noungerund

Noungerund is a term used in some linguistic discussions to describe a class of nominal forms derived from verbs by means of the -ing suffix that function as ordinary nouns rather than as verb-like gerunds. In this usage, noungerunds are treated as deverbal nouns whose primary role is to name an event, action, or process without retaining the syntactic or aspectual properties associated with verbs.

Key features often attributed to noungerunds include the ability to be counted, modified by determiners and adjectives, and occupy standard noun-phrase positions. They typically occur with determiners (the running, a running) and can be pluralized or possessively marked in contexts where that is allowed by the language. Unlike some analyses of gerunds, noungerunds are described as lacking direct object-taking and other verbal subcategorization, and they do not participate in verbal aspect in the same way.

The distinction between a noungerund and a gerund is a topic of theoretical debate. In many grammars, the same -ing form may be analyzed as a gerund (a verbal noun with some verb-like properties) or as a nominalization (a noun formed from a verb), depending on diagnostic criteria such as object-formation, argument structure, and ability to participate in verbal morphology. The noungerund concept is often invoked to emphasize the noun-like behavior of certain -ing forms that function as heads of noun phrases and resist treating them as fully verbal.

Cross-linguistic discussions note that many languages have nominalizations akin to noungerunds, using different morphologies to express similar noun-like deverbal meanings. See also gerund, nominalization, deverbal noun.