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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Adverbial participle clause

Hi there,

I've stumbled upon the following sentence that sounds weird to me:

*By forcing open the window, I was able to get into the house.* (Vince,M. English grammmar in context)

We can force smth/smb to do smth, but 'participle + bare inf.' seems strange...Is it correct?

Thanks for your comments in advance.
  

Top answer

' 'Open' here is an adjective. You see this more clearly if you consider this example. He forced closed the window.

— Clive

  • ' 'Open' here is an adjective.
  • You see this more clearly if you consider this example.
  • He forced closed the window.
  • You can also say eg He forced the window open.
  • eg He forced the window closed .
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24 Answers
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It's not 'participle + bare inf.' 'Open' here is an adjective.

You see this more clearly if you consider this example.
He forced closed the window.

You can also say
eg He forced the wind
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Clive, I do agree with you that 'force the window open' is correct. I can`t justify the word order in 'by forcing open the window'; if 'open' is an adjective in this context, it makes the collocation even more bizarre (adj.+ the def. article + noun)...
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How would you explain 'closed' in He forced closed the window?

Or 'high' in the title of the famous novel, Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenters?

Clive
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"Open" is a particle in "He forced open the door".

Particles are short words that can appear between the verb and its direct object. Most particles are prepositions:

"She took off the label". (V - Particle - NP) ~ "She took the label off". (V - NP - Particle)
"Ed brought down the bed". (V - Particle - NP) ~ Ed brought the bed down". (V -
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Anonymoussounds weird to me: By forcing open the window,
It is less usual than "By forcing the window open". I find it an acceptable grammatical pattern in written form, but I wouldn't recommend applying it indiscriminately in conversation. That way you'll end up with monstrosities like "I painted white the house" and "I cooked well-done the beef".
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BillJ"Open" is a particle in "He forced open the door".Particles are short words that can appear between the verb and its direct object. Most particles are prepositions:
That is the labelling of one school of grammar.
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fivejedjon That is the labelling of one school of grammar.
Got a better one?

BillJ
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CalifJim That way you'll end up with monstrosities like "I painted white the house" and "I cooked well-done the beef". CJ
Yes, but "white" and "well-done" aren't particles, so of course you end up with "monstrosities" lol!

BillJ
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BillJGot a better one?
Is this remark supposed to invalidate fivejedjon's claim? I don't see how it accomplishes that.

CJ
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CalifJim BillJGot a better one?Is this remark supposed to invalidate fivejedjon's claim? I don't see how it accomplishes that.CJ
If he knows of a better one, let him state it.

And what do you have to say about particles, CalifJim?

BillJ
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