Ex.2. POINT OUT Participle I, Gerund or Verbal Noun, stating their syntactic functions

1. a) This hi-tech equipment is designed for recording low-frequency sounds produced by whales and other marine animals. b) The recording was made live. c) Recording engineers were top professionals from one of the Sony studios. d) While recording the soundtrack we altered its original version.

2. a) She showed a genuine interest in finding out more about people who needed her help. b) Her findings on prehistoric man were valuable for our project. c) Finding no one in the house was quite puzzling. d) Finding no one in the office, I decided to call the sheriff by radio.

3. a) She advised people seeking help in law areas concerning medical insurance. b) The rest of them carried their belongings in paper sacks. c) It’s no use talking! It’s not amusing. You go your way and I mine. d) We requested assistance in obtaining a visa to Paraguay.

4. a) We expected the waiting not to be very long. b) Waiting for the results to be announced, we felt somewhat nervous. c) Waiting for people or transport is exhausting. d) In the hotel lobby there were reporters waiting for the musicians to appear.

5. a) There was much reading and commenting on the stories during the classes. b) Reading rooms of this library contain reference books and encyclopedias some of which are three hundred years old. c) While reading the magazine I looked for car rentals ads. d) On the bench, reading a magazine, sat a man who seemed to be there all morning – he had a breakfast basket and a half-empty beer bottle near his seat.

6. a) The dancing hall admits two hundred dancers. b) Personal expression is the foundation of all dancing. c) The dancing couple moved fast, but very gracefully. d) The student audience cheered enthusiastically the girl dancing in the circle. e) The jury had a problem choosing the winners, as the dancing of all participants was outstanding.

Principal ideas:

Participial predicative constructions are formed of the PART and the nominal element preceding it. The relations between nominal element (expressed by the N, Pron. or N Phrase) and the participle are predicative – like those between the Subj. and the Pred. of the finite clause. There are two types of predicative constructions with PI and PII – Objective Participial Construction (Complex Object) and Absolute Nominative Participial Construction. The predicative constructions with PARTs function as syntactic complexes.