[Grammar] Participle Clause, Gerund or what?

[GreenIdeasSleepFuriously]

Hi.

1. Having been defeated by a Roman-Goth coalition in Gaul in 452 AD, the Huns, led by King Attila, invaded northern Italy, attacking Padua and Verona.

If I wanted to rewrite this sentence without using participle clauses (deep structure, full clause), what would it look like? And is the constituent at the last part of the sentence (attacking) a gerund or a participle clause? If it's not a gerund (or a participle clause), then what is it?

 

[jutfrank]

Is this question part of an analysis for your linguistics course? Or for your own language learning?

Generally speaking, it's very useful for us if you tell us why you want to know what you ask.

 

[GreenIdeasSleepFuriously]

As a student of linguistics, I'm trying to analyze and understand the intermediate and advanced structures of English grammar. So I want to learn every possible structure modification type to grasp and comprehend what I read on an academic writing.

I guess I figured out the first part of the sentence.

'After they had been defeated by a Roman-Goth coalition in Gaul in 452 AD, the Huns, who were led by King Attila, invaded northern Italy, attacking Padua and Verona.'

But I haven't solved the 'attacking' part yet.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm still not sure if you're asking about grammar or just looking to understand the meaning with paraphrase. If the latter's the case, you could rephrase it like this:

The Huns invaded northern Italy, where they attacked Padua and Verona.

The participle clause attacking Padua and Verona specifies the content of the preceding main clause. The word attacking specifies the nature of invaded, and Padua and Verona specifies exactly where in northern Italy the attacking took place.

Is that the kind of answer you want?

 

[GreenIdeasSleepFuriously]

Yes, thank you. Your answer is what I have been looking for so far.

The question which I failed to ask was if 'having been defeated' stands for 'after they had been defeated 'then what does 'attacking' stand for.

So you mean it is a reduced relative clause.