Phil:

I agree with the statement you make in your article that there is 
great confusion concerning words used to define grammatical terms. I 
have recently reviewed 18 (eighteen) grammar books of different sizes 
and origins, including Quirk’s “Comprehensive Grammar of the English 
Language,“ and each one of the uses a different set of terms to 
describe the grammar system of the English language. Standardization 
of  grammar terminology would eliminate a lot of confusion and would 
make different grammar books more accessible to teachers and students.

I do not have any trouble with the term *gerund* probably because I 
learned this term when I was in grammar (junior high) school, but I 
agree that the term is redundant. As you know, it comes from Latin 
(gerundium), and can be easily abandoned as the term *participle* can 
be used to describe both the verbal and the nominal functions of the 
[-ing] form. 

Someone asked a question about *parts of speech,* a term which seems 
rather counterintuitive for grammar (as grammar deals mainly with 
written language), and I found out that some grammar book authors use 
the term *word classes* to describe the same thing. I believe that 
WORD CLASSES is much better than PARTS OF SPEECH to describe the 
different categories into which we can prototypically categorize the 
lexicon of every language.

Eduard 

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