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211MAIN FEATURES OF THE FORMATION
AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERUND IN ENGLISH
1 "2
Avilova K. , Primova M.
1Avilova Klara - Teacher;
Primova Munisa - Teacher, FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT,
TASHKENT MEDICAL ACADEMY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: this article discusses specific peculiarities of the historical development of the Gerund in English as a non-finite form of the verb. Besides that, the use of the English gerund in comparison with other verbals such as the infinitive, participle and the verbal noun will be analyzed in this research. Keywords: the verb, verbals, verbid, finite form, non-finite form of the verb, Old English, Middle English, New English period.
Language is a means of forming and storing ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in the process of human intercourse. Language is social by nature; it is inseparably connected with the people who are its creators and users; it grows and develops together with the development of society. In earlier periods of the development of linguistic knowledge, grammatical scholars believed that the only purpose of grammar was to give strict rules of writing and speaking correctly. One of the most interesting and actual problems of general linguistics is diachronic aspect of the language where the historical development of linguistic units is studied. The present article discusses the definition, use, origin and historical development of the gerund in English.
The non-finite verb performs different functions according to its intermediary nature (those of the syntactic subject, object, adverbial modifier, attribute), but its non-processual functions are always actualized in close combination with its processual semantic features. Verbals (verbids or non-finite forms of the verb) are the forms of the verb intermediary in many of their lexico-grammatical features between the verb and the non-
processual parts of speech. The mixed features of these forms are revealed in the principal spheres of the part-of-speech characterization, i.e. in their meaning, structural marking, combinability, and syntactic functions. The processual meaning is exposed by them in a substantive or adjectival-adverbial interpretation: they render processes as peculiar kinds of substances and properties. They are formed by special morphemic elements which do not express either grammatical time or mood (the most specific finite verb categories) [1]. They can be combined with verbs like non-processual lexemes (performing non-verbal functions in the sentence), and they can be combined with non-processual lexemes like verbs (performing verbal functions in the sentence).
The categorical paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms: the simple active, the perfect active; the simple passive, the perfect passive. E.g.: taking — having taken — being taken — having been taken.The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes two forms. E.g.: going — having gone. The perfect forms of the gerund are used, as a rule, only in semantically strong positions, laying special emphasis on the meaningful categorical content of the form [3].
The history of the English is usually divided into three main periods such as Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Each period has its specific features in the development English language. While analyzing the historical development of the gerund as a non-finite form in English it is found that the origin of this verbal goes back to the Middle English period which means that the gerund did not exist in OE period. As for other verbals such as the infinitive and the participle differing from the gerund they existed in OE period.
The late Middle English (ME) period witnessed the growth of the gerund in the English language grammar.The gerund can mainly be traced to three sources such as a) the OE verbal noun in -unhand -inj; b) the Present Participle and c) the Infinitive. In Old English the verbal noun derived from the transitive verbs took an object in Genitive case, which corresponded to the direct object of the finite verb; e.g. OE seofedingtarasceapa equivalent
to Modern English 'the feeding of the sheep' with hiefeda№asceap 'they feed the sheep'. The syntactic functions of the verbal noun, the infinitive and the participle partly overlapped. In Middle English the Present Participle and the verbal noun became identical: they both ended in -ing which led to the confusion of some of their features: verbal nouns began to take direct objects, like participles and infinitives. This verbal feature - a direct object - as well as the frequent absence of article before the -ing -form functioning as a noun -transformed the verbal noun into a Gerund in the modern understanding of the term [2].
In modern English the gerund should not be confused with the verbal noun, which has the same suffix -ing. Here, we would like to point out main differences between the verbal noun and the gerund at present time. As all the verbals the gerund has a double character - nominal and verbal whereas the verbal noun has only nominal character; the gerund is not used with the article where the verbal noun may be used with an article; the gerund has no plural form whereas the verbal noun may be used in the plural; the gerund of a transitive verb takes a direct object as for the verbal noun, it cannot take a direct object (it takes a prepositional object with the preposition of); the gerund may be modified by an adverb, whereas the verbal noun may be modified by an adjective. Thus, it should be mentioned that historical development of the gerund as a non-finite form of the verb in English is one of the most important and interesting problems of modern linguistic investigations.
References
1. Blokh M.Y. Theoretical grammar of modern English. M., 1983.
Pp. 85-103.
2. Kaushanskaya V.L., et al. A Practical English Grammar.
Leningrad, 1973. P. 185.
3. Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. Moscow.
"Vysshayashkola", 1983. Pp. 247-248.
