|
Click on the Record Number to see the analyzed
text.
Figures are per 100 main clauses.
"W/" is the average number of words for the phrases in the preceding
column
Rec
No |
Give Tot |
W/ |
Give L |
W/ |
Give M |
W/ |
Give R |
W/ |
App |
W/ |
Post PA |
W/ |
| Avg |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
- |
- |
3.2 |
.9 |
|
|
| 1 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
- |
- |
4.3 |
2.0 |
|
|
| 2 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
| 3 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
- |
- |
8.3 |
1.5 |
|
|
| 4 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
Most grammarians would say that there are two
gerundives (which they call "participles") in the first sample. They appear
in the following sentences:
I would see her on hands and knees digging weeds out of her garden.
I saw her walking down her steep driveway to get the newspaper.
I suspect, however, that these are not true gerundives, and therefore
I have counted them as noun absolutes that function as direct objects.
(See the table.) Most grammarians, from
what I can tell, do not believe that noun absolutes can function as direct
objects, but then, most grammarians are not at all interested in the question
of natural syntactic development. Although he did not call them "gerundives,"
Kellogg Hunt claimed that they do not develop until, perhaps, as late as
college. (See "Late Blooming.")
This does not mean that gerundives will not occasionally appear in the
writing of some students -- some students are very advanced.
What we have in Sample #1, however, are "gerundives"
that modify a direct object. I suspect that these develop earlier than
"true" gerundives, and that they develop as useful reductions of certain
types of clauses after certain verbs. In essence, they are parallel to
infinitive phrases that function as direct objects:
I want him to swim. = I want that he should swim.
I saw him swimming. = I saw that he was swimming.
I said that they are "useful" because "I saw him swimming" does not mean
the same thing as "I saw that he was swimming." They are, therefore, needed
to convey specific meaning, unlike true gerundives, which are reductions
of clauses but do not normally change the meaning. "Going to the store,
we saw an accident" means the same thing as "When we were going to the
store, we saw an accident." Thus, to explore my suspicion, I am counting
these constructions as noun absolutes used as nouns. See also: The
Instructional Material on Noun Absolutes
Note that the appositives all consist of people's
names. In Sample # 1, the appositive is "my neighbor, Mrs. Higbee."
And in Sample # 3 --"We get a phone call from Christi, Lori's mom"
and shortly thereafter, "neybor Elaine." In essence, this means
that they probably should not be considered as "true" appositives, which
are reductions of S/V/PN patterns. |