As the verbals (infinitive, gerund, and participle) make up a part of the English verb system, they have some features in common with the finite forms, and in so far as they are singled out of the forms of the verb, they must have some peculiarities of their own.
Let us consider the system of verbal categories which are expressed in the English verbals.
Verbals have no category of number,mood and person.
What we must examine is the categories of aspect,tense,correlation and voice.
The infinitive possesses the category of aspect, i.e. the distinction between the common and the continuous aspect.
- To speak – to be speaking
- To have spoken – to have been speaking
He seems to be enjoying himself quite a lot – the continuous infinitive gives more prominence to the idea of the continuity, which is obviously much stringer than the mere statement.
With the gerund and the participle things are different. They exhibit no such distinction (no continuous forms). Occasionally, a continuous participle is found: The younger Miss Thorpes being also dncing, Catherine was left to the mercy of Mrs Thorpe and Mrs Allen, between whom she now remained а a continuous Participle I is at least potentially a part of the morphological system of the English verb. But this use appears to be obsolete (archaic).
!!! Potentially any verb can be used in the continuous form. Aspect is characteristic for all verbs.
