Language Overflow

« first day (1026 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (2508 days later) »

Captain Bohemian

04:55

Can you give me an example of "gerund clause"? I wonder what a gerund clause looks like.

godel9

@CaptainBohemian Wikipedia has some good examples: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause#Gerund_clauses

Captain Bohemian

@godel9 thank you very much. I am reading it now.

godel9

@CaptainBohemian Sure, let me know if you have any questions.

Anonymous

05:11

Wikipedia's analysis doesn't appear to make sense, though.

Anonymous

They wrote:

Anonymous

> a. Bill stopping the project was a big disappointment. - Non-finite gerund clause
> b. Bill's stopping the project was a big disappointment. - Gerund with noun status

Anonymous

But if stopping were a noun in the second example, it couldn't take a direct object, because that's not something nouns do:

Anonymous

> c. Bill's stopping of the project was a big disappointment.

Anonymous

Now stopping is a clearly noun derived from a gerund, and Bill's is a genitive NP in determiner position. What was the direct object in the first two examples is now an oblique complement in an of-PP.

Anonymous

05:12

What's more, example c can now take adjectival modification:

Anonymous

> c2. Bill's rapid stopping of the project was a big disappointment.

Anonymous

Whereas if we look back at b, we see only verbal traits. Besides taking a direct object, it takes adverbial modification:

Anonymous

> b2. Bill's rapidly stopping the project was a big disappointment.

Anonymous

Instead, the most parsimonious analysis is simply that b is a non-finite gerund clause, just like A, but with a genitive subject.

Anonymous

This analysis is covered in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum 2002) on pages 468 and 1189 through 1193.

godel9

05:19

@snailboat Whoever edited the article was clearly struggling with the points you're making, since they talk a little bit about the "enigmatic behavior of gerunds", though I think your analysis is clearer and more correct than what ended up in the Wikipedia article.

I should've read a little more carefully before passing along the link. :-)

Captain Bohemian

@godel9 don't worry about your passing along the link. I am a novice of the linguistic material and thus not clear about some terms. In case I have questions, I will consult you.

11 hours later…

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

16:01

@Godel welcome to our chat! I guess

@snailboat I think, for the first time, I understood what you're saying without processing it awkwardly with that loathsome loading bar

4 hours later…

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

20:26

@aesking - You just left three comments in response to one – a microcosm of the kind of behavior that put you on the radar in the first place. Enough with the playground retorts. As for that bit about you being the one who raised the flag, you're not the first to raise a flag only to learn the hard way that your own behavior crossed a line. In any case, you've asked your meta question, which gives the entire community a chance to examine the situation and see if the actions taken against you were biased or fair. Your arguments don't seem to be gaining traction; time to look in the mirror? — J.R. ♦ yesterday

That's the coolest comment I've seen in a while

Also

Word of the day: Microcosm

Haha "playground retorts"

You looking for this discussion was irrelavant — aesking yesterday

No kidding. That seems almost as childish as my messages

SmokeDetector

21:31

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer, toxic answer detected: What do you call a subcategory of a subcategory by Unknown on ell.SE

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@SmokeDetector . . .

Poetic

Mar 25 '16 at 6:16, by Jim Reynolds

Yes. Just a cape and a mask that covers my eyes. No other clothing.

Gawd

I had a rush of nostalgia

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:51

Jul 25 '15 at 14:02, by Damkerng T.

LOL

Who else misses that? :'(