I also know of a (small but consistent) linguistic practice in which people deliberately speak in gerunds as a form of verbal indirection, and it works surprisingly well.
>linguistic practice in which people deliberately speak in gerunds as a form of verbal indirection
? could you give an example? (I can only think of sentences like "stealing is wrong" - but it doesn't seem like this is what you mean, because where's the indirection?)
In certain forms of bodywork the practitioner will not say things like "breathe deeply" or "pay attention to x", but rather "breathing deeply" and "paying attention to x". I've not studied the origin of this (it may come from trance induction), but it does feel easier to absorb such instructions when they're not issued head-on.
