case, the event of becoming a lawyer is yet to happen.

8.5. Key Concepts

In this subsection we have dealt with ING forms. We made an important distinction between ING complements (which appear either as Present Participles or as Gerunds)and Verbal Nouns. The main difference between Present Participles and Gerunds liesin their special features. Participles mainly function as adverbials, whereas gerundsfunction mainly as subjects/objects. The common function these two structures shareis that of attribute but the similarity is deceptive, since paraphrase can correctlyidentify which is which.

Another special feature is which elements these two structures can be preceded by: a preposition for gerunds and aconjunction for participles.

There are also important differences between gerunds and verbal nouns, although onecan mistake them due to the fact that both forms can combine with a possessivenominal. The main test of disambiguation is that of combining the two forms witheither an adverb (for the gerund) or an adjective (for the verbal noun).

Last but not least, dont forget that certain verbs can take both ING forms andinfinitives after them but the meaning changes according to the main shade of meaning each of the aforementioned constructions exhibits.

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8 - ing complements

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