The new church is in a beautiful setting overlooking the bay.
Would you say "is overlooking" is present continuous verb
or
"overlooking the bay" is a gerund phrase in complement position?
thank you as always for bailing me out
scot
gerund question
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Buddhaheart
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:18 am
- Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Hi Scot,
I'd say that Buddhaheart is correct, in that it's an adjective (or relative) phrase.
It seems to me, with my tenuous grammar grasp, that many relative clauses can be modified (or reduced) to this form. For instance, one could say either...
The monks who lived in the caves were considered brewmasters. or
The monks living in the caves were considered brewmasters.
The postman who delivers our mail wanted to see the baby. or
The postman delivering our mail wanted to see the baby.
The students who will come to the party should bring Jello. or
The students coming to the party should bring Jello.
Your sentence seems to be a modification of
The new church is in a beautiful setting which overlooks the bay.
You could even say something like the following, though it begins to get a bit more confusing since it's unclear who exactly is doing the sleeping -- the scorpion or yours truly. No doubt the prescriptivists out there will cry "foul!" at this one.
I caught the scorpion which sleeps under the fridge.
could POSSIBLY become
I caught the scorpion sleeping under the fridge.
This kind of modifying/reducing appears to generally work, though with the verb have, we tend not to use the --ing form and opt instead for a simple with.
The boy who has the enormous Adam's apple sings like an angel.
The boy with the enormous Adam's apple sings like an angel.
Stay well!
Echidna
I'd say that Buddhaheart is correct, in that it's an adjective (or relative) phrase.
It seems to me, with my tenuous grammar grasp, that many relative clauses can be modified (or reduced) to this form. For instance, one could say either...
The monks who lived in the caves were considered brewmasters. or
The monks living in the caves were considered brewmasters.
The postman who delivers our mail wanted to see the baby. or
The postman delivering our mail wanted to see the baby.
The students who will come to the party should bring Jello. or
The students coming to the party should bring Jello.
Your sentence seems to be a modification of
The new church is in a beautiful setting which overlooks the bay.
You could even say something like the following, though it begins to get a bit more confusing since it's unclear who exactly is doing the sleeping -- the scorpion or yours truly. No doubt the prescriptivists out there will cry "foul!" at this one.
I caught the scorpion which sleeps under the fridge.
could POSSIBLY become
I caught the scorpion sleeping under the fridge.
This kind of modifying/reducing appears to generally work, though with the verb have, we tend not to use the --ing form and opt instead for a simple with.
The boy who has the enormous Adam's apple sings like an angel.
The boy with the enormous Adam's apple sings like an angel.
Stay well!
Echidna