Talk:gerund-participle
The categorial status of gerund-participials[change]
The categorial status of gerund-participials is highly controversial. For those grammarians working in the HPSG framework, the gerund-participials bracketed in ① and ② are NPs:
① I didn't appreciate [their lying to us].
② [Their failing to visit the senator] could be a problem.
This analysis seems to be implausible, in that some gerund-participials do not have the same distribution as NPs (when there is no change of the meaning of the relevant verb), as exemplified below:
③ My wife keeps [saying that I work too hard].
④ Nothing would prevent him from [speaking out against injustice].
⑤ He was [writing a letter].
Notice that the bracketed strings in ③ and ⑤ are not in Object function, though in ④ the gerund-participial is best regarded as an Object.