What are the rules for possessives with gerunds, or preventing fused participles?
As you doubtless know, verbs have two forms we call
participles. The past participle usually ends in –
ed. (Exceptions occur with
irregular verbs, such as
swim>
swam>
swum — the last being the past participle.) The verb form ending in –
ing is called the
present participle, and its use brings up a tricky grammatical topic concerning when to use a possessive noun in front of it. How tricky? As writing guru William Safire put it in the
New York Times: “Participle fusion, much like thermonuclear fusion, is a subject too widely dreaded to be approached lightly.”
The problem derives from how the –
ing form is being used in the sentence. It can be used as a verb, of course {Ryan
has been filibustering the bill for hours}. It can also serve as an adjective {The
filibustering procedure has been used in the Senate since 1837}. Or it can be used as a noun {Political junkies just love
filibustering}. When it’s used as a noun, it’s called a
gerund.
Now what if there’s a noun in front of that gerund? Strictly speaking, it should usually be possessive {Some Democrats were less enamored of
Ryan’s filibustering} {
Ryan’s filibustering irked some Democrats}. Yet many writers would use
Ryan filibustering in those instances. And some grammarians would denounce those writers’ foisting a “fused participle” on their readers. Would they say, “I hate my friend being out of work”? One hopes not.
H.W. Fowler gave the name “fused participle” to a participle that is (1) used as a noun (i.e., a gerund), and (2) preceded by a noun or pronoun not in the possessive case — thus
Me going home made her sad rather than the preferred
My going home made her sad.
When the –
ing participle is in the predicate, it takes a possessive subject if it’s the direct object {I heard
Lori’s singing (
singing is the direct object)} {I heard
Lori singing (
Lori is the direct object, so no possessive)}. When the –
ing participle follows a preposition, the possessive is often optional {the problem with children (or
children’s) taking field trips is liability insurance}.
So it comes down to this: in educated English — or edited English — there is a preference for possessives before gerunds where they are idiomatically possible:
- My (not me) carrying my own bags feels most natural.
- She resented their (not them) denigrating her family.
- Do you mind my (not me) borrowing this book?
- Months may pass without his (not him) feeling the need to write a letter.
- Women’s (not women) having the vote advanced social justice.
- What’s the use of my (not me) objecting?
- I favor your (not you) curtailing this practice.
- My (not me) splashing in the puddles made them laugh.
But there are exceptions — sentences in which idiom simply demands that a participle be fused, or else the sentence rewritten altogether. Let’s not assume a rewrite. Respected usage commentators accept fused participles such as these:
- The likelihood of that happening is nil.
- He frequently felt a chance of this happening.
- He would not hear of Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds leaving their house.
- The authorities haven’t found anyone answering this description having entered the country.
- He disapproved of politicians still in their prime writing memoirs.
- What are the odds against that happening?
If you don’t mind my saying so — and, frankly, I wouldn’t appreciate your minding — it’s a difficult subject that requires one’s having a finely tuned ear. Attentive readers won’t appreciate your fusing participles with reckless abandon.
Sources:
Theodore M. Bernstein,
The Careful Writer 199-203 (1965).
Bergen & Cornelia Evans,
A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage 247-48 (1957).
Wilson Follett,
Modern American Usage: A Guide 157-59 (1966).
Garner’s Modern American Usage 383 (3d ed. 2009).
The Chicago Manual of Style 357 (16th ed. 2010).
H.W. Fowler,
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage 205-08 (1926).
H.W. Fowler,
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage 215-18, 225-26 (Ernest Gowers ed., 2d ed. 1965).
Eric Partridge,
Usage and Abusage 124-29 (1982).
Bernice Randall,
Webster’s New World Guide to Current American Usage 221-22 (1988).
Thanks to J. Alan Holman for suggesting this topic.