All of your examples are
gerunds if we stick to modern terminology.
Forget about the terminology
verbal noun. It's total garbage!
It has many different definitions, depending on the author and when the grammar book was written.
_____________
The modern definition is given at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_noun
A verbal noun is a noun formed directly as
an inflexion
of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its
constructions. This term is applied especially to gerunds, and
sometimes also to [bare] infinitives and supines [i.e., full
infinitives].
That is, there are three types of verbal noun: gerunds, bare infinitives, and full infinitives.
So anything that is a gerund is also a verbal noun, because a gerund is one of the types of verbal nouns.
____________
The modern definition is echoed at
http://www.ielanguages.com/english.html
Gerunds: [Like participles,] Gerunds
are also
formed by adding -ing to the verb, but they function as a verbal noun
[as opposed to the participle, which is a verbal adjective] and are
normally preceded by articles or demonstratives. The singing was
excellent.
___________
A completely different definition is found here:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-VERBALNOUN.html
VERBAL NOUN. A
category of noncountable abstract noun derived from a verb, in English by
adding the suffix
-ing. Like the verb from which it derives, it refers
to an action or state:
writing in
The writing has taken too long;
hearing in
His hearing is defective. Verbal nouns are
frequently combined with the preposition
of and a noun phrase that
corresponds to the subject or object in a clause:
The grumbling of his
neighbours met with no response (compare
His neighbours grumbled);
His acting of Hamlet won our admiration (compare
He acted Hamlet).
Verbal nouns contrast with
deverbal nouns, that is, other kinds of
nouns derived from verbs, such as
attempt,
destruction, and
including nouns ending in
-ing that do not have verbal force:
building
in
The building was empty.
They also contrast with the gerund, which
also ends in -ing, but is syntactically a verb.
Note the last (underlined) sentence. By this definition only usages like
The neighbors were acting like fools are considered gerunds --
not all the other examples that preceded -- examples that we would all agree
are gerunds in current terminology.
_____________
The next definition is
more than 100 years old, and I've seen it quoted on this site. Note that it is classified (see the URL) under "
Classic Literature". It is useful only as a historic document -- not as a guide to modern English and modern syntactic analysis.
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wmbaskervill/bl-wmbaskervill-grammar-parts-nouns.htm
An English Grammar
1896
by W. M. Baskervill & J. W. Sewell
273. It [the gerund] differs from the
participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a
noun.
It
differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which
the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names
an action, Sec. II).
[Sec.
II. is actually Sec. 11, where nouns are discussed. The
discussion of verbal nouns is within a category called Abstract Nouns,
so in Section 11 verbal nouns are called by their more specific
name: Verbal Abstract Nouns.]
II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS
Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may be—
(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by
altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a long
run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk "
[These are called deverbal nouns in modern terminology -- or 'zero-related nominals' or just 'nouns'.]
(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a
suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from thieve, action from
act, service from serve.
[These,too, are called deverbal nouns nowadays -- or just 'nouns'.]
(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb.
It must be remembered that these words are free from any verbal function They
cannot govern a word, and they cannot express action, but are merely names of
actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished
from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273). [These
are nouns that end in -ing. They have acquired fixed meanings as
nouns, referring to something more concrete than the action of the
underlying verb.]
To avoid difficulty,
study carefully these examples:
The best thoughts and
sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of
his life; he spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening;
our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a festival; the rude
drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of
the High Spirit; those opinions and feelings; there is time for such
reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor;
feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main
bearings of this matter.
______________
It is debatable whether anything whatsoever is to be gained in the
study of modern English by resurrecting these older definitions.
CJ