Participial as adverbial?

[jasonkhlim]

Hello guys.

1. ''Solve the questions using what you have learned.''
2. ''He showed up wearing a suit.''
3. ''It is doing a nice job covering up the broken chair.''
4. ''I broke the law getting you out of jail.''
5. ''You were torturing yourself figuring out how to tell her.''

I can understand the meaning. But I don't understand why they are used without a preposition.

Are these participial used as adverbial? Or they are catenative verb?

 

[Tdol]

Why do you think they need a preposition? Some things take a preposition, others don't.

 

[jasonkhlim]

Why do you think they need a preposition? Some things take a preposition, others don't.

So, do you mean that they are all adverbial?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think it is a gerund phrase in #3, while others are participial phrases modifying the subjects.

 

[jasonkhlim]

I think it is a gerund phrase in #3, while others are participial phrases modifying the subjects.

Do all the participle phrases need to add a comma after the main clause? What about #3?

 

[TheParser]

2. ''He showed up wearing a suit.''

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Please look at these sentences:

1. She ran into the house crying.
2. He was drowned bathing in the river.

Do you think that those sentences have a similar structure to that of your sentence #2?

IF you do, then here is a great grammarian's explanation.

The adjectives "crying" and "bathing" "modify the verb of the sentence in which they stand and are thus adverbial elements."

He then quickly says: "An adjective does not [my emphasis] usually modify a verb, but a predicate adjective in this very common construction [my emphasis] does so, for one predication can modify another."

The scholar really helped me to understand this by explaining that "He was drowned bathing in the river" is short for "He was drowned while he was bathing in the river."


Credit: George Oliver Curme in Vol. I (page 43) and Vol. II (page 284) of his 1931 masterpiece A Grammar of the English Language.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hello guys.

1. ''Solve the questions using what you have learned.''
2. ''He showed up wearing a suit.''
3. ''It is doing a nice job covering up the broken chair.''
4. ''I broke the law getting you out of jail.''
5. ''You were torturing yourself figuring out how to tell her.''

I would call 1, 2, 4, and 5 adverbial. For me, 3 is adjectival, modifying "job".

 

[jasonkhlim]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I was told that I should add a comma between the participle phrase and the main clause, because they are modifying the subject of the sentence.
Is that right? If so, all my sentences should be like:
1. ''Solve the questions, using what you have learned.''
3. ''It is doing a nice job, covering up the broken chair.''
4. ''I broke the law, getting you out of jail.''
5. ''You were torturing yourself, figuring out how to tell her.''

Am I right?

 

[MikeNewYork]

No. I wouldn't use any of those commas.