The Classification of Words

§ 307. Here is a table presenting the paradigms of the verbids
The Paradigm of the Infinitive

Order and aspect	Voice
	Active	Passive
non-perfect, non-continuous	to write	to be written
non-perfect, continuous	to be writing	to be being written '
perfect, non-continuous	to have written	1 to have been writ­ten
perfect, continuous	to have been writ­ing	to have been being written '

¹ Rarely used. See John Millington-Ward. Peculiarities in English. London, 1957, p. 250.
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The Paradigm of the Gerund

Order	Voice
	Active	Passive
non-perfect	writing	being written
perfect	having written	having been written

The Paradigm of the Participle

\ Participle I			Participle II
Order	Voice
	Active	Passive
non-perfect	writing	being written	written
perfect	having written	having been written

§ 308. The combinability of the verbids is of mixed nature. Partly, as we have seen, it resembles that of a finite verb. But some models of combinability are akin to those of other parts of speech.
The gerund may be preceded by a preposition and a pos­sessive pronoun, like a noun.
E. g. One could see that without his even speaking. (Abrahams).
The participle is regularly connected with nouns, like an adjective, and with verbs, like an adverb. See the examples in § 319.
§ 309. The functions of the verbids in the sentence are different from those of the finite verb. The latter regularly
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functions as the predicate of the sentence. The verbids are, as a rule, not used in this function. But they are used in most other functions.
To g о to Fleur was. what he would like to do. (Galsworthy). (To go is a subject.)
He promised not to tell her about the offer. (Wilsen). (To tell is used as an objective complement.)
In -the sentence They looked up at the sky to s e e if it was flying weather (Maugham) the infinitive is an adverb­ial complement of purpose and the gerund is an attribute. In She is a s p-o i I e d child not t о be trusted (Gals­worthy) both the participle spoiled and the infinitive to be trusted are attributes.
§ 310. One of the peculiarities of the verbids is their being used as secondary predicates. In the sentence / saw them dancing two actions are named as well as the doers ol those actions. But there is a great difference between / saw and them dancing. I saw is more or less independent. It makes a predication (see § 381), the backbone of a sentence, or the sentence itself. Them dancing can exist only in a sentence where there is a predication. The tense and mood relations of the finite verb are then reflected in the verbid and it be­comes a secondary predicate, and combinations like them dancing become secondary predications, (see §§ 394, 395) often called complexes or nexuses (see § 324).
The Infinitive
§ 311. The infinitive is a verbid characterized by the following features:

1. 
   Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of an action,
   process partially viewed as a substance.
   
2. 
   The categories of voice, aspect and order (see paradigm
   on p. 185).
   
3. 
   Its peculiar combinability resembling that of the verb,
   and partly that of the noun.
   

Like a finite verb the infinitive is associated:

1. 
   with adverbs, e. g. to speak fluently;
   

1. 
   with nouns and pronouns denoting the doer or the object
   of the action.
   

E. g. We expected у о и to bring the book.
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Like a noun the infinitive may be associated with a finite verb: To land seemed impossible. I promised to come.

4. 
   The word-morpheme to.
   
5. 
   The syntactical functions of subject, predicative,
   object, attribute, adverbial modifier, etc.
   
6. 
   Its participation in analytical forms like shall bring,
   will bring, should bring, would bring, etc.
   

The infinitive representing an action in its most general form is often treated as the initial form of the verb, 'the verbal nominative', in the terminology of A. A. Shakhmatov *.