Infinitives & gerunds: -- Participles, Verbal Nouns, Nominalized Verbs

I have read the definition of a participle is a verbal adjective that
refers to a participant in the verb.  (Or something like that; forgive me
if the quote is not perfect).

There are several verbal nouns (or deverbal nouns or nominalized verbs)
which refer to a participant in the verb; agent-nominalization, patient-
nominalization, place-nominalization, instrument-nominalization, time-
nominaliztion, and of course event-nominalization, are all examples that
come to mind.

Would it make sense to call verbal nouns such as these "participial nouns"
or some such term?

Some of them might still inflect for tense or mood or such things.

Would any of them qualify as infinitives or gerunds?  I would expect we
would prefer to keep most of them as "participial nouns", and let only the
event-nominalizations be infinitives or gerunds.  Is my expectation correct?

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Thank you.

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eldin

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