Lecture 9 –ing and –ed participle
Note that non-finite construction traditionally refers to infinitive, participle (present & past), and gerund. In our course book, the present participle and gerund are both treated as “– ing participle”. Now let’s review the passive and perfective form of –ing participle.
Non-finite verb as object
• Observe the following pairs of sentences with –ing participles, what differences can you find among them?
• He denied giving any help to the police.
• The theft admitted stealing the picture.
The logical subject is identical with the main clausesubject (V+ -ing participle)
• Do you mind my smoking here?
The passive and perfective form of –ing participle
perdoing
having done
Passive form being done having been done
The passive and perfective form of –ing participle
• Non-finite verb as object . • Non-finite verb as subject. • Non-finite verb as complement. • Non-finite verb as adverbial
Non-finite verb as object
• There are verbs that can be followed by an –ing form rather than an infinitive as object.
• These verbs include: admit, acknowledge, anticipate, advocate, appreciate, avoid, can’t help / resist / stand, mind, consider, avoid, defer, contemplate, delay, deny, ensure, enjoy, escape, excuse, evade, facilitate, fancy, favor, finish, give up, imagine, include, pardon, postpone, practise, resent, risk, suggest, stop, etc.
• Do you mind John’s smoking here?
-ing participle has logical subject of its own (genitive noun+ -ing participle)
• Do you mind me smoking here? • Do you mind John smoking here? In colloquial speech
The syntactic function of nonfinite verbs
• Recall that we have mentioned that non-finite form can function as any sentence elements other than predicate verb. Now let’s have more discussions on this.
Non-finite verb as object
• V + object +preposition + -ing participle
• Such verbs as follows can enter this pattern: trick, mislead, shame, surprise, trap, stop, prevent, restrain,
• Compare: • I hate interrupting others. • I hate being interrupted. • He denied having been there. • He never denied having been told about this. • Seeing the scene, she could not help missing
her mother. • Having taken some medicine, she gradually
recovered. • Having been told the truth, she is feeling better
now.
• In what follows, we will concern ourselves with the syntactic functions of the non-finite predicates, with a special focus on –ing and –ed participle. We will also make a contrastive study between – ing participle and corresponding use of the infinitive.