Thread: Verbal Adverbs / Деепричастия (Are these sentences correct?)

Out of curiosity, were any other English speakers taught (by your professors or textbooks) that читая and написав are Russian "gerunds"?

Logically, it makes no sense at all to call these forms "gerunds", at least in a Russian-grammar textbook written in English for English speakers!

Because in English grammar, a gerund is a "verbal noun," as in "I like reading". The word gerund itself comes from Latin, and in Latin grammar, gerunds are also "verbal nouns" (spes vincendi, "hope of winning").

But Russian verb forms like читая and написав are not in any sense "nouns", and instead have a clearly adverbial function.

Nonetheless, my college Russian textbooks insisted that they were "gerunds"!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Out of curiosity, were any other English speakers taught (by your professors or textbooks) that читая and написав are Russian "gerunds"?

Logically, it makes no sense at all to call these forms "gerunds", at least in a Russian-grammar textbook written in English for English speakers!

Because in English grammar, a gerund is a "verbal noun," as in "I like reading". The word gerund itself comes from Latin, and in Latin grammar, gerunds are also "verbal nouns" (spes vincendi, "hope of winning").

But Russian verb forms like читая and написав are not in any sense "nouns", and instead have a clearly adverbial function.

Nonetheless, my college Russian textbooks insisted that they were "gerunds"!

I think that's because the Russians often use gerunds when translating such constructions into English. Like "он заскучал читая книгу" - he got bored while reading a book. Or "написав письмо, он бросил его в почтовый ящик" - having written the letter, he dropped it in a mailbox.

Eric -- yes, I certainly understand that Russian деепричастия will often be translated by -ing forms in English, but not all -ing forms are gerunds, and one would expect a professionally edited college textbook to be more accurate.

(But on the other hand, since most American college freshmen wouldn't recognize a gerund даже ни в случае, что оно укусило бы их по жопе*, there's probably no real confusion caused here -- it's just an empty gap that has to be filled in by whomever is teaching them about Russian grammar.)

* "Not even if it bit them on the ass" is the English expression I'm going for here. But maybe the construction should be укусило жопу у них, or something like that? In other words, I'm not sure if it's "them" or "their ass" that should be in the винительном падеже!

This is always confusing for me in Russian, when you're talking about doing something to a part of someone's body -- like kissing a lady's hand, putting a bandage on a child's knee, jabbing a pencil into a zombie's eye, scratching a puppy's tummy, or kicking a man in the "Бальзак".