Going on, should it be " which is going on" ?

[Egyption Arrow]

In the name of the Merciful Allah,
Hi guys, please read this quote and then tell me about " going on ", is it an adjective or just a verb means "occur" or "take place", and if it's a verb where is " is" or the verb to be? Here it is: Professor says: Uh, he did indeed, um, and to jump ahead, what one finds in deaf individuals who use sign languages when they are given problems of various kinds, they have muscular changes in their hands when they are trying to solve a problem.... muscle changes in the hand, just like the muscular changes going on in the throat region for speaking indviduals."

 

[mmasny]

'To go on' is a phrasal verb and as you rightly said it means 'to take place', 'to occur', 'to happen', sometimes 'to continue'.

'Going on' is a normal participle/gerund form of this verb.

Some examples:
"What's going on here?!", their mother shouted.
He has a lot going on, this man.
I'm sorry I interrupted. Please, do go on.

I am not a teacher.

PS: What is the quote?

 

[Egyption Arrow]

He has a lot going on, this man this is close to " go on" in my quote. Should it be " He has a lot which is going on"?

 

[mmasny]

He has a lot going on, this man this is close to " go on" in my quote. Should it be " He has a lot which is going on"?

It's a colloquial expression, it's not very correct grammaticaly. Your version sounds wrong to me. "He has a lot of things which are going on." is closer to being normal English, but still isn't.

just like the muscular changes going on in the throat region for speaking indviduals."

"Changes which/that are going on in (...)" is OK. But it's also correct without which/that. As you said, present participles can play the role of adjectives in the sentence and this is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

 

[Egyption Arrow]

Thank you so much.