I'm a bit astonished about the long discussions in the post How can I prove a word is a noun? I admit that there a certain problems, especially with gerunds.
- Smoking cigarettes is unhealty.
In this example, containing a gerund with an object, it is indeed a bit difficult to say to which word class "smoking" belongs. Is it a noun or a verb?
Traditionally the gerund is seen as a verb form with a double nature. It can behave as a noun and as a verb.
I think it would be practical to see the gerund also as a special word class, a noun-verb thing. In this way we could avoid a lot of problems that arise about the word class noun when we come across gerunds with objects.
My question: Would it be practical to see gerunds as a word class of its own?
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