Before interview read through your CV first. Doing this will help you answer personal questions.
What is the grammatical name and function for doing this in the sentence above?
Asked
Active
Viewed 1.1k times
0
Araucaria - Him
- 47,146
1 Answers
0
It is an example of a gerund, a verb form that functions as a noun.
“Doing” is the gerund.
The phrase “doing this” functions as the noun (and subject of the sentence).
-
-
1Correct. I was oversimplifying. Indeed, a gerund is a formulation of a verb the acts as a noun grammatically. – CrabbyCheese Oct 05 '17 at 08:12
-
-
@Araucaria According to Quirk et al, the term 'gerund' is not well-defined enough to be used. But they propose a gradience of ing-forms on a noun ... verb continuum, with this usage rather nearer the verb end than say fishing in fishing is fun. Some believe that the ACGEL analysis is better than the CGEL one (a lumping into gerund-participial) here. And Bob's slowly painting the fence was beginning to annoy her makes a mess of all logical diagnostics. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 05 '17 at 09:54
-
@EdwinAshworth I'm not sure that Bob's slowly painting the fence was beginning to annoy her is so problematic, after all it doesn't have a determinative, uses an adverb and has a direct object, but I agree that there are* problematic instances such as there's no doubting her sincerity, for example. Bas would opt for a gradience between nounier and less nouny verbs with a noun at the very end. – Araucaria - Him Oct 05 '17 at 10:20
-
So why do you (your answer) not indicate this alternative? I'm pretty sure Aarts doesn't lump to the extent that H&P do, and I know he's given a fine overview of the gradience vs dualism ('both a noun and a verb in this usage') vs broad brush ('if our [of course] preferred tests show it's 51% verby, it's a verb here') debate. It's unscholarly to give just one plausible interpretation when there are others without even mentioning the debate. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 05 '17 at 10:36
-
@EdwinAshworth Because doing this in OP's example is clearly verby in every respect. And when one these things is a noun, it isn't a gerund(-participle). Gerund isn't a noun edge of the gradient label, it's a verb label for a verb doing a job that we often expect NP's to do - in other words it is defined by the clause's external grammatical relations. That's why both Q and H&P dislike the term. Here doing this is clearly a clause and headed by a verb. – Araucaria - Him Oct 05 '17 at 10:39
-
'... doing this in OP's example is clearly verby in every respect.' and [but here it is] 'doing a job that we often expect NP's to do' are incompatible to my mind. Questions have been begged. Also, doing this in OP's example would be classed somewhere towards the middle of the Quirk continuum (though probably on the verby side), showing that 'is clearly verby in every respect.' doesn't ring true. You've chosen an analysis. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 05 '17 at 10:46
-
@EdwinAshworth It is the internal syntax of the clause/phrase that defines what something is. Confusing the phrasal category/part of speech with its grammatical relations is a rooky mistake. Here's the test for you * the doing this will help you, * slow doing this will help you * doing of this will help you, diagnostic no 4 - it's got a direct object. – Araucaria - Him Oct 05 '17 at 10:57
-
Oh, thank you. Who says that 'His doing this will help you' shouldn't be the test? And when was 'semantics has no part in determining POS' declared absolute? Pontification is the enemy of progress. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 05 '17 at 11:05
-
@EdwinAshworth Grammatical relations aren't semantics. His doing this will help you doesn't tell you anything, because it's perfectly normal in many languages for non-finite subjects to be possessives/genitively inflected. The fact that possessives can also occur within noun phrases doesn't indicate anything one way or the other. Determinatives are another matter, of course. – Araucaria - Him Oct 05 '17 at 11:27
A gerund is a verbal inflection used for a particular kind of non-finite verbal phrase; it acts mostly like a to-infinitive phrase does in this regard.
Like a to-infinitive, the entire gerund phrase serves as a noun phrase and so can serve as the subject of a clause or the object of a preposition, but the gerund itself is a verb form that does verb things.
Running bulls is harder work than herding cats. >>
– Edwin Ashworth Oct 05 '17 at 09:41