English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
C5.1 Distinguishing the word class of -ing forms
C5 Distinguishing -Ing and -Ed forms
Section C Exploration
We saw in A4 that two important groups of adjectives end in -ed and -ing. But these are also the participle forms of verbs, and the -ed ending can form the past tense of verbs as well, while the -ing ending can also be a marker of action nouns. How then do we distinguish them?
C5.1 Distinguishing the word class of -ing forms
-ing forms can belong to three word classes:
nouns: I don’t like that painting.
verbs (as -ing participle): You’re hurting me.
adjective: That’s an interesting conclusion.
Usually we can apply the normal criteria to decide a word’s class. Thus painting above is preceded by a determiner, that; hurting is preceded by an auxiliary and followed by an object; and interesting is used attributively and could be preceded by very.
However, there are situations where the distinction is not entirely clear:
1) noun vs verb, as in this example:
This house needs heating.
Are we talking about a heating system which needs to be installed (in which case it is a noun), or about the need to turn on the heating and warm the house (a verb)? If we add up (. . . needs heating up) then it is a verb; if we add new (. . . new heating) then it is a noun.
2) noun vs adjective, as in these two phrases:
living standards vs living creatures
These have the same structure consisting of premodifier plus noun, but there is a difference. In the first living is a noun; in the second an adjective (see A3). The first can be turned into postmodification with a preposition: standards of living, whereas the adjective can be derived from a verb form: creatures which are living. The converse forms do not make sense (’standards which are living’ / ’creatures of living’).
3) verb vs adjective. -ing adjectives can be used predicatively (after be etc.) and so they may look like a progressive form:
The story is amusing. (be + -ing adjective)
The story is developing. (-ing participle, part of present progressive)
Usually -ing adjectives are related to transitive verbs (see A6 and C6) and so the corresponding verb form would need an object:
The story is amusing me.
and so no ambiguity would be possible. However, there are some -ing adjectives which are not related in meaning to a transitive verb, and so we can find ambiguous sentences, for example:
The students are appealing.
This could mean that the students are making an appeal (participle) or that they have the quality of affecting people positively (adjective).
Activity C5.1
Another well-known example of ambiguity is Flying planes can be dangerous.
What are the two meanings here?
Activity C5.2
Look at the following sets of concordance lines and decide whether the -ing form represents a verb or adjective (in the case of promising), or verb, adjective or noun (in the case of entertaining).
A. Promising
1. Fashion designers are promising a return to the austere clothing of the 1950s.
2. The company is also promising data compression.
3. If the site is promising enough, compared with all others . . .
4. The Centre has had a very promising first year . . .
5. ... the bill may be promising more than it can deliver.
6. ... several times promising movements failed for want of a penetrative final pass . . .
7. ... its credentials look promising on paper.
8. He’s taken them away, promising to get back to me in a couple of days.
B. Entertaining
1. We try to create an entertaining and constructive atmosphere.
2. They preferred entertaining at home.
3. Any match of nine tries . . . is bound to be entertaining.
4. Franker discussion about the nature and value of conventional entertaining could improve matters even more.
5. there are two function rooms overlooking Princes Street for entertaining customers.
6. Entertaining, in this context, seems an unnecessary luxury.
7. A public relations company is entertaining its clients.
8. Not really successful but entertaining on the whole.
9. Flag officers have considerable entertaining responsibilities.
10. There was, however, a more significant side to Surrealism, as this entertaining show documents.
11 it is entertaining to look at some of the blind alleys of the past.
12 we’re entertaining there for a weekend’s golf.