Gerund or not

The bouquet of flowers WAS giving of love; I dont have a clear understanding on this sentence, i am sorry, but in my point of view this sentence is pretty awkwardly constructed. The subject here is "The bouquet of flowers ", a plural subject & taking a plural verb form "Was", constructed correctly, so no where "WAS giving " is used as a verb (past continuous tense), merely "giving" in this sentence is used as a Gerund again as it cannot be a participle either, because without the comma, when the verb+ing modifier is used, it is used to modify the preceding noun or noun phrase ("The bouquet of flowers"...in this case), not going with the meaning.

example,

i saw generis walking down the street.

In the above sentence, "walking" is modifying Generis, the noun entity before it.

I saw him, fighting over some trivial issues with the authority.

Now "fighting" is modifying the entire preceding clause "I saw him" as it is used with comma.

Sorry to tag you generis, but we both need your expert advise.

J2S2019 , good heavens, don't be sorry about tagging me.

You've done a good job.

rohitchayal , you asked,
If the sentence were
The bouquet of flowers WAS giving of love" would "giving" then have been a verb or a participle or a gerund?

Giving would be a gerund.
It's not part of a verb that in other contexts would be was giving. (He was giving them a gift by weeding their yard.)

Giving in your sentence is the subject complement of WAS, which connotes "equaled."

What was the bouquet?
It was "giving of love." (With both sentences, my native ear hears a word that is a bit odd. A giving of love is more standard but still odd. I would say "gift." I know you are trying to understand difficult gerunds. You picked a very hard one. )

Giving is not a participle. Giving can mean generous. But a bouquet cannot be generous with its love. The subject complement is thus not an adjective that describes bouquet.

Giving is not part of the phrasal verb "to give OF love." A bouquet cannot do the action of giving its love.

Careful, though -- if the subject were different, "giving" would be part of the phrasal verb to give of.
-- He joined Doctors Without Borders permanently. He was giving of himself. In that sentence, giving IS part of the verb.

Giving as a gerund is not used this way often, as I mentioned. Because you used the linking verb was, this sentence suggests that
the bouquet equaled the giving of love, though the article is omitted.

So - gerund? Yes, but the usage is not standard. The first sentence is better, though it, too, is not standard.

Your first sentence is
The bouquet of flowers was A giving of love.

"A giving" as a gerund is awkward but clearer than just plain giving (without an article) placed in the middle of the sentence.

Giving in both cases is a verb-like noun. It functions as a noun and can do all the things that a noun does.

Gerund: Giving me a present was very thoughtful of you.
(This noun is the subject and means "the act of bestowing a gift")

Gerund: The president of the class organized the annual program of alumni giving.
(This noun is the object of a preposition and means "the voluntary disposing of property or money without receiving value in return.")

Issues connected to the word giving?

(1) it is easy to confuse the adjective (participle) and the noun (gerund).
-- My neighbors are giving people.
(My neighbors are generous people.)
-- My neighbors are giving people tomatoes.
(My neighbors are giving people tomatoes that my neighbors grew in their own garden.)

(2) giving and a giving, as gerunds, could easily be used in poetry or fictional prose. Both have hints of rhapsody.

The standard noun is gift, used this way: The bouquet of flowers was a gift of love.
I suppose that GMAC might use the two "giving" constructions to test a concept.

I hope that analysis helps.

Hi Rohit, in both cases, giving is used as a gerund here.