Elaine Jones wrote in message ...

:Quoting from message
: posted on 31 Jan 2005 by John Hall
: My OED also calls "sitting"
: a noun, which surprised me. It's the present particle of the verb "to
: sit", which I would have thought made it a verb.

:When I was at school the term used was "gerund", it's now "verb-noun" - but
:still subject to some misuse, generally people will say "Do you mind me
:sitting here?" whereas it should be "Do you mind my sitting here?"
as would be with any other noun)

I am not sure that you always use the possessive with the gerund. You
would surely say, e.g., "Do you mind me smoking ?". "Do you mind my
smoking ?" would mean something else.

:Then there's the "at one sitting" as mentioned by Colin which I think is
:really this gerund/verb-noun.

No. "Sitting" is a simple noun in this case - although obviously derived
from the verb originally. Compare it with "meeting" or "(human) being".

The gerund or verbal noun is a verb form used with the function of a noun,
e.g. "Sitting too long makes you lazy", "Meeting you was a pleasure", etc.

You cannot use "a" or "the" with a gerund as you can with a simple noun
("The next sitting of the House of Commons"; "Let's hold a meeting"; "I am a
human being", etc).

Colin Youngs
Brussels