Meaning of 'My friend is shouting at his dog running"

Question

Meaning of 'My friend is shouting at his dog running"

My friend is shouting at his dog running.

I think this sentence can mean one of three below according to context. I wonder whether my thinking is correct.

1.When the sentence means "My friend is shouting at his dog running so that it keeps running" :

My friend is shouting at his dog running even though it looks like his dog doesn't want to run anymore.

2.When the sentence means "My friend is shouting at his dog that is running" :

My friend is shouting at his dog running so that he(my friend) is going to sleep.

3.When the sentence means "My friend is shouting at his dog while running" :

My friend is shouting at his dog running so that it can follow him.

Regardless of the awkwardness of the original sentence, is my thinking correct that it can be one of them according to context?

Answer 1

I agree there is ambiguity as to who is running: your friend, or the dog. Therefore, both #2 and #3 are valid interpretations.

As for #1, though, that is not something I would consider to be a valid interpretation without any additional context saying so. As a matter of fact, as written, the sentence could mean that, by shouting, the friend is urging the dog to keep running, or commanding the dog to stop running.

Answer 2

This is not a grammatical sentence so it is impossible to determine what it means.

My friend is shouting at his running dog

means that the dog is running.

My running friend is shouting at his dog

means that the friend is running.

My friend is shouting at his dog's running

means that the shouting is caused by the fact that the dog is running.

The standard rule in English is that an adjective precedes the noun that it modifies. This rule still applies when a participle is used an adjective.

Present participles can also be used as nouns (these are called gerunds). Gerunds follow all the rules that pertain to nouns: that's how we know that the participle is being used as a noun. So if the running pertains to the dog, we need "dog" to be in the possesive case.