English Grammar for University Students. Part 4

phrases: be aware of, be annoyed at, be astonished at, be afraid of, be ashamed of, be capable of, be certain of, be clever at, be delighted at, be disappointed at, be excited about / at, be engaged in, be fond of, be grateful for, be guilty of, be ignorant of, be indignant at, be interested in, be involved in, be pleased (displeased) at (with), be proud of, be responsible for, be sorry for / about, be sure of, be surprised at, be tired of, be used to, get used to, etc.

He was blamed for being late.

He was accused of stealing that money.

She is afraid of staying alone.

She is sure of being manipulated.

I suspect you of having told a lie then.

The pronoun it can be used as a preparatory object for the Gerund:

I think it no use persuading him.

5. Attribute

In this syntactic function Gerunds are used in post-position to the noun they modify and are preceded with the prepositions of, for, in, to, about, etc.

I don’t like the idea of going there at once.

6. Adverbial modifier а) of time

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the prepositions after, before, on (upon), in, at, since (since the prepositions show the time correlation, perfect Gerund is not necessary in this function).

After walking for 4 hours he felt exhausted.

On entering the dark alley she stopped puzzled.

At seeing the flowers Jane felt absolutely happy.

She has been sad since receiving this letter.

The preposition after shows that the action or state denoted by the Gerund precedes those of the finite verb; the preposition before shows that the action or state denoted by the finite verb precedes those of the Gerund; the prepositions on and upon are used to show a succession of actions; the preposition at shows that the actions or states denoted by the Gerund are almost simultaneous with those expressed by the finite verb; the preposition in shows that action or state denoted by the finite verb took place while the action denoted by the Gerund was carried out. The preposition since shows the starting point of the action denoted by the finite verb [Шрамко, Степанова, 2009 ].

b) of manner

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the prepositions by and in:

He achieved success by studying hard.

I spent the Sunday in writing an essay.

с) of attendant circumstances

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the preposition without,besides, in addition to, instead of [Шрамко, Степанова, 2009 ].

He left without paying the bill.

You’d better think it over instead of arguing.

d) of purpose

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the preposition for.

He put on the glasses for reading the newspaper.

е) of condition

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the preposition without or the phrase in case of [Шрамко, Степанова, 2009 ].

I can’t defend this case without your fully trusting me.

In case of changing your mind, please, tell us about it.

f) of cause

In this syntactic function Gerunds are preceded by the prepositions for, for fear of, owing to, because of, through [Шрамко, Степанова, 2009].

For fear of being critisized she left the meeting.

g) of concession

In this syntactic function Gerunds denote some obstacles in spite of which the action of the finite form is carried out and are preceded by the preposition in spite of, despite.

In spite of being tired she went on working.

Despite sending his applications regularly, he couldn’t get a job.

7. Parenthesis