Linguistic Analyses Of English Non-finite -ing Verb Forms

English main verbs always play a dominant role in the sentence. Depending on whether they are marked in terms of tense or mood, verbs are classified into finite and non-finite. Some grammarians, represented by Otto Jespersen (1933;1940), A. J. Thomson(1980) and A. V. Martinet(1980), think that infinitive, participle(-mg participle and -ed/en participle) and gerund are three non-fmite verb forms. But other grammarians like Randolph Quirk (1974; 1980; 1985), Sidney Greenbaum (1974;1980;1985), Geoffrey Leech(1980; 1985), Jan Svartvik( 1980; 1985), etc. hold the view that there are only two non-finite verb forms - infinitive and participle(ibid). They use the term "-ing clause" to cover the two forms - -ing participle and gerund wholly, but they simultaneously point out that -ing clauses contain nominal characters. Ronald Wardhaugh(1995:25) mentioned "class boundaries" between verbal noun(gerund) and adjective participle. John Sinclair (1990) borrows the term "phase" to explain the collocation of verbs in a sentence. Rodney Huddleston (1988:63) uses the term "catenative" to discuss the usages of non-finite complements, but in his book "the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language"(2002:78-81) he uses other grammatical terms like "gerundial noun", "participial adjective", and "gerund-participle form of verb" to describe the characters of non-finite -ing verb form.In China, the same views as mentioned above also exist in most English grammar books. Zhang Daozhen(1995) and Bo Bing(2004) approve the classification given by Otto Jespersen et al for nearly half a century; Wang Jialing (1980)and Zhang Zhenbang(2003) agree to the viewpoint of Randolph Quirk et al. Furthermore, in recent years some key journals and periodicals have issued many articles titled by the terms of present/past participle, gerund or nominalized verbal noun etc., which seems to lead to chaos for most learners seeking to understand the -ing verb form.Considering the part mentioned above, the writer of this paper has found that there is a wide disagreement among scholars as to the classification of the non-fmite -ing verb form and its usages. The terms and characteristics of the -ing form are often mixed and misunderstood and its usages have also proved ambiguous. Franklyspeaking, in the field of grammatical studies more standpoints are encouraged for the need of different orientations. But in English language learning practice, it is necessary to clarify and define the proper terms for the non-finite -ing verb form. One notional, practical and effective explanation on the -ing form is preferred especially by most EFL learners in China's mainland, though teachers could introduce various attitudes to one same language point. Specifically analyzing the characters and functions of the non-finite -ing verb form, the writer in this paper makes his own reasonable and complete explanation from the perspective of linguistics.This paper consists of seven chapters.Chapter 1 points out the necessity of writing on this topic.Chapter 2 lays out the historical background of the study, where the origin of the -ing verb form and the traditional and modern grammatical study of the non-finite -ing form are briefly discussed. A section is also devoted to the related study on the topic in China.Chapter 3 discusses the necessities to distinguish the English non-finite -ing form from the perspective of language cognitive environment, where the paper has explained the reasons why the grammatical point of the non-finite -ing form is less important for those ESL learners and English-native speakers than those EFL learners in China's mainland. This chapter also points out that various terms and explanations of the non-finite -ing verb form need to be standardized and certain relatively-fixed terms and logical explanations of the -ing verb form are popular and favorable.Chapter 4 focuses on detailed comparative analyses of the syntactic functions of the non-finite - ing verb form on the basis of many current English sentences (spoken and written), representing their internal character and identity.Chapter 5 analyzes the semantic meaning of the non-finite -ing form from the perspectives of its genitive and lexical characters.Chapter 6 illustrates some effective ways to clarify the ambiguity of English non-finite -ing verb forms.In the end, on the basis of reasonable analyses, some constructive suggestions and favorable conclusions will be put forward on this topic.In this thesis, the writer manages to achieve one favorable conclusion through acritical examination of previous discussion. He does not mean to reject all other previous analyses as wrong or worthless. They are valuable and useful analyses which are indispensable to any search for a unitary meaning. Of course his conclusion is not intended to be the final word on this topic. There is a lot to be desired. The paper hopes to be helpful to further research in this respect.