101. Add-On Participles

Sentences can be expanded by adding on a participle and its dependent words at the end

DEFINITION OF ADD-ON PARTICIPLES

Participles are verbs with -ing or -ed (or irregular equivalent) that are used like an adjective to expand the meaning of a noun (see 52. Participles Placed Just After their Noun). They can function in a sentence in at least four different ways (see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles). In this post I wish to examine one of these ways:

(a) The disease spread, inflicting much suffering.

Here the participle inflicting adds a new statement onto the end of an existing one. In addition, the noun it describes, disease, is the subject of the preceding verb, and hence much earlier in the sentence. This is normally the case with what I call “add-on” participles, though they can also describe the whole of the preceding statement rather than just its subject (see below).

These key features of add-on participles mean that possessing a suitable ending and being near the end of a sentence are not in themselves enough. The underlined verbs in the following sentences are not add-on participles:

(b) A poor diet can leave a child struggling at school.

(c) The labourers left the fields, their work completed.

In (b), struggling is about the object of the verb leave (a child) rather than its subject. It is also a gerund rather than participle (see 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”). In (c), the noun described by the participle completed (work) is a new one placed directly before it instead of one already used before the main verb (see 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #4).

In the next example, the right noun is described but the participle is still not add-on:

(d) Fast food consumption seems to be increasing.

Here increasing describes the subject of the main verb seems to be (consumption), but it does not begin a separate statement of its own. It is just a part of the first statement, occupying the position there of “complement” which is necessitated by the complement-taking verb seems to be (see 220. Features of Complements).

If an add-on participle and its dependent words are left out, a possible sentence will still remain. A preceding comma, as in (a), seems quite common, but is not always present:

(e)  Trains are likely to be delayed passing through the Midlands.

In this post I wish to examine the meanings that add-on participles can express, to offer some advice on the use of a preceding comma, and to explain how these participles differ from -ing words after by.

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USES OF ADD-ON PARTICIPLES

The following examples illustrate different uses of add-on participles:

(a) The disease spread, inflicting much suffering.

(f) The disease spread, transported on people’s clothing.

(g) The king died, throwing the country into confusion.

(h) The clock struck 11, ending the war.

(e) Trains are likely to be delayed passing through The Midlands.

(i) The pilgrims stand praying in the square.

The differences might be described as follows:

In (a) two extended events happen together, but the first (spread) initiates and assists the participle one (inflicting) and hence logically starts earlier. Before the participle, one could add in the process (see 225. Simultaneous Occurrence, #3). The participle seems only able to be “present” (with -ing) rather than “past” (with -ed or irregular equivalent) or “perfect” (with having -ed).

In (f) there are again two extended events happening mostly together, but the participle one transported says how the main event happens, and hence has an earlier rather than later start. It is very similar to the use of by -ing (by being transported). All participle types seem possible: an -ing alternative to transported could be travelling; a having one could be having been transported or having travelled. Having participles express an action that ends before the main one starts (see 267. Participles and Gerunds with “Having”).

In (g) the participle event throwing is a result of the main one died. Unlike in (a), it starts after the completion of the main event. The participle links with the whole of the preceding statement, not just its subject (the king), and could be replaced by a which statement (see 200. Special Uses of Relative Clauses, #2). Before the participle, one could add thus. For further examples, see 32. Expressing Consequences. In sentences like this, other participle types seem unlikely.

In (h) there are two instantaneous events (struck, ending) happening together. The participle seems most likely to have -ing.

In (e) there are two simultaneous events, the participle one (passing) indicating an extended period during which the first happens. The first event might last as long as the participle one (i.e. the delay taking up all of the time passing through the Midlands), or be shorter. There is no causal link. Before the participle, one could add if, when or while. The participle seems most likely to be an -ing one.

In (i) there are two extended events (stand, praying) happening exactly together with no causal link. Like in (f), the participle indicates how the main event happens. However, this is a different kind of “how”. It is not an event that helps that of the main verb stand to occur, but rather is just a feature of it. It corresponds to a phrase not with by… but with in a … manner. Technically, it indicates “manner” rather than “means” (see 73. Prepositions for Saying How).

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PUNCTUATION BEFORE ADD-ON PARTICIPLES

The sentences above suggest that a comma is almost normal before an add-on participle. Only sentences like (e) and (i) seem exceptional. What is it that makes them different?

The answer seems to lie in the fact that add-on participle statements are a kind of adverb phrase. Adverbs as a whole can give information about a verb, adjective, other adverb, or entire sentence (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #2). Adverbs that relate closely to a verb tend not to be separated from it by a comma (it would be strange, for example, to have a comma between work and hard), whereas adverbs that relate to a complete sentence do tend to need a comma (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

I would suggest that the statements introduced by passing and praying in sentences (e) and (i) relate most to the verbs before them (be delayed and stand), whereas the participle statements in the other sentences above relate more to the entire statement before them. The reason for this difference is that the types of meaning expressed by passing and praying (location and manner) are typical meaning types of verb-related adverbs, unlike the types of meaning expressed by the other participles.

The type of meaning illustrated by the participle in (e) can be further illustrated with the following modification of sentence (g):

(j) The king died sleeping in his bed.

The participle throwing in (g) helps to name a consequence of the event expressed by the preceding verb died, a typical meaning of sentence adverbs. By contrast, sleeping here names a location in time and/or space, this explaining the lack of a preceding comma.

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ADD-ON “-ing” PARTICIPLES COMPARED TO “by -ing”

I indicated earlier that a participle in sentences like (f) (illustrated there by transported or travelling) resembles the combination by -ing (e.g. by travelling). A question that arises as a result is whether there is any difference between an -ing verb by itself in such sentences and one after by. A difference does indeed exist.

An interesting grammatical point is that the -ing after by is a gerund rather than participle. The preposition nature of by means it must be followed by a word with noun-like properties, and the gerund use of -ing is a typical way of giving these properties to a verb (see 70. Gerunds, Section 1, #2).

A clue to the meaning difference between -ing and by -ing is their punctuation requirements: there must be a comma before the former, as in (f), but none before the latter:

(k) The disease spread by travelling on people’s clothing.

I think the comma in (f) is not only a result of the participle statement being like a sentence adverb; it also suggests that the participle statement is as much the focus of the sentence as the statement before it – that the sentence is informing the addressee of two separate things. The absence of the comma in (k), by contrast, indicates that only one of the two statements is the focus of the sentence. It could be either of them, but perhaps the one after by is the more likely: telling an addressee who already knew about the spreading how it occurred.

Saying something that is not expected to be new to an addressee is very common: for numerous other examples, see 156. Mentioning What the Reader Knows Already.