Friday, July 15, 2016

sentence construction - Participles to modify the subject of the main clause when the verb of the main clause is "to+be"



1- Essos is an immense landmass located to the east of Westeros, extending into the far east of the known world." (Essos is an immense landmass located..+ Essos extends into the far...)


2- He is a bookworm, living in Canada. (He is a bookworm + He lives in Canada.)




As far as I know these two sentence above are correct. Does this use of a participle only work when the verb of the main clause is "to be" ?


Because "immense landmass" is just a noun phrase with two participial modifiers - "located..." and "extending...". And bookworm is a noun with one participle modifier "living...". And this noun phrase "immense landmass" and that noun "bookworm" refer to our subjects- "Essos" and "he"


Are this sentences below acceptable? :



3a- He has 5 children, living in America. (He has 5 childrens + He lives in America) (I think not the intended meaning so this sentence is wrong in a way) (I thought ıt might lead to misunderstanding. Someone might think "children" are living in America not "he". Maybe "he" and "children" are living separately.)


3b- He has 5 children living in America.


4a- He likes reading books, studying at Stanford University. (He likes reading books + He is studying at Standford) (The same as the above one)


4b- He likes reading books studying at Stanford University.



My interperation: When the participle clause is used to modify the subject of the main clause and used after the main clause, the verb of the main clause should be "to be" I think. I suppose 3a,3b,4a,4b don't work as intended because main clause don't have a noun to be connected to the subject of the main clause but the other two sentences works (1 and 2) that is beucase :



As I explained earlier: Because "immense landmass" is just a noun phrase with two participial modifiers - "located..." and "extending...". And bookworm is a noun with one participle modifier "living...". And this noun phrase "immense landmass" and that noun "bookworm" refer to our subjects- "Essos" and "he"




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