Timeline for Should it be a Gerund Modifying the Verb or a Past-Tense Verb?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 24, 2020 at 19:07 | vote | accept | Eric | ||
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:35 | comment | added | Colin Fine | As for the comma, I'm not the person to ask. I don't believe in the mystique of the comma. If I would take a new breath group when I spoke it, I would write a comma. In both those sentences I might or I might not. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:33 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Those are the traditional labels. I think the parallellism is one reason why recent analyses do not make the distinction (I wrote above that they distinguish the clauses, but I'm not sure they do. I keep meaning to buy my own copy of CGEL). | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:30 | comment | added | user120390 | Thank you, @Colin Fine. Just one more question before I am clear on this thoroughly. "On seeing the snake, the boy flinched." "Seeing the snake, the boy flinched." It's the gerund clause in the first sentence and participial clause in the second one. Right? And does the first sentence need a comma? | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:24 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Yes. It's worth mentioning that recent grammars do not regard the participle and gerund as distinct, but instead distinguish the kinds of clauses they occur in. A gerund clause can sit in some of the same places as a noun phrase (here, the complement of a preposition). A participial clause can sit in some of the same places as a relative clause. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:11 | comment | added | user120390 | What if I write 'on realising the parent's weakness, the child started....' Is "realising" a gerund now acting as the object of the preposition "on" ? | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 14:47 | history | answered | Colin Fine | CC BY-SA 4.0 |