engleski

The -ing Forms in English Word Formation

English grammars traditionally analyse the -ing forms of verbs as either gerunds or present participles. As gerunds, they have a nominal function, while as participles their function is either verbal or adjectival. These distinctions are also reflected in the morphological processes in English. The paper reviews the different definitions of -ing forms in a number of major English grammars and English word-formation manuals. Specifically, it focuses on the collocations of an -ing form and a noun and explores how the first element is defined in word-formation. Whereas some authors consider the -ing form in such collocations to be an adjective, others define it as a (verbal) noun and treat the entire collocation as a compound. The paper reviews the criteria used to establish the different definitions of -ing forms and tries to show that the relationship between the - ing form and the verb are more complex than the simple classification which recognizes only the verbal or the gerundial interpretation of such forms.

word formation; -ing form; premodification; English

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