In the phrase 'without excessively worrying', is worrying a gerund or a present participle ?
A website where I was reading about prepositional phrases, marked the word as a gerund. What I am wondering is, gerunds being noun forms are not supposed to be modified by adverbs such as 'excessively' in this case.
I need some clarification on this.
A gerund is verb form which acts as both a verb and a noun simultaneously.
As a noun:
It can act as SUBJECT of a verb: Worrying keeps you from doing your best work.
It can act as OBJECT of a verb: I hate worrying.
It can act as OBJECT of a preposition: I'm tired of worrying.
It can act as an ATTRIBUTIVE: She's gone into worrying mode.
It can take DETERMINERS: This worrying is killing me.
It can be modified by ADJECTIVES: Excessive worrying has killed our momentum.
As a verb:
It can take a SUBJECT, expressed in either oblique case: I'm tired of you worrying so much OR I'm tired of your worrying so much.
It can take a DIRECT OBJECT: I'm tired of you worrying your mother.
It can take idiomatic COMPLEMENTS: I'm tired of your worrying about money.
It can be modified by ADVERBS: I'm tired of your worrying excessively about money.
So it's fine for worrying to act as the object of the preposition without AND be modified by the adverb excessively. Normally, however, the adverb follows the gerund; without excessively worrying is acceptable but ungraceful.
"Worrying" in the phrase you cite is a gerund, not a present participle. A gerund is a verbal noun. A present participle is used, along with a helping verb, to form certain verb tenses. So, for example, "I am worrying," "You were worrying," "They had been worrying," etc.
So, how do I know "worrying" is a noun (and therefore a gerund) in this phrase? Because it is the object of a preposition ("without"). You've got a prepositional phrase: "without worrying," so "worrying" must be a noun, and since it's a noun, it must be a gerund, not a participle.
Hope that makes sense. I'm new around here!
PS: I just realized, I did not address your real question, about how "worrying" could be modified by an adverb if it is a gerund rather than a participle. The rule you cite does not seem right to me. Worrying excessively. Swimming quickly. Eating heartily. These all seem fine to me. The thing to bear in mind is that gerunds are verbal nouns, meaning they are nouns, but they are related in form and meaning to verbs, and they share certain qualities with verbs. One of their verbal qualities is that they can be modified by adverbs.
