[Grammar] New Immigrants Materials Shelf

[kadioguy]

kadioguy, I suggest that you spend some time actually studying this particular area (present participle clauses) with a good textbook. You need to find a range of example sentences that will reveal the various meanings and uses in a clear and simple way.

I am not sure if I can find such a text book. Could you recommend one? :-?

 

[jutfrank]

I wonder where to find such a text book. Could you recommend one? :-?

Give me some time to think about that ...

 

[kadioguy]

I can offer what I think is a better way of rephrasing this particular sentence than the one The Parser offers above:

He worked very hard, thereby ensuring his success.

When you see sentences with -ing clauses, you have to think about how the -ing clause relates logically to what comes before it. There are several ways this could be, depending on the meaning of the utterance as whole.

You enlightened me.

I thought of the following:

a. He worked very hard, and thereby ensured his success.
↓
b. He worked very hard, thereby ensuring his success.
↓
c. He worked very hard, ensuring his success.

 

[jutfrank]

He worked very hard, ensuring his success.

I think of this utterance as saying 3 things.

1) He worked very hard. [expressed by the blue clause]
2) His success was ensured. [expressed by the red clause]
3) His success was ensured as a result of the fact that he worked hard. [expressed logically through the grammatical relationship of the blue and red clauses]

You can see that the logical relationship between the two clauses is resultative. 2 is a result of 1.