The gerund and the infinitive

Constructions with the Gerund.

The gerund can form a construction which consists of a noun or a pronoun followed by the gerund, e.g. Do you mind John’s smoking in the room? The noun may be expressed either in the genitive case or in the common case, e.g. I insist on Mary’s going there. vs. I insist on Mary going there. If a pronoun is used, it may be either in the possessive form or in the objective form, e.g. I don’t like his coming here. vs. I don’t like him coming here.

As already known, some verbs can be followed by either the gerund or the infinitive (like, begin, start, continue, try, regret, remember, forget, etc.). According to D. Bolinger (1968), the gerund expresses something “real, vivid, fulfilled”, whereas the infinitive expresses something “hypothetical, future, unfulfilled”:

1. John hopes to learn French.

2. Max enjoys swimming.

D. Bolinger’s principle of factivity vs. non-factivity also helps to explain the difference between such sentences as I like camping in the mountains and I like to camp in the mountains. Camping suggests that the person has already experienced the process while to camp is a non-factive process, which is especially obvious when like is modified by a modal.

Another interesting case is presented by the verbs start and begin:

1. Helen started doing her homework.

2. Helen started to do her homework.

In the first sentence, doing suggests entry into the middle phase of the process while in the second sentence to do suggests entry into the initial phase of the process.

With factive implicative verbs, the difference between the gerund and the infinitive concerns a different temporal perspective. Consider:

I remember locking the door. vs.

I remembered to lock the door.

Both sentences speak of the process of locking as accomplished: in the first sentence locking occurred before remembering (i.e. I locked the door and I still remember this); in the second sentence, locking occurred after remembering (i.e. I remembered and, consequently, locked the door).

With non-factive verbs, the difference is more obvious: the gerund expresses factivity while the infinitive expresses non-factivity, e.g. I tried closing the window (i.e. I actually closed the window by way of making an experiment). I tried to close the window (i.e. I made an attempt to close it).

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