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Lucas21c Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

A present participle

Could you confirm whether the following sentences are right and natural? Thank you.

1. That is the man living in the next town.
2. I know that girl coming from Boston.
  

Top answer

(1) is not a very good sentence. It is better to say "That is the man who lives in the next town". ) (2) could potentially mean "Since I come from Boston, I know that girl" (though I would put a comma after "girl"), but it cannot mean that the girl comes from Boston, which may be what you intend.

— GPY

  • (1) is not a very good sentence.
  • It is better to say "That is the man who lives in the next town".
  • ) (2) could potentially mean "Since I come from Boston, I know that girl" (though I would put a comma after "girl"), but it cannot mean that the girl comes from Boston, which may be what you intend.
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18 Answers
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(1) is not a very good sentence. It is better to say "That is the man who lives in the next town". (Of course, it requires a situation where "who lives in the next town" is a useful way to identify him.)

(2) could potentially mean "Since I come from Boston, I know that girl" (though I would put a comma after "girl"), but it cannot mean that the girl comes from Boston, which may be what yo
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lucas21cI know that girl coming from Boston.
coming from Boston is a hanging (dangling/misrelated) participle which doesn't relate clearly to the subject of the main clause I know that girl.
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lucas21cright and natural?
Right, but not natural.

That man lives in the next town.
That man lives in a nearby town.
I know that girl who is coming from Boston (on the train today).
I know that girl who comes from Boston. (She used to live in Boston.)

CJ
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lucas21c1. That is the man living in the next town.
Which meaning did you intend? "That is the man who lives in the next town" or "That man lives in the next town"?
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GPY lucas21c1. That is the man living in the next town.Which meaning did you intend? "That is the man who lives in the next town" or "That man lives in the next town"?
That's an interesting observation.

For the non-native ear, as mine, That is the man who lives in the next town means a man who happened to live in the next town whe
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Anonymouscoming from Boston is a hanging (dangling/misrelated) participle which doesn't relate clearly to the subject of the main clause I know that girl.
I don't agree. "That girl coming from Boston" is a noun phrase in which the participial clause "coming from Boston" is clearly modifying "girl".

BillJ
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Anonymous GPY lucas21c1. That is the man living in the next town.Which meaning did you intend? "That is the man who lives in the next town" or "That man lives in the next town"?That's an interesting observation.For the non-native ear, as mine, That is the man who lives in the next town means a man who happened to live in the next town whereas That man lives in the
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BillJThe use of the article "the" clearly marks the NP "the man" as definite. And the restrictive relative clause serves to restrict the referent of "the man" to one who lives in the next town, and no other.
Isn't it a sort of 'generic' "the" in "the man"? Isn't "That" a locative one?
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BillJI don't agree. "That girl coming from Boston" is a noun phrase in which the participial clause "coming from Boston" is clearly modifying "girl".
I agree that this reading may be possible if "coming" means "travelling". If, on the other hand, the intention is to say that the girl comes from Boston in the sense of living there, or having been raised there,
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GPY I agree that this reading may be possible if "coming" means "travelling". If, on the other hand, the intention is to say that the girl comes from Boston in the sense of living there, or having been raised there, then it is not possible. For me, especially in the context of the original question, the impression that the latter meaning was intended dominates to the exte
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