Re: AmE: cleaning the car

And isn't it clear that in this example "the dying" means the people who
are dying, not the process of dying?

Look in the same reference under "gerund" and you should find examples
like "the dying of the light" and "the dyeing of the wool."  It may call
these forms gerunds, or it may insist that they're verbal nouns that are
distinct from gerunds.  Either way, they ain't participles.

¬R  "Carl Sagan is more educational than J.R.R. Tolkien even though they
were both total stoners." K.  http://users.bestweb.net/~notr/cosmic.html

[...]

Not so.  Curme, _English Grammar_, 122.A.3 _As a Noun._  "As an adjective
the participle can be used as a noun: the _wounded_ and the _dying_."  A
more general discussion can be found at 108._Descriptive Adjectives Used
as Nouns._  I frankly don't understand the sample sentence above: who are
"the cleaning"?

[...]

The first is clear enough, but that second looks wooly.  The operative
verb in the sentence--by "operative" I mean the one that connects the
subject to the predication--is the past of copulative "be"; it is linking
one noun phrase, the subject ("The first thing I did") with a second noun
phrase ("clean the car"), where "clean" is the simple infinitive.

I might, somewhat jocularly.  Plenty of people I know would, without any
special intention.  That's why I said "especially" rather than
"exclusively" in answering a question.

All three of these sound normal and correct to me.  "Clean" works just as
well in b. but sounds entirely wrong to me in the other two.  The key in
those two, to my ear, is that the cleaning is something done over a
period of time, an activity rather than an action.

Huh?  That's a gerund.  A participle describes its actor (present) or
object (past), not the action:  "The cleaning, by virtue of the solutions
they spill on themselves, become the cleaned."

As I said, I think you put your finger on it the first time:  The
infinitive is needed where "did" is heard to be repeated in ellipsis.

* What was the first thing you did?
* [I did] Clean the car.

* The first thing I did was [that I did] clean the car.

There's no inferred repetition possible if "did" hasn't been said yet.

¬R  >@< >@<  >@<  >@< >@<  http://users.bestweb.net/~notr/emopvere.html
"insulting me; that is one of alt.religion.kibology's purposes"  --jwgh

Webster's new World Dictionary, 2nd College Edition:
precisian: a person who is strict and precise in observing rules or
customs, esp. of religion . . .

I grant the "esp." use for a Puritan, but reckon the word has a more
general use.  Nor is it the same as precisionist, "a person who attaches
great or too great importance to precision."  The sense of excess is
distinctly greater in precisionist: a precisian is strictly exacting,
while a precisionist is excessively exacting.  A shading, granted, but it
is of shadings that English is built.

[...]

That is simply elliptical for "I cleaned the car."  You would not say
"The first thing I did yesterday was cleaned the car."

===============

As to the OP's later specimen sentences (here slightly simplified by the
eliding of irrelevant words):

a. "[O]ne of the community service projects we did was cleaning up on a
site that I wound up working on."  [I reckon that "on" should be "of" or
just omitted.]

b. "[T]he hardest thing we did was cleaning out her room."

c. "[A]ll he ever did was cleaning cars."

d. "[T]the nastiest work I ever did was cleaning tables."

And for comparison, the (also simplified) original query form was:

e. "The first thing I did was cleaning the car."

I'd say each is at least poor if not outright wrong (though b and d seem
less exceptionable than the others), and wants an infinitive in the
predicate.

More generally, each of those has the form "[noun phrase] was [noun
phrase]," where we are concerned with the correct form of the second noun
phrase.  As it involves a finite form of the verb "clean", it needs to
use either a participle, an infinitive, or a gerund.

The participle, to become a noun--it is adjectival by definition--takes
the definite article: "The cleaning was tedious work."  No such articles
appear, hence none of the constructions involve a participle.

The gerund stands alone: "Cleaning is tedious work."  The infinitive can
go with or without its particle, depending on the exact context: "To
clean one's room is a tedious task"; "Yes, he did clean his room."

Here I must admit I am at a loss.  It is abundantly clear to my ear that
in the general form cited, the subject phrase urgently wants--requires--
the gerund form, whereas the predicate-complement phrase requires the
infinitive form: but I can't adduce the rule.  Consider:

 "Cleaning the car was the first thing I did."

 "The first thing I did was [to] clean the car."

Both are easy and natural in sound.  But--

 "[To] clean the car was the first thing I did."

 "The first thing I did was cleaning the car."

--are each ghastly.  (But note that a participle instead of a gerund can
work: "The first chore I did was the cleaning of the car.")  Not that
infinitives can't readily be subjects: "To err is human"; "To triumph was
his goal."

Is it just arbitrary idiom, like the order of qualifying adjectives?  Or
have I missed some elementary rule?

I'm not so sure the wrongness is clear (it sounds only slightly awkward
to me) and I'd stick with the more recognized form "precisionist," but I
do think you've put your finger on *why* it seems wrong.  I wouldn't
hesitate to use the gerund in these similar contexts:

* The first thing I did yesterday was the annual cleaning of the car.
* Cleaning the car was the first thing I did yesterday.
* Of the things I did yesterday, the smartest was cleaning the car.
* The first two things I did were laundry and cleaning the car.
* The first thing I accomplished yesterday was cleaning the car.

All of these are pretty close to the original in form, but each has some
feature that clearly separates "did" from "cleaning" to make it clear
that "cleaning" isn't part of a verb phrase.

Also, I'd say the simple infinitive isn't always heard as such.  It's
nonstandard but not that unusual for the past tense to replace it,
especially in answer to a question:

* What was the first thing you did?
* Cleaned the car.

¬R

The #1 form is clearly wrong.  You will hear (and read) both of the other
forms commonly, but I believe that the precisian will prefer the #3 form,
inasmuch as after the auxiliary "do" the infinitive typically appears in
its "simple" (no "to") form.

(As a sidebar, the modern infinitive is an evolved form: originally the
verbal was the object of the preposition "do".)

Hello:

In AmE:

1. The first thing I did yesterday was cleaning the car.
2. The first thing I did yesterday was to clean the car.
3. The first thing I did yesterday was clean the car.

Do you feel that the first isn't correct?
How about the other two?

Thanks.
Marius Hancu