daagh wrote:
Quote:
Pathanjali wrote
An analyst advised the company to invest $6 million into further development, a recommendation that could result in more spending by the construction company on its own equipment and decreasing the dependence on other companies to supply machinery.
Part A - "more spending by the construction company on its own equipment" == a gerund phrase. Here 'spending' is a GERNUND
Part B - "decreasing the dependence on other companies to supply machinery" == a participial phrase. Here 'decreasing' is a PARTICIPLE
Its understandable from 'could result in more spending...equipment' thatSPENDING is a part of the prepositional phrase "in spending...equipment" ie taking the noun position so SPENDING is a GERUND here
But in 'could result in decreasing the ...machinery' ==> even thoughdecreasing is part of prepositional phrase starting with 'in'...its a PARTICIPLE here not aGERUND. WHY????
Pls help.
The problem has arisen because of too implicit construction here. Your contention is that "decreasing the dependence on other companies’ is also part of the prepositional phrase, and hence it can not act as a participle. In other words, which of the following versions is correct?
A recommendation that could result (in more spending by the construction company on its own equipment) and (decreasing the dependence on other companies)
If the above is the correct version, then the second arm is not part of the prepositional phrase, because the 'in' is not commonly applied for decreasing.
On the contrary, if you version is “a recommendation that could result in (more spending by the construction company on its own equipment and decreasing the dependence on other companies), the preposition ‘in’ must be assumed to stand for both arms, in which case, the decreasing will be considered a gerund. You can not any more call it a participle.
Basically, in prepositional phrases, the preposition will have to be followed by a noun or noun phrase. As per this norm, more spending is undeniably a gerund while, per se, decreasing lacks a preposition just before it, making it more considerable as a particle rather than a gerund
To make life simple, it is better to amend the error by providing the preposition 'in' before ‘decreasing’, thus rendering the phrase ‘in decreasing’ a matching gerund for the previous one.
But where are the choices and what is the correct choice?
A nice conceptual question here.
Thanks.
After going thro your explanation it appears 'Part B' may or may not be GERUND - all depends on whether 'in' is part of 'decreasing the dependence ...’. How to identify whether 'in' is part of 'decreasing ....' or not???
Let me show how I feel ‘in’ could be part of Part B and if that is a possible structure why A in the following option can’t be correct.
The report indicates that last year one of the nation's most successful construction companies widened the gap between its profitability and that of other construction companies, and an analyst advised the company to invest $6 million into further development, a recommendation that could result in more spending by the construction company on its own equipment and
decreasing the dependence on other companies to supply machinery.
A - decreasing the dependence;
B - the decreasing dependence;
C - decreased dependence;
D - the dependence decreased;
E - the dependence decreasing.
My understanding: GERUND can only take a noun position (subject/object/prep obj/obj complement etc) in a construction and PARTICIPLE is a part of verb. Therefore if we assume that ‘decreasing…’ is participle, then it could have be derived from a construction :
(1) A recommendation could result is/was decreasing the dependence on other… but that will not make sense as auxiliary ‘could’ is already present. This means ‘present participle’ form of decreasing is inappropriate here.
(2) A recommendation could result IN decreasing the dependence on other… it makes sense to me
(3) Lets see the past participle form ‘decreased’ – here we will have to use ‘in’ in front of ‘decreased’ to really see that the sentence makes sense – as shown below: A recommendation could result in decreased the dependence on other…
In both 2 & 3 in’ is part of decreasing/decreased. If sentence is “in decreasing…” decreasing = gerund.
But if the sentence is ‘in decreased dependence….” decreased =/= participle as participle cannot be part of a prepositional phrase. This implies ‘decreased’ is an adjective and the correct answer is justified. However, as shown in (2) ‘in decreasing’ is also a possibility….in that case ‘decreasing’ is a gerund….the option A could also be correct. But why A is incorrect.
Pls help.
Thanks
Patanjali
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01 May 2011, 14:30
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