terminology - What is a gerund? A noun or a verb? 'His smoking upset me’


I've been studying the Huddleston and Pullum book for four months now. So far only one thing confuses me: the identity of gerund. Is it a noun or a verb?




  1. His constant smoking upset me. smoking seems noun because of adjective constant.

  2. Him/His constantly smoking upset me. smoking seems to be verb because of adverb constantly.

  3. Him/His smoking cigars upset me. smoking seems to be a verb because of object cigars.



"His smoking upset me." So is this smoking gerund a noun or verb? Because there is no differentiation, is it both verb and noun? Maybe it's new word category?


Also his seems to be both sometimes a subject and at other times a possessive determiner. Is that correct?




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