Liesbet, Heyvaert (2000) “Gerundive Nominalization: From Type Specification to Grounded Instance” in Constructions in Cognitive Linguistics: Selected Papers from Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Amsterdam 1997 (eds.) Ad Foolen & Frederike van der Leek: 103-121. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Langacker suggests that in a verb group “the specification of tense and modality be analysed as the grounding predication, with the remainder of the group (other auxiliaries and the main verb) regarded as complex clausal head analogous to a head noun.” (1991: 95) – 106

Even though each auxiliary element imposes its own profile on the main verb and thereby derives a higher-order type specification, it is only “the leftmost verb in sequence” (Langacker 1991: 96) which determines the profile of the entire verb group. – 107

action nominals seem to “focus on the event as a physical activity” (e.g. Sam’s washing of the windows was meticulous, Langacker 1991: 32), whereas gerundive nominals seem to imply that the designated events has occurred, that it is a ‘fact’ (e.g. Sam’s washing of the windows was shock to everybody, Langacker 1991: 32) – 118-119