syntactic analysis - What is the grammatical construction behind the word "climbing" in the phrase "climbing wall" or the word "running" in the phrase "running" shoes?


I am curious about the grammar behind the word "climbing" in the phrase "climbing wall" (or the word "running" in the phrase "running shoes," etc).


I first thought it was an adjective describing the noun wall. However, I am wondering if these cases are the closest the English language gets to a gerundive? Both "climbing" and "running" are forms of a verb, and moreover, the phrase could be said as "the wall about to be climbed." In Latin, the "about to be climbed" would be the future passive participle, also known as the gerundive. Furthermore, in Latin, there also are gerundives of purpose, which would translate these phrases into "the shoes for the purpose of running" or "the wall for the purpose of climbing."


Is there an official name for these types of grammatical constructions?



Answer



"A climbing wall" and "running shoes" – Of course, climbing and running are gerunds. A climbing wall is a wall for climbing where beginners can practise climbing a rocķ face. Running shoes are shoes good for running – just as a washing machine is a machine for washing. (If you use a preposition then the ing-form after it is a gerund and not a participle.)


This type of word formation of compound nouns have the structure gerund + noun. It is no problem to distinguish such gerunds as compound element from participles as a climbing wall is not in the act of “climbing” and running shoes are not in the act of “running”. In fact, I have never found such compounds where you can be in doubt about the nature of the ing-form. And if such cases are possible, an author would avoid such ambiguous formations.


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