Phantom nuns and gerund(ive)s

Posted by TheFallen on August 17, 2002

This earlier post from Bruce got me thinking...

*snip*

"I very much appreciate you taking the trouble to look up my request"

Shouldn't it be "YOUR taking the trouble.."?
Or is this a case of the ghosts of the Sisters of Notre Dame circa 1959 cracking my knuckles with their crosses for mis-diagraming a sentence?

*snip end*

It should of course strictly be "your taking", as Bruce knows, because "taking" is effectively a noun in this phrase - a thing which I think either makes it a gerund or a gerundive. However I'm damned if I know the difference between the two - I never understood it in Latin, and I'm even unsure if either or both parts of speech actually exist in English. Can anyone enlighten me without resorting to ordering me to a phantom nunnery?

• Phantom nuns and gerund(ive)s R. Berg 08/17/02