[Grammar] 3G Mindset

Please analyze the grammar of the underlined part of the following sentence.

After describing all of the elements and components of the 3G Mindset, the authors point readers to an assessment tool on the book's website that gauges, through an in-depth questionnaire, in which of these three areas the respondents are strong, and which elements need work.

My questions are as written.
1. Is the wrod "gauages" a noun or a verb?
2. Is the preposition phrase "through an in-depth questionnaire" an appositive?
3. Which is the antecedent of the adjective clause " in which of these areas...", gauges, or questionnaire?
4. If the word "gauges" is a noun, then is it the antecedent of the adjective clause "in which of these three areas...."?

Ashiuhto said:

Please analyze the grammar of the underlined part of the following sentence.

After describing all of the elements and components of the 3G Mindset, the authors point readers to an assessment tool on the book's website that gauges, through an in-depth questionnaire, in which of these three areas the respondents are strong, and which elements need work.

My questions are as written.
1. Is the wrod "gauages" a noun or a verb? It's a verb. "The website gauges in which areas the respondents are strong".


4. If the word "gauges" is a noun, then is it the antecedent of the adjective clause "in which of these three areas...."?
See answer 1. It's not a noun.

Click to expand...

1 and 4 answered above.

:up: And Ashiuto (in 3 and 4, though not in 1) got the spelling right. The pronunciation is /geɪʤ/ - with a unique pronunciation of this digraph; there are several others - see the attachment. (You will need to install the Techphonetik font if you want to read the IPA symbols, and a few of the links are to other files - send PM for a zip file [too big to upload here], but the links to the Macmillan English Dictionary will work. Note that pronunciations noted in the file are Br Eng.)

Incidentally, in that context gAUge is indeed a verb. There is a noun gauge though. And the fact that the verb 'gauge' was used, rather than 'measure or 'estimate' or 'check'... [etc] could be thought to suggest that there was a graphic indicator of the measurement on the web-site - like a car's 'fuel gauge', perhaps.

b