.
“-ing” is a common ending of nouns as well as of verbs
SIMILARITY TO GERUNDS
The title of this post may seem a little confusing, since the -ing ending is typical of verbs, not nouns. With verbs, it makes either gerunds or participles (see 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”). Since gerunds are like nouns, it may be thought that they are the focus. However, this is not the case – gerunds are examined elsewhere within these pages in 70. Gerunds.
Nouns with -ing resemble gerunds in that most have clearly been made by adding -ing to a verb. However, not all of them have this characteristic, and even those that do also have characteristics not possessed by gerunds. In this post I wish to explore these special characteristics, whilst also providing as many examples as I can of nouns possessing them. The list is surprisingly extensive, this perhaps indicating that -ing should be added to those suffixes that are considered in depth in this blog in 172. Multi-Use Suffixes.
.
DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES
There are both objective and subjective means of recognising an -ing word as a noun rather than gerund. The main objective means is the -ing word being listed separately in a dictionary from any related verb.
A minor objective clue, applicable to just a few words, is the non-existence of a related verb. This is the situation, for example, with awning, evening(s), morning(s), ceiling(s), guttering, hoarding(s), outing(s), tidings and the two nouns in the phrase toing and froing (see 209. Fixed Phrases with “and”). Note that nouns ending with the suffix -ling (= “small” or “close”), such as darling, duckling, fledgling, hireling, inkling, quisling, sapling, sibling and underling, are not included here.
More subjectively, an -ing word is a noun rather than gerund if it cannot logically be used after the gerund-indicating words “the action (or state) of…” (see the discussion of example [i] in 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”). This is the case, for example, with a painting meaning “image made with paint” and a liking meaning “usual preference”. One consequence of this feature is that -ing nouns are not a subtype of “action” nouns (which do mean “the action of…”). Action nouns have other endings (see 249. Action Noun Endings).
One other clue, able to help many but not all -ing nouns to be identified, is ability to be plural (i.e. countability). Gerunds usually lack this ability. Thus, if an -ing word is plural, or you know that it can be, you can be fairly sure that it is a noun rather than gerund. Consider this:
(a) Despite numerous failings, the king ruled successfully for 40 years.
Here, failings is not a gerund. The gerund form failing could not be used after numerous: we would instead have to say either much failing or failing numerous times, or use the action noun failures. Failings means not “failures” but “weaknesses”.
Common countable -ing nouns include awakening(s), beginning(s), being(s), blessing(s), booking(s), briefing(s), building(s), christening(s), clearing(s), comings and goings, covering(s), crossing(s), cutting(s), dealings, drawing(s), ending(s), failing(s), feeling(s), filings, filling(s), finding(s), fittings, following(s), gathering(s), happening(s), hearing(s), holding(s), leaning(s), liking, living, longing(s), meaning(s), meeting(s), misgivings, offering(s), opening(s), outgoings, painting(s), proceedings, rating(s), reading(s), recording(s), saying(s), setting(s), shooting(s), shortcoming(s), showing(s), sitting(s), takings, teaching(s), trappings, turning(s), (mis)understanding(s), undertaking(s), upbringing(s), (up)rising(s), warning(s), wedding(s), winnings, workings and writings.
Many of these have a quite unexpected meaning. For example, a clearing is a space without trees in a forest, a living is a means of earning income, and a showing is someone’s performance level in a competition. A shooting is an incident where someone with a gun fires a bullet into someone else – not to be confused with a shoot, which means a hunting expedition or a film-making episode. Further meaning explanations are in a practice exercise below.
Outgoings (= money paid out), shortcomings (= lacks) and upbringing (= childhood nurture and education) correspond to not a verb but a verb + adverb. The corresponding gerunds, going out, coming up short and bringing up, are very different in meaning (see, for example, 290. Ways of Using COME, #18).
Two words that are not countable -ing nouns are parking and camping. Although both refer to places in some other languages, in English they are only gerunds meaning “the action of…”. To express the place meaning of parking, there must be a suitable following noun, such as lot, area or space. A place for camping is a campsite.
Training is also not a countable -ing noun, but it can be an uncountable one, meaning “fitness resulting from regular exercise”. It cannot by itself refer to the achievement of fitness; for that it needs a partner noun like activity, course, day, event, exercise or session.
Uncountable -ing nouns, which seem less numerous than countable ones, are slightly harder to distinguish from gerunds because of their similar inability to be plural. Common ones are bedding, clothing, colouring, hearing, heating, housing, learning, meaning, piping, reasoning, restructuring, roofing, shopping, seasoning, seating, standing, suffering, teaching, thinking, timing, training, understanding, well-being, wording, writing and wrongdoing.
As an illustration of how uncountable -ing nouns lack the “doing” or “being” meaning of gerunds, learning (gerund meaning = “acquiring knowledge”) just means “knowledge”, as in someone of learning; and reasoning (gerund meaning = “arguing using logic”) means “logic-based evidence”. Thinking (unlike thought) means “rationale”. Well-being (= “happiness and/or prosperity”) resembles outgoings and shortcomings in differing in both form and meaning from the corresponding gerund (being well = “avoiding illness”). For more about shopping, see 165. Confusions of Similar Structures 2, #3. For more about wording, see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #5.
Some of the words in the above list, it will be seen, also appear in the earlier list of countable -ing nouns. Their meanings are different:
a hearing = an examination of a case in a court of law
hearing = ability to perceive sounds
a meaning = the idea conveyed by a particular message
meaning = the idea conveyed by any message
a teaching = a piece of wise or religious advice
teaching = general doctrine
an understanding = an agreement
understanding = lack of confusion
writings = written compositions with a literary or expository purpose
writing = long-lasting visible linguistic communication
In each case, the uncountable meaning is like a substance and the countable one is a place or situation where the “substance” is involved. This is a distinction that is also able to be made by many nouns without -ing (see 43. Substance Locations).
One -ing word that might also belong in the list above is functioning. It is not listed separately in my dictionary, but I think it does have two meanings. Consider the following:
(b) The functioning of a mobile phone is invisible.
I think this is definitely a gerund use: functioning means the action of operation: what is invisible is any sign of it. By contrast, if invisible is replaced by incomprehensible, functioning means the manner of operation, which seems less gerund-like (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #3).
.
FURTHER MEANING OBSERVATIONS
It is noticeable that -ing noun meanings compared to gerund ones tend to belong to two particular categories. One, illustrated by the meaning of a clearing, is action outcomes: things created by the gerund action. The space of a clearing in a forest is created through the action of clearing trees away from it.
Additional -ing nouns with this kind of meaning include beginning(s), booking(s), building(s), covering(s), cutting(s), ending(s), filings, finding(s), gathering(s), learning, painting(s), recording(s), shopping, takings, thinking, training, understanding(s), undertaking(s), winnings, wording and writing(s).
The second common meaning category is activity locations. These are things or situations that involve the action (or state) expressed by the gerund – they accompany rather than follow it. Thus, a longing (= “strong continuous desire for something”) is an emotion involving the action of longing for (= desiring) something; and an uprising (= rebellious event) involves people rising up (= rebelling).
Other -ing nouns representing an activity location include awakenings, blessings, briefings, christenings, dealings, turnings, failings, feelings, followings, functioning, happenings, hearing(s), housing, meaning(s), reading(s), showings, seating, sittings, suffering, teaching(s), timing, turnings, well-being and workings.
Note that -ing nouns able to be either countable or uncountable, such as meaning, differ in their own meaning in terms of “substance” and “substance location”, but differ from gerunds in expressing the notion of either “action outcome” or “activity location”. Each of these latter notions is also sometimes expressed by ordinary nouns. For details and numerous examples, see 14. Action Outcomes and 19. Activity Locations.
There are also a few other meanings possible with -ing nouns. Clothing, piping and roofing tend, as resources, to refer to a future rather than existing situation. Standing (= “level of esteem”) involves not so much the act of standing as the place.
Cutting across the two main meaning categories is that of “feature” – something that is a part or characteristic of a person or thing. It is conveyed, for example, by cutting, ending, failing, feeling, functioning, learning, liking, meaning, timing, training, turning, understanding and well-being.
.
PRACTICE EXERCISE: MEANINGS OF “-ing” NOUNS
Some of the -ing noun meanings above are quite unpredictable. The following exercise aims to assist their discovery and/or memorization.
Here are some -ing noun meanings. Try to match each with the right noun from the lists above (answers below).
1. The earliest section of a document or episode.
2. An artificial valley excavated for a railway, road or canal.
3. Ability to perform an action at the exactly right moment.
4. Good fortune or divine favour.
5. People who regularly monitor a particular person’s ideas or performances.
6. A wise person’s rules for a happy or rewarding life.
7. Shares or property possessed by a financial speculator.
8. Money earned from sales.
9. A medium carrying repeatable visual and/or aural aspects of a performance.
10. A side street joined onto a main road.
11. Arithmetical operations that helped an answer to be found.
12. A repetition-enhanced physical or mental condition.
13. Repeated visits to the same place.
14. A structure carrying an advertisement.
15. Very small, light pieces of iron
16. An opportunity
.
Answers
1 = a beginning; 2 = a cutting; 3 = timing; 4 = a blessing; 5 = a following; 6 = teaching/s or sayings; 7 = a holding; 8 = takings; 9 = a recording; 10 = a turning (see 296. Tricky Word Contrasts 12, #6); 11 = workings; 12 = training; 13. toing and froing or comings and goings; 14 = a hoarding; 15 = (iron) filings; 16 = an opening
guinlist 