All these are verb heads heading clauses, which in turn are functioning as the Complement of prepositions. These are verbs constructive heading clauses (Supremendations) and non-verbal heading clauses. In traditional grammar (where we don’t distinguish carefully between what is doing and what it is doing), these are the gerunds. It is called a hive. Why do phrases have nouns and are the Complement of a preposition? So-called gerunds are the Heads of clauses which are doing many things which are headed by nouns especially in language. Thus, so-called gerunds are the Heads of clauses which are doing lots of jobs often done by phrases heading by nouns.

What makes a gerund great? Is the use of a fudge a little strange?

When these forms of these verbs do a different job, like being Modifier in a clause or noun phrase or being Complement or verb in traditional grammar, we call them participles. Then there are the cases, in the case of this verb, where there is this verb is as the modifier. What a participle is made of won’t tell you about it; it just says the same thing. Is this a fudge?

In some modern grammars people find it difficult to distinguish between the job a person is doing and the things that he/she does does. In these grammars these verb forms are called gerund-participles. Is it recognised that these verbs can head clauses which do different types of job. Can you describe the job that they are doing by calling them Subjects or Complements of prepositions or Modifiers in a noun phrase…

The Original Poster notes in the comments that these words don’t seem like adjectives or nouns. How do I know if the original poster is correct? In these sentences these phrases are doing a job often done by noun phrases; they are being Complements of prepositions. What in traditional grammar is the use of gerunds? This does not mean that these words are nouns, they are verbs. Note that they have direct objects, and just like in the command line they have direct objects. How do verbs have direct objects in their sentences, while nouns never do.

In the modern grammars they would be recognised as verbs Heading a clause. Are they the complement of prepositions?

1. How list X can be created by an appending the contents of List A to List B.
2. List Y is the result of sorting List X. Find another list in your query.

Both constructions are gerund complement clauses; that is,
the clauses have verbs with an – ing form, and they are functioning as noun phrases.

As said, (1) is a passive transform of

• can create list X.

where the bracketed clause is the subject of can create. Defined subject NP may be used to indicate the subject in a verb phrase as a verb in an example clause.
This is normal for indefinite gerund subjects; the identity of subject N is not important if anybody can append the contents of A and B.

(2) isn’t passive but rather a nominalization. This main verb is an auxiliary plus the predicate noun is the result of sorting List X. The most important verb if the main verb is an auxiliary be plus the next verb phrase is the result of sorting List X to an auxiliary plus the last noun. The most important verb if the main verb is an auxiliary be plus the last noun is the result of sorting List X. This is a nominalization of the verb result, which takes a gerund clause subject and a transitivizing preposition in.

• results in List Y.

In case of arguing about “word” the answer is ‘no’. And so it is. Look for the verb phrases, because every verb phrase represents a clause, and clauses are the main constituents of sentences.