I came across this sentence on a Britannica page:
The titles of Jakobson’s works indicate the expanding scope of his research
Why is expanding used here instead of expansive? Is expanding a commonly used adjective? Any difference from expansive?
expandable
, that way it could speak to the potential type of scope, and not the action that is taking place, or has taken place upon the scope. I'm not saying this is the only possibility, however for strict clarity of adjective vs verb, I believe that it is note worthy. – Rick Riggs Mar 15 '18 at 2:13The titles of Jakobson's works indicate the scope of his research **is** expanding.
I believe that this may have been Lambie's comment.is
takes on the verb (state of being) andexpanding
still expresses the progressive "action" state of the research; Because it speaks to its state, it can still be equated to describing the nounscope
. – Rick Riggs Mar 15 '18 at 2:35