- •Class nouns
- •Names of persons
- •Geographical names
- •Miscellaneous proper names
- •Set expressions
- •Some syntactic relations
- •Parts of the day
- •Names of seasons and names of meals
- •"School, college, bed, prison, jail; sea; town, wind, weather, life"
- •Names of diseases and names of languages
- •Certain adjectives, pronouns and numerals
- •The oblique moods subjunctive I
- •Subjunctive II
- •The conditional mood
- •In complex sentences. Real conditions.
- •The suppositional mood
- •The verbals the triple nature of the participle, its tense and voice
- •The functions of p1 & p2
- •The objective participial construction
- •The subjective participial construction
- •The nominative absolute participial construction, the prepositional absolute participial construction
- •The absolute constructions without a participle
- •Double nature of the gerund, its tense and voice
- •Predicative constructions with the gerund
- •The use of the gerund
- •The functions of the gerund
- •The gerund & the participle. The gerund & the infinitive. The gerund & the verbal noun
- •The double nature of the infinitive, its tense, aspect and voice
- •The functions of the infinitive
- •The objective-with-the-infinitive construction
- •The subjective infinitive construction.
- •Syntax the word order
- •Position of the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifiers
- •The subject
- •"It" as the subject of the sentence
- •The predicate
- •The compound verbal predicate. Mixed types
- •Agreement of the predicate with the subject
- •The object
- •The complex object. The cognate object
- •The attribute
- •The adverbial modifier
- •Detached parts of the sentence. The independent elements
- •The simple sentence
- •The compound sentence
- •The complex sentence
- •Attributive and adverbial clauses
- •The rules of the sequence of tenses
- •Indirect speech (statements, questions)
- •Indirect orders and requests, offers, suggestions and advice, indirect exclamations
Predicative constructions with the gerund
PC is a construction in which the verbal element expressed by the G is in predicate relation to the nominal element expressed by a noun or a pronoun (I wouldn't like her going to that party). The G "going" is in predicate relation to the pronoun "her", which denotes the doer of the action. The nominal element of the construction, when it denotes a living being, can be expressed by: 1) a noun in the genitive case or a possessive pronoun (I'm expecting sister's coming back); 2) a noun in the common case (I remember Alex telling me the story). When the nominal element consists of two or more nouns or when it's a noun modified by an attribute used in post-position it can be expressed only by a noun in the common case (I've seen her brother and sister going somewhere; I've never seen a man of sense acting this way). If the nominal element denotes a lifeless thing it's expressed by a noun in the common case or by a possessive pronoun (I noticed the car slowing down). The nominal element of the PC can be expressed by a pronoun which has no case distinctions: "all, this, that, both, each, something" (I heard all of them coming in). A gerundial construction is mostly rendered to Russian by a subordinate clause introduced by "то, что; тем, кто; как; etc.".
The use of the gerund
The G is used without a preposition with the verbs and verbal phrases "to avoid, to burst out, to deny, to enjoy, to excuse, to fancy (as an exclamation of surprise), to finish, to forgive, to give up, to go on, to keep (on), to leave off, to mind (in negative and interrogative sentences), to postpone, to put off, can't help, and some others".
The G is used with a preposition with the verbs and verbal phrases "to accuse of, to agree to, to approve of, to complain of, to depend on, to feel like, to insist on, to look like, to object to, to persist in, to prevent from, to rely on, to speak of, to succeed in, to suspect of, to thank for, to give up the idea of, to look forward to, not to like the idea of, to miss an opportunity of, and some others".
The G is used with or without a preposition with the predicate word groups "to be aware of, to be busy in, to be capable of, to be fond of, to guilty of, to be indignant of, to be (dis)pleased at, to be proud of, to be sure of, to be surprised (astonished) at, to be worth, and some others".
The functions of the gerund
Subject (Looking at her is a real delight). The G may follow the predicate when the sentence begins with the introductory "It" or the construction "There is" (It's no use talking to them).
Predicative (The only remedy is going to bed).
Part of a compound verbal predicate. It can be CV modal predicate (I intend asking this question) or CV aspect predicate (beginning, duration or end of the action) (He began laughing with joy).
Object. It can be a direct object (I like talking to her) or a prepositional indirect object (He's good at persuading people). When the gerundial construction consists of its own nominal and verbal elements it has the function of Complex object (I don't mind his coming here).
Attribute. The G is always preceded by a preposition (He has a gift of enchanting people).
Adverbial modifier. It can be an AM of time (always preceded by the prepositions "after, before, on (upon), in, at") (On coming home, I usually have dinner), AM of manner (preceded by "by, in") (He made her believe by pointing at the facts), AM of attendant circumstances ("without") (He left without saying goodbye), AM of purpose ("for") (The field is used for playing football), AM of condition ("without") (He won't come without being invited), AM of cause ("for, for fear, owing to") (She is full of knowledge for having spent much time reading), AM of concession ("in spite of") (In spite of being busy he found time to spend with her).
Predicate. Used in interrogative sentences introduced by "What about, how about" and in exclamatory sentences (How about spending this summer in St.Petersburg?; But letting him go!).