Semantic functions of adverbaling participle clauses

Scope of the study This thesis is about adverbial ing-participle clauses, especially , we focus onthe semantic functions of adverbial ing-participle clauses and the interpretationthose i

I could not have completed our thesis without the enthusiastic help of my teachers, my family and my friends, especially my supervisor: Dr Lª C«ng Th×n.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr Lª C«ng Th×n ( Dr), the supervior who helps me a lot, gives me a lot of advice and guidance during my process of study I would also like to express my thanks to all the teachers of the Department of Foreign Languagues- Vinh University.

Finally , I would like to give my thanks to my friends for giving many documents and advice, especially to my family whose encouragement is very valuable for me.

Vinh, May 2003

Phan ThÞ Quý

Table of contents Page

Acknowledgements 1

Part I: Introduction 4

I The reasons for choosing the thesis 5

V Design of the study 6

Part II: Investigation 7

Chapter I Some theoretical premises about ing-participle clauses 8

1.2.1 Ing-participle clauses can have a subject 16

1.2.3 The position of objects and adverbs in the structure of ing- participle clauses 171.2.4 Ing-participle clauses with a conjunction 171.2.5 Ing-participle can have active, perfect and passive forms 18

ChapterII The semantic functions of ing-participle clauses and the interpretation those into Vietnamese 20

2.1 The constructions of sentences containing adverbial ing-participle clauses 20

2.2 The semantic functions of adverbial ing-participle clauses and the

2.2.1 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing time 272.2.2 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing reason 312.2.3 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing result 322.2.4 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing condition 332.2.5 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing concession 342.2.6 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing time-reason 342.2.7 Adverbial ing-participle clauses expressing time-condition 36

ChapterIII Learners’ confusions in using ing-participle clauses and some

suggested solutions 38

3.1 Learners’ confusions in using adverbial ing-participle clauses 38

3.1.1 Misrelated participles 38

3.2 Some suggested solutions 40

Part III: Conclusion 46

Refreence 48

Note : [135, 8] : example taken from page 135 of the book numbered 8

in the list of the reference.

Part I: Introduction

I Reasons for choosing the study

English is an international and living languague It is used widely all overthe world because of its important role in every field of society In Vietnam, itbecomes more and more popular and it is being taught in most of schools.However, due to the differences of the two languagues, learning English well isnot easy

In daily spoken languague, especally in literary languague, we often meetadverbial ing-participle clauses For example:

Being a student of Vinh University, I always try my best to study well.

Sometimes we meet some wrong adverbial ing-participle clauses, such as:

Crossing the road, a car hit him.

Learners may translate this sentence from Vietnamese one:

Khi vợt qua đờng, một chiếc xe đâm vào hắn ta

While the right sentence is:

Crossing the road, he was hit by a car.

( the actual subject of the verb “crossing” is “he” not “a car”)

Being students of English, we do find it interesting and necessary to studythis proplem Morever, it is a good chance for us to undrestand more deeply aboutadverbial ing-participle clauses and to practise the scientific study skills

That is the reason why we choose this subject for our study

II Aims of the study

Adverbial ing-participle clauses is a complicated problem whichcauses some confusions for Vietnamese learners So in this study, wewould like to give an overview about such these clauses, especially theirsemantic functions Further more, it helps us and other people to widen theknowledge of English

III Scope of the study

This thesis is about adverbial ing-participle clauses, especially , we focus onthe semantic functions of adverbial ing-participle clauses and the interpretationthose into Vietnamese.We also bring out learners’ confusions and some suggestedsolutions

IV Methods of the study

- Descriptive method

- Comparative method

- Analytic and synthetic method

V Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

1 Introduction

2 Investigation

Chapter I : Some theoretical premises about adverbial ing-participle clausesChapter II : The semantic functions of adverbial ing-participle clauses andthe interpretation those into Vietnamese

Chapter III : Learners’ confusions and some suggested solutions

3 Conclusion

Part II: Investigation

Chapter I: Some theoretical premises about adverbial

ing- participle clauses

1.1 Clauses

Clauses are the principal structures of which sentences are composed A sentence may consist of one or more than one clauses According to Oxford

Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, a clause is “a group of words that includes a

subject and a verb forming a sentence or a part of sentence” There are three ways that clauses may be described and classified:

In terms of the clause elements (subjects, verbs ) from which they are constructed and the verb patterns which are formed from these elements

In terms of the amount of use which a clause makes of verb phrase

structure On this ground, we distinguish between finite clauses, nonfinite clauses and verbless clauses

In terms of clause functions, that is the function a clause performed in a sentence, such as: nominal clauses, adverbial clauses,

1.1.1 Clause element

All clauses are made out of elements,each expressing a particular kind of meaning Traditional grammar recognised two main elements, which they called

the subject and the predicate The present grammatical analysis recognises five elements in a clause, all of which appear in the following sentence:

The cyclist has called Dave a foot twice

1 2 3 4 5

The first element in this clause is the subject (S) The subject usually

identifies the theme or the topic of the clause

The second element is the verb (V) It expresses a wide range of meanings such as: actions ,sensations or states of being performed

The third element is the object (O) which identifies who or what has been directly affected by the action of the verb

The fourth element is the subject complement (CS) which gives further information about the subject

The fifth element is the adverbial (A) The adverbial usually adds extrainformation about the situation such as the time of an action, its location, or itsmanner of being performed

When a clause is consider as a sentence, it may have the following patterns:

1 S-V(intransitive)

She smiled

S V

(105,love story)Oliver bowed

( 28, three Shakespeare tragedies)

1.1.2 Structural types of clauses

The second way of classifying a clause is based on what kind of verbphrase acts as its verb elements There are three types of clause that have

to be distinguished are: finite clauses, non-finite clauses and verblessclauses

1.1.2.1 Finite clauses

Finite clauses are clauses whose verb element is a finite verb phrase Afinite verb phrase contain a finite verb, which has present or past tense,and there are also person and number concords between the subject andthe finite verb

Eg: He loves hard work

He loved hard work

Non-finite clauses are usually constructed without or with a subject -Ing- participle clauses

The oranges, when ripe, are picked and sort

(when they are ripe) Whether right or wrong, he always comes off in an argument.

1.1.3 Clause functions

In terms of functions (what role they have in a sentence), clauses can bedevided into main clauses and subordinate clauses Subordinate clauses arethose which are parts of another clause, we can further divided them intocategories such as : nominal clauses, adverbial clauses,

- Nominal clauses are clauses function as noun phrases

That he passed the exam surprised everybody.

- Relative clauses are clauses introduced by WH- pronouns or “that” :

She told him lots of interesting things about their family,

which he had not known before

(130, English Smile)

Sometimes the people whom he argued with were as clever

as he was

(115 , English Smile)Finally on June, Mr Richards complained to an intelligentfriend of him who lived in the same place

(94, English Smile)

- Comment clauses

To be honest, I am not sure what to do now

To tell you the truth, I do not think you have much chance of

success

[ 332, 8]

- Comparative clauses:

She met a man who was a few years older than she was

(124 , English Smile)Sometimes the people whom he argued with were as clever as

Mary takes the cat everywhere she go to.

(27 , English Smile)

I went to the park where I first met him.

(32, Love Story)+, Clauses of concession: Conjunctions “though, although, but”are used

Perhaps I am being rather silly, but I am confused about: why

do I have to go to bed to make the tea ?

(84, English Smile)

Though the weather was bad, we enjoyed ourselves.

+, Clauses of cause/ reason : They usually occur with “because , as,since, for”

He like walking from the station to his office unless it wasraining, because it gave him some exercise

(86, English Smile)

Since no one ask me, I did not tell them.

+, Clauses of conditionClauses of condition occur with subordinators:"if” or “unless”

If the meeting finishes in time, I will come to Corneal and

watch you play

(25, Love Story)

He liked walking from the station to his office unless it was raining, because it gave him some exercise.

(86, English Smile)+, Clauses of purpose

A clauses of purpose may be an infinitive clause with “to” or “so as +to”

He left early to catch the train.

You are willing to take a chance to give the man a start on the road to success.

(84 , English Smile)

or it may be a clause introduced with “so that”

Peter kept his shirt on so that he would not get sunburn.

+, Clauses of resultSuch these clauses are introduced with subordinators “so, therefore, orthus”

She likes drinking tea, so Mary ordered an electric machine which made the tea.

(84, English Smile)+ Clauses of manner

Mary showed her how to use it.

Or it may be followed by an object or an adverb

I saw her making a cake.

O

I heard them laughing loudly.

A

It has some significant features as following:

1.2.1.2 Ing-participle clauses can sometimes has a subject

Very often, a non-finite clause has not a subject in its structure butsometimes a subject can be presented in ing-participle clauses

His parents having left the house, he turned on the TV.

If there is no subject, the subject is understood the same as in the mainclause

Looking though the window, Mai saw a very old man walking.

(Mai looked through the window, she saw a very old man)But sometimes the subject can be different if we can understand withoutany possible confusions

Knowing how little time she had, this new delay infuriated

her

We can easily paraphrase the sentence that: because she knew how little time shehad, she was infuriated by this new delay

1.2.2 In the negative, “not“ comes before ing-participle

Not having been there, he did not know where to go.

It is his fault for not telling her the truth.

1.2.3 If there is an adverbial or an object in the structure of ing-participle clauses, the participle always precedes an object and the adverbial usually comes after the participle.

He lied on his bed watching TV O

She saw him tiptoeing two times

A

Sometimes we can put the adverbial before the participle, especially in thepattern : “ adverb + participle + noun” such as : rapidly rising in flation

1.2.4. Ing-participle clauses an be introduced with a conjunction

You should wear gloves when using an electric saw.

Although expecting the news, I was shocked by it.

After walking about a quarter of a mile, they stopped in front

of a house surrounded by a wall

(50, Oliver Twist)

On looking at the address, Mr Bumble observed that it

contained no name

( 70, Oliver Twist)1.2.5 Ing-participle clauses can have active, perfect and passive forms

Having told him to be sure and not catch cold, the old lady

finally permitted to leave

( 35, Oliver Twist)

Having eaten his supper, he opened his box, hoping to find

some buyers

( 97 , Oliver Twist)

Having completed his preparations and cleaned the dog s ’

feet, he moved backwards towards the door.

Having been bitten twice, the postman refused to deliver our

letters unless we chained our dog up

Chapter II: The semantic functions of adverbial ing-participle

clauses and the intepretation those into Vietnamese

2.1. The constructions of sentences containing adverbial ing-participle clause

the time sentence is determined by the tense of the verb in the main clause So thetime of the sentence can be known in the following constructions:

2.1.1 Present

Ing-participle clause, S+ V (present simple)

The verb in the main clause is present simple so the time of the sentence is the present In this construction, ing-participle clause can be ntroduced with

subordinators

When

When touring abroad, we usually rent a house.

(4, Headway Intermediate)(when we tour abroad, we usually rent a house )

When dreaming, one tends to believe fully in the reality.

(40, Practical Faster Reading )

After tanning, only the "corium” or middle layer of the skin is left

to provide leather as we know it

(47, Practical Faster Reading )

After playing the game, he discussed my plans.

(29, Love Story)

I always have a shower after taking exercise.

An ing-participle clause can be introduced without any subordinators

Practising her swing everyday, Tricia hopes to get a job as a golf

instructor

Being his mother, I would like to be the first to greet him.

(4, Headway Intermediate)2.1.1.2

Ing-participle clause, S + can/ could/may/ should + V

This construction is used to express the possibility or the probability that the action in the main clause may happen Ing-participle clause can be introduced with or without subordinators.

* With subordinators

When

When cooking vegetables, the vitamins and the water-soluble vitamin

C should not be lost through overcooking

(43, Practical Faster Reading)

While

While working, you can listening to the music to reduce the stress.

(27, Sunflower May , 1997)

While cooking, vitamin may be lost.

(40, Practical Faster Reading )

After

After doing your homework, you can watch TV.

After working hard in the sunlight, you should not have a bath

immediately

• Without subordinators

Drinking coffee only mask the problem, a nap can solve it.

(77, Sunflower April, 1999)

Carrying the white paper bag out to the front, I could not help but

look inside to see ho much food there was

( 90, Sunflower August, 1999)2.1.1.3

Ing-participle clause, S+V (present perfect)

In this construction, there are some subordinators usually used with participle clauses as: before, while, when,

There may not be any subordinators in ing-participle clauses

Reaching the station, he has walked about ten miles.

Hoping to control Came s soaring blood pressure’ , surgeons have tried many times

( 27, Sunflower March, 1997)

Ing-participle clause, V( bare infinitive)

This construction is used for imperative mood, in which ing participle can beintroduced with subordinators:

After having dinner, take a cup of tea.

After discussing, tell me your decision.

While

While waiting for being interviewed, keep your mind free.

(7, Special English 25)There may not be any subordinators in ing-participle clauses in its construction:

Crossing the road, take care!

2.1.2 Past

2.1.2.1

Ing-participle clause, S+V( simple past)

This construction is widely used, in which ing-participle clause may containssubordinators or not

Ing-participle clauses introduced with subordinators

When

When starring into Allison's face, Danny prayed that she

could hear these voices

( 87, Sunflower November, 1999)

When seeing her smile, he felt suddenly relieved.

( 194, A history of English and American literature)

After

After standing for a few second as though making up her mind, she

entered the hall

(78, Oliver Twist)

After waiting for two hours, he got a lift from a lorry- driver.

After playing the game, he discussed my plans.

(29, Love Story)

While

While sheltering from a typhoon in a sleazy motel in Connate, I

came across a tattered beer-stained notice pinned to a wall above apublic telephone