= 161. 2*362 (075. 8) К211 ббк [81. 2-2 Англ + 81. 2-2 Укр] я 73

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4. The English gerund
The gerund is a verbid characterized by the following features:

1. 
   Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of "an action partially viewed as a substance".
   
2. 
   The typical group morpheme -ing.
   
3. 
   The grammatical category of voice (see paradigm below).
   

The Paradigm of the Gerund

Voice
Active	Passive
writing	being written
having written	having been written

The gerund has the category of tense (the present and the perfect forms), which is expressed relatively: the present form of the gerund shows the simultaneous character of the action with the predicate action, whereas the perfect form expresses the action prior to the action, expressed by predicate. The priority of the action can be also expressed by the gerund present form in combination with prepositions on (upon) or after.
The category of aspect of gerund forms is connected with the category of tense and is subordinated to it. Whereas the category of state is expressed very distinctly: both tense forms of gerund have passive forms: reading — being read, having read — having been read.
4. The combinability resembling that of the verb (the gerund is associated with adverbs, with nouns or pronouns, denoting the object
of the action) and that of the noun (the gerund is associated with prepositions, with possessive pronouns, nouns in the possessive case), e.g.: The district is justified in blindly ignoring the federal land.
The characteristic feature of the gerund is its usage in collocation with the noun (in possessive case) or with the possessive pronoun, which denote the subject of the action expressed by the gerund, e.g.: The student's (his) knowing English will help him. - Те, що студент (вт) знае англтсъку, допоможе йому. Very often the role of the gerund subject is fulfilled by the noun in the common case or by the demonstrative or indefinite pronoun altogether indeclinable, e.g.: We insisted on the contract being signed. Ми наполягали на тому, щобугода була тдписана.
The gerund, like the infinitive, combines verbal and noun features, yet the gerund is more of a noun than the infinitive, which is to some extent explained by the fact that the gerund became part of the verb system much later than the infinitive.
The combinability of the gerund differs considerably from that of the infinitive. Thus, the gerund may be preceded by a preposition, as in She thought of going there. We insisted on staying here. The wisdom of living is greater than the wisdom of the book.
In contrast to the infinitive, the gerund is often accompanied by a noun in the possessive case or a possessive pronoun. Sometimes the action denoted by the gerund is not associated with any doer, any producer of the action, as in Living is striving.
Very often the doer is not clear, as in / like singing (it is not clear whether / myself like to sing or / like other people's singing). This is much rarer with the infinitive, which mostly denotes an action whose subject is represented by some word in a sentence. Compare: / like singing and / like to sing (in the latter sentence the doer of the action denoted by to sing is represented by T).
In addition, the infinitive possesses a peculiar modal force not observed in the gerund, as in article to be translated (= which must be translated) [5; 103-104].
5. Typical syntactic functions of the gerund are those of subject, complement, attribute, etc., e.g.: His returning so soon surprised his family. I remember meeting him in London.

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The gerund, which is a peculiarity of the English language, is very extensively used as the center of complexes (nexuses) synonymous with subordinate clauses. Compare: / know of his having gone to Kyiv. I know that he has gone to Kyiv.
Together with its subject and other dependent on it words the gerund can form different peculiar syntactic constructions, the so called gerundial constructions. In their connections with other parts of the sentence these constructions are treated as one whole, whereas the relations between the words inside of such a construction remind of the relations between sentence parts (we mean here the predicate relations, the circumstantial relations and others), e.g.: His having gone to Kyiv was strange. Compare this example with its transformed versions, where the predicate relations become obvious: It was strange that he had gone to Kyiv and The fact that he had gone to Kyiv was strange.
Being used in the sentence as a separate word, the gerund fulfills syntactic functions more characteristic of a noun than of the verb: functions of the subject, the object, the prepositional circumstances and attributes, e.g.: Seeing is believing.
In Ukrainian usually the infinitive can be the name of the action, that is why it is often seen as the correspondence of the English gerund, e.g.: / like reading. Я люблю читати. More seldom Ukrainian nouns or dijepryslivnyky are the equivalents of the English gerund.
In cases, when the gerund is used in the construction, having the predicate relations, the only equivalent in Ukrainian can be the subordinate sentence with the verb predicate: There is no hope of our seeing him this year. Немае надп, що ми побачимосъ з ним. у цъому рощ [5; 104].
The corresponding verb form is absent in majority of Indo-European languages, including Ukrainian. Somehow close in its meaning to the English gerund is the Ukrainian verbal noun (вщщесл!вний 1менник), but there is a big difference between them. The verbal noun in both languages expresses the objectness (предметтсть), whereas the gerund expresses the processuality. The verbal noun, being created, has the stable character, whereas the
English gerund, being the verb form, is created only for a particular case. For example, if we had the gerund in Ukrainian, then it would be possible to create from the verb the forms of the type *ствання (compare with the verbal noun cnie, cnieu).
In the English language though there is a clear distinction between the gerund and the verbal noun. It is revealed by a number of formal differences between these two notions: verbal nouns are used with articles, demonstrative pronouns and indefinite pronouns; it is not the case with the gerund. The gerund can take the non-prepositional object and be modified by circumstances as every verb form, whereas the verbal noun does not possess such characteristics.