An analyst advised the company to invest $6 million into

Question

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' that  SPENDING  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 though  decreasing  is part of prepositional phrase starting with 'in'...its a PARTICIPLE here not aGERUND. WHY???? 
Pls help.

EducationAisle · Answer

I agree with you. Is it an 'official explanation' (is this question from OG)? How did you know that 'decreasing' was being interpreted as a Participle.

Nevertheless, I have seen in OG, few instances like this. GMAT just prefers to make things more explicit. So, for example, in this case, you could see an option that says: 'the decreasing of the dependence' or 'decrease in dependence', just to make is absolutely clear that this is a noun form.

daagh · Answer

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.

daagh · Answer

Sorry I forgot; a kudos to you Pathanjali and it is nice to see that you are starting your innings with a sixer to the boundary

EducationAisle · Answer

I don't think you can interpret it that way. For example, in the following statement:

I am interested in sports and movies.

cannot be interpreted as

I am interested (in sports) and (movies).

If that's the case, then the two parts would be:

a. I am interested in sports
b. I am interested movies -  Absolutely wrong .

Basically, if the sentence could be interpreted the way you've mentioned, then there are much larger issues to be worried about than just participle/gerund.

patanjali · Answer

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

OA - C

daagh · Answer

IMO, just IMO, I think the author hasn’t weighed the participle or gerund aspect of the issue. It is apparent that he assumes that the second arm of the sentence takes the preposition ‘in’ elliptically, and therefore ‘in’ is not required to be repeated.

He is probably discounting Choice A because A may not be parallel since the first gerund ‘spending’ is modified by an adjective ‘ more’ , while the second gerund ‘decreasing’ is bereft of an adjective. 
Strictly speaking B,D and E are also unparallel, since  ‘more spending’  is not modified by the article ‘ the ’, while both decreasing and dependence are. This leaves C, which seems to have no error with ' more spending'  matched by ' decreased dependence '.

The above is just my hunch. It is for the originator of the topic to clarify what he intends to bring out through the issue.

EducationAisle · Answer

Yep, you got it.

No, the 'presence' or 'absence' of 'the', per se, makes no effect as far as parallelism goes (Refer to Q 119 in OG12 for an example; there are many others). B is clealry wrong because 'decreasing' is used as participle.

As I mentioned in my post above, GMAT just likes to make the usage of Particples/Gerunds very explicit.

As I mentioned in my post above, GMAT just likes to make the usage of Particples/Gerunds very explicit.

patanjali · Answer

Somehow I am really not able to understand why you term 'decreasing' as participle.

Would like to explain pls

thanks
Patanjali

EducationAisle · Answer

decreasing  is used as a  modifier  for the Noun  Dependence . Hence,  decreasing  is used as a  participle .

patanjali · Answer

I am sorry but its still unclear how you say 'decreasing' a participle and how its not a gerund.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, if we assume that 'could result in decreasing the ...machinery' thn decreasing will become a GERUND. How do you discard such a possibility.

Thanks for your time to help me understand.

Patanjali

EducationAisle · Answer

B says: "decreasing dependence".

'decreasing' is modifying (describing) a noun - dependence.

Words that modify (describe) a noun are Adjectives. The '-ing' forms of verbs (such as 'decreasing' in this case) that act as Adjectives are Participles.

An analyst advised the company to invest $6 million into

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