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I made a few setences "using" a predicative adjunct(quasi-complement).

Are these sentences natural for English-speakers or I should put the word like "while" in front of the present participles?

  1. He strolled humming a song.

  2. I gave him a present singing a birthday song.

  3. I made him fix the window scolding him for breaking it.

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  • punctuation would help... and "scolding" needs an object
    – James K
    Commented Jun 13 at 5:16
  • In speech there would be some intonation or pause to mark the division. A comma helps indicate that. (also note the difference between "correction" and "collection" unrelated words that may sound similar to you, but don't sound particular similar to me)
    – James K
    Commented Jun 13 at 6:39
  • @user189378 What do you mean by 'quasi-complement'?
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 13 at 8:35
  • @Astralbee showed us a clear explanation of that.
    – user189378
    Commented Jun 13 at 8:44
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    In your example, "rich" is called a predicative adjunct. It's predicative because it relates to a predicand, i.e. "he", and it's an adjunct because it's an optional modifier in clause structure. In your three examples, the non-finite clauses are all depictive adjuncts, giving depictive information about the subject (“he”, and “I”.) They are interpreted with progressive aspectuality; for example “he was humming a song” / I was singing a song” / “I was scolding him …”. They are not complements because they are not licensed by a head word.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 13 at 10:30

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Your examples aren't quite right.

And they aren't examples of quasi-complements, either. I should add that 'quasi-complement' is not standard grammatical terminology used by native English speakers.

'Quasi-complement' is an informal way of referring to certain phrases or clauses that, while not essential to the core meaning of a sentence, provide additional information about the subject or object. Your examples are just statements about two things happening at once. For example, someone humming as they walk - their humming isn't affecting their walking, or vice-versa.

That should be clearer as you see what is wrong, grammatically, with your examples. They all have the same problem - they either need punctuation to separate the clauses, or a conjunction to join them:

  • He strolled, humming a song.
  • He strolled while humming a song.

Subordinate clauses like "while humming a song" do not fit the quasi-complement category because they are dependent clauses that function to provide more context or detail about the action in the main clause.

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  • Thank you for the explanation. I think I'm wrong about the definition. I often see the sentence like this and It doesn't seem to include punctuation or a conjunction. Why does this happen?
    – user189378
    Commented Jun 13 at 8:17
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    @user189378 "using a mirror" is an adverbial phrase that adds information about how the previous action (cutting hair) was done. It could be considered a quasi-complement because it provides additional information about the action in a way that is closely tied to the verb, similar to how complements function. However, it is not strictly necessary for the grammatical completeness of the sentence.
    – Astralbee
    Commented Jun 13 at 8:34
  • 'Quasi complement'? Where did you get that term from?
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 13 at 9:43
  • @BillJ I know, we don't really use the term as native speakers but it does get used to describe what we'd normally call adverbial phrases, some subordinate clauses etc. Perhaps it's a translation of something used in other languages?
    – Astralbee
    Commented Jun 13 at 12:25
  • @Astralbee The entire explanation helps me a lot, but I want to ask you two more questions. "I got emotional listening to this song." I think this sentence indicates a quasi-complement because "listening to..." causes someone to get emotional, but I'm not sure. What would you think about this one? Also, does a "quasi-complement" complement not only subjects and objects but also verbs?
    – user189378
    Commented Jun 13 at 14:49

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