In the sentence "The dog kept barking", how to describe the words "kept" and "barking" ? "Kept" is past tense, but what about "barking" ?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Good morning.
(1) Thank you for your great question. I learned so much in researching this topic.
(2) It seems that the experts do not agree about how to analyze this kind of sentence.
(3) I shall tell you what I discovered. Then you can decide what you wish to believe.
(a) Many experts say that keep/ keep on is for "informal" use. So you might want to avoid it if you are writing something serious.
(b) Some experts explain that the verb "keep" in this sentence is something like an auxiliary (they use the term "quasi-auxiliary"). In other words, they say the verb "keep" in this sentence is something like "to be."
(i) He was walking./ He kept walking. ("kept" is better in giving you the feeling that it was a continuous action.)
(ii) So in the sentence, you could identify "walking" as a present participle or simply an -ing word.
(c) Some experts, however, believe that "keep" or "keep on" is followed by a gerund (an -ing word used as a noun).
(i) So they would say that your sentence = the dog + kept + barking (gerund).
Have a nice day!