Now and then I come across the constructions indicated in the heading. I'm a bit puzzled regarding their usage as a complement:
I don't want there to be any more trouble. I'd like there to be more
time to think. What's the chance of there being an election this year?
What is the current thinking about there being more than one Universe?
Are they entirely interchangeable or is there some difference in the meaning? Apparently, it ought to be because sometimes it seems that one fits the context better than the other. For example:
So your experiences, which represent there to be an external world of
physical objects (including your body), give rise to systematically
mistaken beliefs about your world (such as that you are now sitting at
a computer).
If I were the one who wrote this sentence, I would definitely have used there being, but the real author chose the other variant. So, what is the difference (if any)?
Best Answer
The difference is entirely in the requirements of the matrix clause. "Want" and "like" take an infinitive clause, while "The chances of" and "thinking about" take gerunds. There is no discernable explanation for these preferences: they're simply arbitrary facts about present day English.