Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jays]

Is the following sentences grammatically correct?
---- the following -------
1. I don't like you lying in bed till late on Sunday morning.
2. I remember your promising me to do so.

[MrPedantic]

Hello Jays

1a. I don't like you lying in bed till late on Sunday morning.
1b. I don't like your lying in bed till late on Sunday morning.
2a. I remember you promising me to do so.
2b. I remember your promising me to do so.

1a and 2a focus on "the person + the action". 1b and 2b focus on the action alone.

Therefore 1b and 2b are less "personal" than 1a and 2a: 1a may be taken by the teenage boy in question as a direct personal criticism, whereas 1b only criticises the act of lying in bed.

As for the grammaticality of structures such as 1a and 2a, opinions are divided.

Some people would maintain that 1a and 2a were grammatical, because "lying in bed..." may be taken as a participial phrase post-modifying "you".

Others would say that since "I don't like you" on its own has a different meaning from the same phrase when it's part of "I don't like you lying", the "lying in bed..." phrase may not legitimately be taken as a post-modifier''; and that the structure is therefore ungrammatical.

On the other hand, no one would dispute that 1b and 2b were grammatical.

Meanwhile, oblivious of the grammarians' opinions, native speakers happily use both structures.

MrP

[pinenut]