Verbal noun

A verbal noun is a noun formed from a verb. Unlike a gerund, it has no verbal force. Different languages have different types of verbal nouns and different ways of forming and using them. An example of a verbal noun in English is the word 'driving' in the sentence "I warned him against fast driving" (this is a noun formed from the verb drive). Verbal nouns are morphologically related to verbs, but they are not non-finite verb forms. The non-finite verb forms are forms such as gerunds, infinitives and participle in English. Some grammarians use the term "verbal noun" to mean verbal noun, gerund and noun infinitive. Some may use the term "gerund" to mean both verbal noun and gerund. "Verbal noun" has often been treated as a synonym for "gerund".

Types

As suggested by some traditional grammarians, but modern grammarians do not include them in verbal noun, verbal nouns may be non-finite verb forms which follow verb syntax, for example by taking appropriate objects (though usually not a subject) and being modified by adverbs, to produce a verb phrase which is then used within a larger sentence as a noun phrase. In English this can be done with the to-infinitive and with the gerund. In the following examples with infinitives, the verb phrase serving as a noun phrase is underlined, and the to-infinitive itself is bolded:

To err is human, to forgive divine.
Jan likes to go fishing on Sundays.
His greatest desire was to serve his country.

In the first sentence the verbal noun phrases play the role of subjects, and in the remaining examples they are verb objects or complements. There are restrictions on the grammatical contexts in which this type of noun phrase can be used, and infinitives also have other uses in which they would not be regarded as nouns. For details see infinitive.

The following examples use gerunds (the gerund itself is bolded, the verb phrase serving as a noun phrase is underlined):

Speaking is not always wise.
We enjoy playing football.

Again there are grammatical restrictions on the occurrence of such phrases. In English the -ing form that serves as the gerund also serves as a present participle, which is used adjectivally or adverbally rather than as a noun. For details see gerund and participle.

Other types of verbal nouns, however, while being derived from verbs, behave grammatically entirely as nouns, not as verbs. For example, they do not take direct objects as verbs can, and they are modified by adjectives rather than adverbs.[1] They may also be used as count nouns and pluralized. The terms "deverbal noun" and "pure verbal noun" refer only to this type, and not to infinitives nor gerunds. In English such nouns can be formed from verbs with the suffix -ing, that is, they take the same form as the gerund. Examples of such uses are given below:

The killing of the president was an atrocious crime.
Most verses of the psalm have multiple readings.
A building is a structure that is habitable.

Note how the undergoer of killing is specified in the form of a prepositional phrase: of the president. This is because killing functions as a noun in this sentence. As a noun, it cannot take an object directly and instead the word president must be made object of the preposition of.

Nouns may also be formed from verbs in other ways, such as by adding different suffixes, as in discovery from the verb discover, or by simple conversion, as with the noun love from the verb love. These are not generally productive processes, that is, they cannot be applied to form nouns from any arbitrary verb (for example, there is no noun *uncovery for the verb uncover). A similar phenomenon is found in many other languages. Such nouns may or may not be referred to as verbal nouns. When they exist, they often tend to replace the regularly formed verbal noun (as discovery is usually used rather than discovering, although the latter is still common as a gerund), or else a differentiation in meaning becomes established.

Other languages may have other specific types of verbal noun. One such type found in Latin is the supine, which corresponds to certain uses of the English to-infinitive. The term supine is also used in various ways in descriptions of other languages; the English to-infinitive is sometimes referred to as the supine.

Notes
  1. Hoekstra, Teun (2004). Arguments and Structure: Studies on the Architecture of the Sentence. Walter de Gruyter. p. 268. ISBN 3-11-017953-9.
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