For the linguists among us: I like loud singing vs I like singing loudly

Question

Can you explain why using "loud" as either an adjective or an adverb changes the meaning of the sentence. Is it just an English convention, or is there something deeper going on?

I like loud singing = I like turning the volume up on my stereo

I like singing loudly = I break wine glasses when I sing in the shower

Because the gerund case is just another verb with the same subject as the main one, but the adjective is not a verb so there is no subject expressed. — tchrist, Jan 01 '19 at 00:02
Related: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/479169 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/66 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/346877 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/388099 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/428552 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/435916 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/428044 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/154886 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/366906 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/13860 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/148670 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/358212 — tchrist, Jan 01 '19 at 01:16
Isn’t this a duplicate of Does a verbal noun turn back into a verb when modiﬁed by an adverb?? — tchrist, Jan 01 '19 at 01:48
@tchrist I don't think so. My question is semantic. I want to know if there is a grammatical/ linguistic reason why the meaning of the sentence changes so drastically. I only looked at three of them though. I'll look at more to make sure. — Joseph O., Jan 01 '19 at 02:03
'I like loudly singing' would still mean me doing the singing. The word order actually has more effect than the adjective/adverb difference. — Nigel J, Jan 01 '19 at 21:28

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

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Oh, I think I figured it out. :-)

I like singing loudly

Singing is a verb, and as we know, an adverb (loudly) modifies a verb.

I like loud singing

Singing is a gerund (verb functioning as a noun), modified by the adjective, loud.

And there's the kernel of your answer:

I like walking.

I like dancing.

Etc., these are things that I like doing. Here's another example of the same phenomenon. Compare:

I like guitar playing.

I like playing guitar.

...playing as a verb vs. playing as a gerund.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

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answered Jan 01 '19 at 00:03

Johnny

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Gerunds are verbs so they can take complements and adverbs as in playing guitar loudly. But when you have a deverbal noun, it can no longer take those things; instead as a mere noun it now takes articles, adjectives, and attributive nouns the way you have with good guitar playing, where playing is a deverbal noun (not a gerund!) modiﬁed by the noun guitar used attributively. – tchrist Jan 01 '19 at 00:07
@tchrist I want to understand you but you are a pretty technical in your explanations. Are you saying that singing or playing are not both gerunds in the two situations described, but one is called a gerund and one is called a deverbal noun (which I am unfamiliar with). Am I right? – Joseph O. Jan 01 '19 at 00:18
@Johnny Thanks for your answer. I thought both situations involved gerunds so I'm going to wait on tchrist to shed some light on this. Said another way, how can modifiers change the grammar of the word they are modifying? – Joseph O. Jan 01 '19 at 00:22
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@JosephO. Yes, I am. In modern analysis, we distinguish words whose form is that of the -ing inflection of a verb according to their function. If they accept complements and adverbs, then they’re still verbs no matter whether the entire phrase is used as a nominative phrase or as a modifier phrase. When they lose their verbness, they become deverbal nouns or deverbal adjectives. When you have a lone word without any words around it, it can be ambiguous whether it’s still a verb in all its glory or whether has been unverbed into a mere noun or adjective. There may be some adverbs, too, IIRC. – tchrist Jan 01 '19 at 01:26
@tchrist So if I start with "I like singing", you are saying 1) this is ambiguous because "singing" could either be a gerund or deverbal. 2) It becomes one or the other depending on whether I modify it with an adjective in which case it now moves nominal and becomes a deverbal OR if I modify it with an adverb, it moves toward verbness and becomes a gerund. Am I on the right track? – Joseph O. Jan 02 '19 at 15:17
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@JosephO. That’s about right. John Lawler has postings about this somewhere here. – tchrist Jan 02 '19 at 15:30

For the linguists among us: I like loud singing vs I like singing loudly

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