In a comment on this answer to a similar question, the user Kris identifies the concept of "a member of a class to which gerunds belong but itself [is] not a gerund." Is there a word for such a thing? For example, the inverse of "the taunting boy" is "the taunted girl". I believe the first phrase is a gerund. What kind of thing is the second phrase?
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3It's a participle. – Anonym Apr 05 '15 at 22:06
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3A past participial adjective. I wouldn't call the present participial adjective (the taunting boy) a gerund, either. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 05 '15 at 23:15
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The title of the linked question is past participle used as a noun the OP which contains Kris's comment talks about past participle, the higher rated answers talk about the past participle . . . damned, beloved and all the others are adjectives which derive from verbs, hence the -ed suffix, characteristic of the past participle. – Mari-Lou A Apr 06 '15 at 04:05
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Let's try to construct a past tense verb used as a gerund. A gerund is a verb in nominal position, and it cannot be tensed (i.e., it must be non-finite). A past tense verb which is made non-finite comes to be perfect, as for instance when we convert "It seems that he ate fish last night" into infinitive form: "He seems to have eaten fish last night". So, for our construction, we can expect to have a perfect aspect form.
A nominal position is one that requires a noun phrase, which is a phrase type which can occur as subject, object, and elsewhere, so let's try to put a clause with a past verb into subject position. Starting with a that-clause construction, "That he ate fish surprises us" and converting to a non-finite gerund construction, we get "His having eaten fish surprises us", which is perfectly grammatical.
So, it is possible to have a past tense verb used as a gerund, provided you allow for the conversion of past tense to perfect aspect, which is found elsewhere when a past tense is put into a grammatical construction that does not allow a tensed verb.
Your examples have verbs in adjectival positions, modifying nouns, but for a gerund, you want to find a verb in nominal position. A verb in adjectival position is a participle, not a gerund.
Greg Lee
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