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Apr 15, 2015 - 7:10AM

Re: Participles & subjects

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much for your reply.
It really helps.

But can I consider 'growing ...'of the first sentence as a participle phrase?

Is it just like the example below?

It is also possible to use a participle phrase at the end of a clause and not immediately after whatever it's modifying. For example:
Paul loved his boxing gloves, wearing them even to bed.
(There is a comma when the participle phrase is used farther down the sentence than its noun (Paul in this example).)

Also, how can we write those supplements correctly? Coz I thought those phrases such as 'growing...'were dangling mistakes in participle phrases. Because it is weird to say 'the trend is growing...'.I am kind of confused about supplementary adjuncts and participle phrases(if they are)

Hope it is not a tough question for you

Thank you again!

Ashley

Paul Matthews

Apr 15, 2015 - 10:40AM

Re: Participles & subjects

Ashley

But can I consider 'growing ...'of the first sentence as a participle phrase?

No, it's a non-finite clause headed by the present participle verb "growing". Phrases don't have the same structure as clauses. Clauses have a subject and predicate; even non-finite clauses that don't have an overt subject are understood as though they did. And only clauses can contain auxiliary verbs and adverbs, cf: having been growing steadily from only 2% to 8% by 2001", the cost of insurance saw a rising trend.

Is it just like the example below?
Yes

It is also possible to use a participle phrase at the end of a clause and not immediately after whatever it's modifying. For example:
Paul loved his boxing gloves, wearing them even to bed.
(There is a comma when the participle phrase is used farther down the sentence than its noun (Paul in this example).)
Definitely! Supplementary adjuncts can pop up all over the place:
1. "Thinking about the day ahead, Ed set off for work".
2. "Ed set off for work, thinking about the day ahead".
3. "Ed, thinking about the day ahead, set off for work".

Also, how can we write those supplements correctly? Coz I thought those phrases such as 'growing...'were dangling mistakes in participle phrases. Because it is weird to say 'the trend is growing...'.I am kind of confused about supplementary adjuncts and participle phrases(if they are).
Forget participle phrases - there's no such thing. If an expression has a verb as its head word, it must be a clause, not a phrase. Also see my comment above about auxiliary verbs and adverbs.

As I said, supplementary adjuncts with the form of a clause, are non-finite (not tensed). most non-finite clauses are subjectless, though we understand them as though they do have subjects. For example, in my three examples above, none of the clauses has a subject, but we can recover the subject form the matrix clause, and it's obviously "Ed". Sometimes, it is difficult to work out what the subject is, and this gives rise to the so called "dangling pariciple", for example: "Walking down the street, his hat blew off", where it was he, not his hat, that was walking down the street.

But generally, non-finite clauses as supplementary adjuncts are perfectly fine and very common.

Does that help?

PaulM