












































Teaching Techniques  
 

Melody Pao is a recent graduate of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA, 
where she majored in Teaching Foreign Language/TESOL. She currently serves as a freelance language 
instructor for French and English both on her own and at the following institutions: Alliance Française of 
Portland, the Alliance Française of Chicago, and ChatENG; email mpao@miis.edu. 
 

Communicating in the Face of 
Racism: Infinitive v. Gerund 
Verbal Complements in English 

GATESOL in Action Journal 
2020, Vol. 30(1), pp. 80–90 

ISSN: 2331-6845 
 
   

 
 
Melody Pao 
Alliance Française of Portland  
 

Abstract 
As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have 
experienced an increase in racist attacks. This paper presents a lesson plan that is intended to help 
English as a Second Language (ESL) learners of East Asian origin communicate in the face of 
racial discrimination. In addition to outlining this teaching technique, the article provides a 
linguistic analysis of the lesson plan’s grammatical focus: the distinction between infinitive and 
gerund verbal complements. The author argues that the Bolinger Principle, a theory that articulates 
the reasoning behind this distinction, provides an effective and meaning-informed teaching strategy 
for teaching infinitives and gerunds. The purpose of the article is to offer guidance for teachers who 
may wish to use this form-focused technique in their own classrooms.  
  
Keywords 
ESL, racism, Asian immigrants, infinitive complements, gerund complements, Bolinger Principle 

 
 
Background 
COVID-19 has laid bare the deep systemic inequities that pervade our society. As illustrated 
through the Black Lives Matter movement, language shapes how we perceive and confront social 
justice issues (Avineri et al., 2018). In the wake of the global pandemic, Asian Americans and 
Asian immigrants have reported a surge in racist attacks and hate crimes in the United States 
(Nawaz, 2020; Ruiz et al., 2020). Remarks referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” and the 
“kung flu” are often seen as examples of attempts to normalize anti-Asian xenophobia 
(Kambhampaty, 2020, para. 2). Therefore, it is important to support this particular group of ESL 
learners in the face of bigotry. The featured lesson plan is designed to help ESL students of Asian 
descent learn how to communicate in response to racial discrimination.  

The grammatical focus of the lesson is the distinction between infinitive and gerunds. This 
nuance tends to confound ESL/EFL learners, especially from East Asian countries, who may 
choose the incorrect form due to cross-linguistic influence from their native languages (Larsen-
Freeman et al., 2016, p. 679). It is thus essential that ESL/EFL teachers fully comprehend the 
difference in order to explain it to students and address any related errors. While infinitives and 
gerunds can be used in several ways, this paper will focus solely on examples containing verbal 
complements. According to Bolinger (1968), verbs that express unrealized possibilities generally 
go with infinitives, whereas verbs that refer to actual events tend to collocate with gerunds (p. 127). 
In this paper, I posit that this idea known as the Bolinger Principle provides an effective teaching 
strategy for identifying verbs that take infinitives and those that require gerunds. First, I will 

mailto:mpao@miis.edu


Pao 81 
 
present the target teaching context and articulate a rationale for the lesson plan. In the subsequent 
linguistic analysis, I will discuss operational definitions of complements, infinitive complements, 
and gerund complements, and describe how to draw learners’ attention to those forms and their 
meanings. The purpose of this article is to provide guidance for instructors who may wish to 
implement this technique in their respective teaching contexts. 
 
Description of the Teaching Context 
This lesson plan was designed for adult students taking an ESL Customer Service class at the 
Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a center that offers resources and programs for 
immigrants and their families in the Boston Chinatown community. Most BCNC members come 
from Chinese-speaking regions (e.g. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), but the center 
welcomes immigrants of any nationality. All students taking this class wish to improve their 
English proficiency so they can increase their chances of landing jobs in customer service and 
succeeding in the workplace. The lesson plan has been written so that it can be delivered in person 
or online. More details on the context are provided in Appendix A.  

The grammatical focus of this lesson is particularly relevant for Chinese English language 
learners, as they often find it hard to differentiate between infinitives and gerunds. Based on a 
corpus-based study of Chinese college students (Xia, 2012), the most common error was using an 
infinitive without the to and in places where a gerund should be used. These types of errors may 
result from negative cross-linguistic transfer, as Chinese verbs do not alter in form when used as a 
verbal complement. It is thus imperative that ESL students at BCNC learn the difference between 
infinitives and gerunds, which poses challenges for many native Chinese speakers.  
 
Lesson Plan Rationale and Guidelines 
The lesson takes a learner-centered approach to instructional design, which “prioritizes the 
uniqueness of every learner” (Cornelius-White & Harbaugh, 2010, p. xv). While planning the 
lesson, I adopted a “pedagogy of particularity,” which means that language instruction should be 
customized to a specific group of learners (Kumaravadivelu, 2001, p. 538). The grammar focus is 
the difference between infinitives and gerunds, a source of confusion for many Chinese English 
language learners. The lesson objectives demonstrate an awareness of students’ motivations for 
learning English as well as the real-life challenges they currently face because they are Asian. At 
the beginning of the lesson, learners share their own definitions of racism and discuss how racist 
attitudes might emerge due to COVID-19. Then, they read excerpts from an article on Asian 
Americans’ experiences of racism in the wake of the pandemic (Kambhampaty, 2020). The use of 
an authentic text helps the instructor abide by the principle of learner-centered instruction, as it is 
representative of reading material that students would encounter in real life and would be interested 
in exploring (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 410). The article sheds light on a relevant and timely topic 
that pertains not only to their learning goals, but also their identities as immigrants of Asian descent.  

Catered to learners’ interests, the lesson aims to help students grasp the main ideas of an 
article on racism and understand the difference between infinitive and gerund complements (see 
Appendix A for all lesson objectives). In order to measure students’ progress towards achieving 
the learning outcomes, the lesson design features several means of assessment. During the first 
“through” phase, students discuss the article in a jigsaw activity, an information gap task that 
allows them to process key details from the reading (Pica, 2008, p. 529). Based on example 
sentences from the text, they identify a pattern for using infinitives and gerunds and then compare 
their hypotheses with their classmates. This task thus adheres to the focus-on-form approach, 



82 GATESOL in Action Journal 30(1)  
 
which draws learners’ attention to linguistic elements as they arise in meaning-based lessons (Ellis, 
2008; Long, 1991). Collectively, the class determines a pattern, which ideally should describe the 
Bolinger Principle: Gerunds generally describe actions that are real and actually happen, while 
infinitives generally describe unfulfilled or completed outcomes (Bolinger, 1968). Their 
performance in the subsequent activity should indicate whether they were able to apply the pattern 
in context. 

The second “through” phase is focused on developing effective communication strategies 
against racial slurs and discrimination. In groups, learners will reflect upon a given scenario that 
they may encounter in daily life or in the workplace, such as a passerby who yells at them “Go 
back to China!” or a client who refuses their service due to their race. Through these discussions, 
they will determine how they would want to convey those messages. When they report on their 
decision, their classmates give them feedback on their proposed solution. They also answer 
questions from their teacher and peers that elicit the use of infinitives and gerunds (e.g., “What did 
you decide to do?” or “What should you avoid doing in this situation?”). During this activity, the 
teacher should take note of any errors that should be addressed. At the conclusion of the lesson, 
students complete exit tickets, which not only serve as a means of self-assessment, but also indicate 
to the teacher how much learning has transpired (Frey & Fisher, 2011, p. 46). 
 
Linguistic Analysis: Complements 
The meaning of complements is implied in the word itself: they complete a given expression. 
According to Larsen-Freeman et al. (2016), complements can be defined as, “constituents needed 
to complete the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or sometimes a noun” (p. 679). Verbal 
complements include the following broad categories: that-clauses, infinitive complements, and 
gerund complements (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2016). Examples of each complement type are 
provided below:  
 

That-clause: Tsui responded that he was Chinese American.  
Infinitive: She stopped to adjust her mask.  
Gerund: I avoided taking the bus or the subway.  
 
All examples in the linguistic analysis are taken from Kambhampaty (2020), the article on 

racism featured in the lesson. While the term complement is not mentioned in the lesson, it is 
important for students to understand how infinitives and gerunds complete the meaning of a verb. 
For instance, if the sentence I avoided taking the bus or subway were rewritten as I avoided, it 
would be considered incomplete. The next two sections will define and illustrate the grammatical 
functions of infinitive and gerund complements.  

 
Infinitive Complements  
Infinitives are non-finite; in other words, they are not limited by tense, person, or number (Larsen-
Freeman et al., 2016). They are the base form of a verb; they can be bare infinitives (e.g. read) or 
to-infinitives (e.g. to read). Infinitive complements can be considered clauses in that they possess 
both a subject and a verb (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2016, p. 685): Her images inspire people to at 
least acknowledge their experiences. Within the infinitive complement, the subject is people and 
the verb is acknowledge. During the first “through” phase of the lesson, students examine 
sentences that use what Larsen-Freeman et al. (2016) classify as attempt and advise subtypes of 
infinitive complements (p. 684). The attempt-type verbs are intransitive and do not have objects 



Pao 83 
 
(e.g., We try to look at the larger picture). In contrast, advise-type verbs are transitive and require 
objects when they appear with infinitives (e.g., Older family members told her not to involve 
herself in “Black-white battles”). The advise-type can also be characterized as “manipulative” 
verbs, such as “ask, make, tell, order,” which tend to take infinitive complements (Los, 2015, p. 
3). The agent of the main verb “manipulates the behavior” of the object so that it performs the 
complement verb (Givón, 1980, p. 3). By looking at the examples above, students will observe 
that infinitive complements are often used to describe the outcome of an action. 

 
Gerund Complements 
Similar to infinitives, gerund complements are tenseless clauses that complete the main verb. 
Gerunds derive from verbs and end in -ing (e.g., reading). The -ing of a gerund is “an affix that 
attaches itself to a verb stem” (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2016, p. 689). Gerund complements are 
considered clauses, because they possess an identifiable subject and a verb: I avoided taking the 
bus or the subway. In this example sentence, which appears in the first “through” phase of the 
lesson, it is understood that the subject of the complement is also I. Gerund complements share 
characteristics of noun phrases that can serve as subjects and objects of sentences (Larsen-Freeman 
et al., 2016). In the sample sentence, taking the bus or the subway is the direct object of the main 
verb avoid. This statement can be confirmed by the possibility of pseudo-clefting: What I avoided 
was taking the bus or the subway. As Duffley (2000) explains, the gerund “evokes the whole of 
the event’s interiority” (p. 225). In other words, the gerund refers to the entirety of an event, and 
not just some part of it. 
 
The Bolinger Principle: Infinitive v. Gerund Complements 
In this section, I will expand upon these definitions of the infinitive and gerund complements by 
introducing the Bolinger Principle. This theory has been an important resource for language 
researchers and teachers alike, as it has been cited in previously published works on 
complementation (Duffley, 2000, 2006; Larsen-Freeman et al., 2016; Rudanko, 2010; Vawser, 
1988; Yidi, 1997) and has been used as a meaning-informed strategy to teach intermediate and 
advanced ESL/EFL learners the difference between infinitives and gerunds. According to Bolinger 
(1968), the distinction between infinitive and gerund complements is not arbitrary, for the 
complement types “contrast in meaning” (p. 122). Verbs such as command, expect, hope, struggle, 
etc. express “unrealized possibilities” and tend to take infinitive complements (Bolinger, 1968, p. 
127). In other words, these verbs denote potential or unfulfilled outcomes, as in, The U.S. struggles 
to combat a global pandemic. Verbs such as appreciate, defend, deny, enjoy, keep, etc., refer to 
“actualities or possibilities conceived as actualities” and usually require gerunds (Bolinger, 1968, 
p. 127). These verbs trigger actions in the complement that are real and vivid (Larsen-Freeman et 
al., 2016, p. 693), as in, The man kept coming closer and closer to Tsui. In the lesson plan, students 
will find a pattern for using these forms based on sentences that contain either infinitive or gerund 
complements. However, teachers should keep in mind verbs that collocate with both complement 
types as well as the distinction between these complements with respect to time and subject control 
(see Appendix B). While the theory has its limitations, it alleviates the cognitive load of learners 
in that they do not have to memorize which verbs go with which complement type. In short, the 
Bolinger Principle supplies teachers with a meaning-informed reason for clarifying the difference 
between these two complements and thus enables instructors to plan lessons that keep meaning in 
focus. 
 



84 GATESOL in Action Journal 30(1)  
 
Conclusion 
Designed for immigrant ESL students at the BCNC, the lesson plan aims to equip English language 
learners with communication strategies for combatting racism. While the lesson plan was 
developed for a specific audience, it can be adapted to suit the needs of any adult learning 
population. The accompanying linguistic analysis explains the difference between gerund and 
infinitive verbal complements and highlights the merits of the Bolinger Principle as a teaching 
strategy. Hopefully, readers will find this paper a useful guide for planning a form-focused lesson 
that addresses racial tensions of our time.  
 
 
References 
 
Avineri, N., Graham, L. R., Johnson, E. J., Riner, R. C., & Rosa, J. (Eds.). (2018). Language and 

social justice in practice. Routledge. 
Bolinger, D. (1968). Entailment and the meaning of structures. Glossa, 2(2), 119–127.  
Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language 

pedagogy (4th ed.). Pearson Education.  
Cornelius-White, J. H. D., & Harbaugh, A. (2010). Learner-centered instruction: Building 

relationships for student success. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/ 
9781483349183 

Davies, M. (2008-) The corpus of contemporary American English (COCA): One billion words, 
1990–2019. https://www.english-corpora.org/coca 

Duffley, P. (2000). Gerund versus infinitive as complement of transitive verbs in English. Journal 
of English Linguistics, 28(3), 221–248. https://doi.org/10.1177/00754240022005018  

Duffley, P. (2006). The English gerund-participle: A comparison with the infinitive. Peter Lang.  
Ellis, R. (2008). Explicit form-focused instruction and second language acquisition. In B. Spolsky 

& F. Hult (Eds.), The handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 437–455). Blackwell. 
https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470694138.ch31 

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successful teaching and learning. ASCD. 

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4(3), 333–377. https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.4.3.03giv 

Kambhampaty, A. P. (2020, June 25). I will not stand silent: 10 Asian Americans reflect on racism 
during the pandemic and the need for equality. Time Magazine. https://time.com/5858649/ 
racism-coronavirus/ 

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2001). Toward a postmethod pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 35(4), 537–560. 
https://doi.org/10.2307/3588427 

Larsen-Freeman, D., Celce-Murcia, M., Frodesen, J., White, B., & Williams, H. A. (2016). The 
grammar book: Form, meaning, and use for English language teachers. National 
Geographic Learning, Heinle Cengage Learning. 

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Bot, R. Ginsberg, & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Foreign language research in cross-cultural 
perspective (pp. 39–52). John Benjamins. 

Los, B. (2015). A historical syntax of English. Edinburgh University Press.  
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NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-anti-asian-attacks 

https://doi.org/10.4135/%209781483349183
https://doi.org/10.4135/%209781483349183
https://www.english-corpora.org/coca
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.4.3.03giv
https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
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Encyclopedia of language and education, vol. 4: Second and foreign language education 
(2nd ed., pp. 71–820). Springer Science/Business Media. 

Rudanko, J. (2010). Explaining grammatical variation and change: A case study of 
complementation in American English over three decades. Journal of English Linguistics, 
38(1), 4–24. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424209335495 

Ruiz, N. G., Horowitz, J. M., & Tamir, C. (2020, July 1). Many Black and Asian Americans say 
they have experienced discrimination amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Pew Research Center. 
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Vawser, J. M. (1988). An experiment testing the Bolinger Principle to teach infinitives and gerunds 
(Publication No. 3853) [Master’s thesis, Portland State University]. PDXScholar. 
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Wierzbicka, A. (1988). The semantics of grammar. John Benjamins.  
Xia, L. (2012). A corpus-based study of the infinitive errors made by Chinese college students. 

English Language Teaching, 5(6), 154–157. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n6p154 
Yidi, W. (1997). Higher verbs and their nonfinite complements. Journal of English Linguistics, 

25(3), 241–249. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/007542429702500306  
 

  

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https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/07/01/many-black-and-asian-americans
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5737
https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n6p154
https://doi.org/10.1177/007542429702500306


86 GATESOL in Action Journal 30(1)  
 

Appendix A: Lesson Plan Outline  
 
Setting: Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a community center that offers resources and 
programs to immigrants and immigrant families. A majority of BCNC members are from Chinese-speaking 
regions (e.g. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), but the center is open to all immigrants from around 
the world. This lesson is designed for an ESL Customer Service class, which the BCNC offers for free to 
any members of the Boston Chinatown community.  
 
Learner Background Information:  
 Class size: Each time this class is offered, the class size varies, but the size is usually small, about 

10 students.  
 Age: There is a wide range. Learners may be in their mid-twenties to late fifties. The average age 

varies by class, and BCNC does not offer any statistics, but based on an educated guess, the average 
age is about early forties.  

 ESL context: Many students come from China (usually Mainland), but not all learners have the 
same L1. There is a wide range of proficiency levels (novice-high to intermediate-mid), which are 
determined by the proficiency test BCNC administers to entering students. Learners all read and 
write simple sentences in their L1. They all understand simple sentence structure. With respect to 
the average number of years learning English, the BCNC does not report statistics on their website, 
but the range can be from a few months to a few years of formal schooling.  

 
Time: 90 minutes 
 
Materials and Equipment: 
 “I Will Not Stand Silent” article from Time magazine (Kambhampaty, 2020) 
 Computer 
 Whiteboard and markers (if in person) 
 Projector (if in person), PowerPoint slide 
 Internet connection, Zoom meeting room (if online) 

 
Objectives: 
Learners will be able to: 
 Grasp the main ideas of a text about racist incidents, by discussing them and reporting on them 

with their peers.  
 Articulate their opinions on racism and racist incidents, by discussing real-life events with their 

peers.  
 Identify verbs that take on infinitive and verbs that take on gerunds by comparing example 

sentences with infinitives and gerunds.  
 Identify a pattern for the use of infinitives and gerunds, first by writing the pattern individually and 

then comparing their hypotheses together as a class.  
 Develop effective communication strategies against racial slurs and discrimination, by discussing 

them in groups. 
 Report on these strategies by presenting them to the class and answering questions that elicit the 

infinitive and gerund forms.  
 
Lesson Plan: 
 
(1) “Into” phase: Defining racism (10–15 mins.) 
 Check in with learners to see how they are doing and invite them to share any news, orally or in 

the chat if the lesson is on Zoom.  



Pao 87 
 
 Trigger warning: Warn students that this lesson will focus on a sensitive topic: racism. Remind 

students that this is a safe space, where we can support one another and engage bravely and 
empathetically with challenging material.  

 Ask learners: “What does racism mean to you?” Learners are invited to write their ideas on the 
whiteboard (physical or virtual). Offer assistance if learners are stuck or need help finding the words.  

 Ask learners: “What racist attitudes might people have during the pandemic? Give a specific 
example.” Learners share orally their responses to this question.  
 

(2) “Through” phase: Reading about experiences of racism (20–30 mins.) 
 For this jigsaw reading activity, learners read a brief excerpt of the article from Time Magazine “I 

will not stand silent: 10 Asian Americans reflect on racism during the pandemic and the need for 
equality.” Learners are divided into groups or breakout rooms based on the section they read. For 
example, group A reads about Justin Tsui’s story, group B reads about Jilleen Liao’s and so on. 
Within each group, learners discuss what happened in their assigned story. They will answer the 
following questions:  

o What happened to [insert name of Asian American who is telling the story]? 
o How is this incident racist?  
o How did s/he feel or react to this incident?  

Circle among groups/breakout rooms and listen to their conversations. Offer assistance as needed 
if learners do not understand certain words or phrases in the text.  

 In the second phase of the jigsaw reading activity, learners change groups so that within each group, 
each learner will have read a different section of the article. Learners report to classmates what 
happened in their respective stories. When it is their turn to listen, learners are encouraged to ask 
their peers questions about their stories. Circle among groups/breakout rooms and listen to their 
conversations. Offer assistance as needed.  

 Come back together as a group. Ask learners what they think about these incidents and whether 
they have had similar experiences. Model and provide useful phrases for expressing opinions (e.g., 
“I think that . . . ”, “In my opinion, . . . ,” or “I agree/disagree with . . .”). Learners share their 
thoughts in response.  

 Draw learners’ attention to the following sentences or phrases, which are taken from the article:  
o The U.S. struggles to combat a global pandemic.  
o We try to look at the larger picture.  
o The man kept coming closer and closer to Tsui.  
o Choi felt that he needed to speak up.  
o I avoided taking the bus or the subway.  

Ask learners these questions based on the example sentences:  
o Which verbs in bold are followed by to + infinitive?  
o Which verbs in bold are followed by the -ing form?  

 Ask learners to come up with a pattern for using gerund and infinitive forms, first by writing it 
down individually. Then, learners compare their hypotheses with one another. Collectively, we 
identify a pattern for using gerund and infinitive forms. The pattern may look something like this: 
“Gerunds generally describe actions that are real and actually happen, while infinitives generally 
describe unfulfilled or completed outcomes.” 

 
(3) “Through” phase: How do you communicate in response to racial slurs and discrimination? (20–25 

mins.) 
 Learners are divided into groups or breakout rooms. Each group is given one of the following 

scenarios, which are inspired by true events, as reported on Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center:  
o As you are walking in the street, someone yells at you: “Go back to China!” 
o A client refuses to be serviced by you, because you are Asian.  
o Someone throws a glass bottle at you and calls you “you f—king chink!” 

https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
http://www.asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/stop-aapi-hate/


88 GATESOL in Action Journal 30(1)  
 

o You overhear a coworker say that the increase in COVID-19 cases is due to residents in 
Chinatown.  

Each group will consider the following: What means of communication can you use to 
communicate these messages? What would you like to say or write? Let students know about Stop 
AAPI Hate, a website for reporting hate crimes.  

 In groups or breakout rooms, learners will brainstorm, by discussing with each other and taking 
notes, what is the most effective way to communicate the message. Circle between groups and offer 
guidance if learners are unsure or stuck.  

 As a whole class, each group will answer the following questions that elicit the use of infinitive 
and gerund complements:  

o What is the scenario?  
o What did you decide to do? Why? 
o What should you remember to do in this situation?  
o What should you avoid doing in this situation?  

While each group is reporting to the class, pay close attention to their discourse to see if they are 
using the infinitive and gerund forms correctly, and take note of any errors that should be addressed. 
With learners’ permission, audio record their reports.  
When it is not their turn, the other groups should listen attentively so that they can give feedback 
afterwards (What do you think of the solution? What are other factors to consider?).  
 

(4) “Beyond” phase: Exit ticket (5–10 mins.) 
 Ask students what we learned in class today and how they will use what we learned in the future. 

Students can choose their preferred means of communication for the exit ticket (e.g. say verbally 
to teacher, write an email, type in the chat).  

 For homework, they will write their own reflection on a racist incident that they have witnessed or 
experienced. They will also listen to the audio recordings of their reports, and identify and 
transcribe all the infinitive and gerund forms.  

 
 
  



Pao 89 
 

Appendix B: Nuances and Limitations of the Bolinger Principle 
Verbs That Take Both Infinitives and Gerunds 

 
While the lesson does not include verbs that take both infinitive and gerund complements, it is important 
to note that, in cases of overlap, a clear difference in meaning is often implied:  
 I forgot to pay the bills.1 
 I forgot paying the bills.  
In the sentence with the infinitive, the bills were not paid due to forgetfulness, whereas in the sentence with 
the gerund, the person paid the bills but forgot about it afterwards. However, Larsen-Freeman et al. (2016) 
acknowledge that the Bolinger Principle only partially explains the difference in meaning for verbs that 
collocate with both complement types (p. 694).  
 
The Temporal Distinction: Infinitive vs. Gerund Complements 
Based on the Bolinger Principle, it is tempting to define the distinction between infinitive and gerund 
complements in terms of time. This distinction can be ambiguous, since neither complement type is marked 
by tense. According to Larsen-Freeman et al. (2016), verbs that take gerunds encode actions in the 
complement that are “ongoing in the present or completed in the past,” whereas verbs that take infinitives 
“encode future projections” (p. 693). However, as Duffley (2000, 2006) points out, this distinction is not 
so clear-cut. Scholars have often interpreted the gerund as simultaneous with the verb that it complements 
(Wierzbicka, 1988). Duffley (2000) questions this interpretation and argues that the gerund is “capable of 
evoking an event that is temporally before, after, or contemporaneous” with respect to the main verb (p. 
223). In the sentence, I remember working with him on it, the gerund refers to a past action. The gerund 
complement can also allude to future or potential events, as in, I am considering working with him on it. In 
the sentence, I am enjoying working with him, the gerund complement happens at the same time as the main 
verb enjoy. Duffley (2000) explains that it is “the lexical content of the [main verb] that implies whether 
the -ing’s event is prior, contemporaneous or subsequent” relative to the principal action (p. 229). For the 
example of I remember working with him on it, the meaning of the main verb remember suggests that 
working with him occurred in the past. It is thus important to evaluate on a case-by-case basis the timeframe 
of the gerund complement with respect to the main verb.  
 By contrast, infinitive complements refer to the end goal or result of the main verb. As Bolinger 
(1968) asserts, infinitives often signify hypotheses or future possibilities. According to Duffley (2000), the 
preposition to implies movement leading to a terminus; the notion of movement here is understood in terms 
of time (p. 234). In the example sentence, The bystander threatened to report the incident, the action of 
reporting the incident is a step that the bystander has threatened to take. However, a complete view of 
infinitive complements should consider examples such as the following: He then proceeded to cut in front 
of her. This sentence implies the realization of the infinitive’s event. The infinitive complement can still be 
interpreted as a future event relative to the main verb. Thus, infinitive complements allude to outcomes of 
the principal action, whether they be unfulfilled or realized. 
 
Subject Control: Infinitive vs. Gerund Complements 
The distinction between infinitive and gerund complements can also be analyzed through the lens of subject 
control. As explained in the definitions section, both complement types are considered clauses, because 
they have an identifiable subject and a verb. Identifying the noun phrase that governs an infinitive or a 
gerund complement is known as the concept of subject control (Duffley, 2000, 2006). According to Duffley 
(2000), the subject of the main verb and that of the infinitive complement are always the same, whereas the 
gerund complement can either refer to the subject of the sentence or to a different entity. In the sentence, 
Schools stopped offering in-person classes this year, it is understood that schools are the subject of both the 
main verb stop and the gerund complement. However, in the sentence, The governor recommends wearing 

                                                      
1 These examples were found in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (Davies, 2008–) .  



90 GATESOL in Action Journal 30(1)  
 
masks in public, it is implied that the recommended act of wearing masks is to be carried out by everyone 
in the state, not just the governor. Similar to timeframes, the known subject of a gerund complement 
depends on the meaning of the verb. While the analysis of Duffley (2000) on gerund complements is 
accurate, his assertion on infinitive complements and subject control does not apply to all cases. Contrary 
to his findings, the infinitive complement does not always imply co-referentiality with the subject of the 
sentence. Based on an earlier example, Older family members told her not to involve herself in “black-white 
battles,” it is older family members who impart advice and it is she who may involve herself in “black-
white battles.” When helping learners distinguish between infinitive and gerund complements, teachers 
should consider the question of subject control, which adds another layer of nuance to a complex 
grammatical concept. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
____________________________________________________________________________ 
 

Received: August 15, 2020 | Accepted: September 21, 2020 | Published: October 29, 2020 


	GATESOL in Action Journal2020, Vol. 30(1), pp. 80–90
	Communicating in the Face of Racism: Infinitive v. Gerund Verbal Complements in English
	ISSN: 2331-6845
	Abstract
	Keywords


