Appositives

Question

In a crowded, acquisitive world, the disapperance of lifestyles such as those once followed by southern Africa's Bushmen and Australia's aborigines, life-styles that require vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seem inevitable.

1.life-styles that require vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seems inevitable
2. life-stlyes requiring vast wild spaces and permitting little accumulation of goods, seems inevitable

Guys , ... struggling with above two sentence..Which one do you think is the best?.. Why is appositive "life-styles ..." in middle of the sentence... Does it has any significance?

Thanks

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Both versions sound great to me.

The only error is in the agreement of the main verb. "Disappearance" (sp) is the singular subject of the sentence, and requires the singular verb, "seems."

There's no place else to put the appositive.
The "such as" phrase is defining (without a comma). Therefore the appositive must follow it.

The disappearance of vehicles such as the Humvee, vehicles which get very poor gas milage, seems inevitable.

Suppose you said:
The disappearance of vehicles, vehicles which get very poor gas milage, such as the Humvee, seems inevitable.
"Such as the Humvee" is no longer defining. The statement is now basically that all vehicles are disappearing, and poor milage vehicles are only one example.

Edit. Well, I may be hoist by my own petard.
I suppose you can say that the appositive is fully as defining as the "such as" phrase, at least in terms of meaning.

Pokh · Answer

In a crowded, acquisitive world, the disapperance of lifestyles such as those once followed by southern Africa's Bushmen and Australia's aborigines, life-styles requiring vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seem inevitable.

Avangi ,http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm#modal_sequence says
Present Participle are used to show the action occurring at the same time as that of verb......

This implies requiring is occurring at the same time as verb seems (which is present)...But sentence talks about The disapperance of lifestyles...So is it logical

Avangi · Answer

Hi, pokh,

As an aside, I wish you'd please please correct the agreement error in this interminable sentence.

The disappearance SEEMS inevitable. The subject of the sentence is "disappearance," which is singular.

As another aside, your original post offered two versions, a "that" clause, and a present participial phrase.

In your latest offering, you have mixed the two together. Since your topic is now the present participle, let's use two present participles: lifestyles requiring and permitting. Keep the structure parallel.

Yes, "It seems inevitable" is simple present.

Of course, non-finite verbals don't have a tense in the normal sense.

"life-styles requiring spaces" as you note is an appositive for "lifestyles" earlier in the sentence. "Lifestyles" is sort of a general concept. The modifier, "requiring spaces," doesn't necessarily have a tense in the normal sense.

But to play out your proposition, the disappearance may be gradual, incomplete at the time of the statement.

It seems inevitable now that the lifestyle which now requires spaces will now/soon disappear.

If the main verb were past tense, and you wanted to put the subject modifiers in the past tense, how would you do it?

"Lifestyles requiring space" = "lifestyles which require space," so you could say "lifestyles which required space."

Fine. But you can't substitute the past participle for the present participle:

These were ancient lifestyles, lifestyles required space. No, No.

In World War II, in the African desert, the Germans drove tanks requiring gasoline. I consider this correct.

I'm not sure how we reconcile this with your grammar reference. I'll take another look.

Regards, - A.

Edit. Okay, this is the quote:

Working on the fundamentals, the team slowly began to improve.

[The action expressed by began happened in the past, at the same time the working happened.]

This is saying that you don't have to change the present participle in order to make it agree with the main verb.

It does so automatically.

Mixing slowly, we add the other ingredients. (present time - Both the mixing and the adding are in the present.)

Mixing slowly, we added the other ingredients. (past time - Both the mixing and the adding are in the past.)

Perhaps this is difficult to apply to your "lifestyle" example, because the present participles "working" and "mixing" and the main finite verbs "to begin" and "to add" are all describing real actions.

In the lifestyle example, the present participle is a modifier, and the main finite verb is copular.

Pokh · Answer

In World War II, in the African desert, the Germans drove tanks requiring gasoline. I consider this correct.

Here Drove is in past... thus requiring automatically takes past tense implying Those tanks REQUIRED gasoline..

In a crowded, acquisitive world, the disapperance of life-styles such as those once followed by southern Africa's Bushmen and Australia's aborigines, life-styles requiring vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seem inevitable.

Here seem is present, thus requiring takes present tense implying lifestyles REQUIRE vast wild spaces...But sentence talks about the disapperance of life-syles...so I guess what those disappeared Lifestyles required should be in PAST....

Avangi, Can you please share your views?

Thank you

Avangi · Answer

I had not previously taken note of the word "once." life-styles such as those once followed etc.

This implies that such a lifestyle is perhaps no longer followed by the bushmen and aborigines.

But there are many issues which relate to your question. This is a complicated deal, as you present it.

For one thing, the word "seem" is incorrect. I don't know if the mistake is yours or the author's.

Since your question revolves around the tense of this main verb, it would help to know what it is.

The disappearance might seem inevitable. OK

The disappearance seems inevitable. OK

The disappearance seemed inevitable. OK

The disappearance seem inevitable. IMPOSSIBLE / UNGRAMMATICAL / INCORRECT!

Let's assume it's simple present, as you claim. Try this:

In the 21st Century, the use of weapons such as those once used by Julius Caesar, weapons requiring great physical strength, seems rediculous. .

This sentence has the same critical elements as the sentence we're studying.

The main verb, "seems" is the same.

The present participle, "requiring" is the same.

The "such as" comparison refers to something from the past.

The question is, how does the "use" seem to us right now in the present? Rediculous!

The question is, how does the "disappearance" seem to us right now in the present? Inevitable!

In the modern world, the disappearance of [certain] lifestyles, such as A and B, seems inevitable.

This is a statement of principle.

Whenever we have lifestyles like A and B, it seems inevitable that they will eventually disappear.

Whether or not A and B have actually completely disappeared at this point in time has no effect on how we feel right now about this principle.

If there happens to be prior context indicating that this article is specifically about the bushmen and the aborigines, and if we have information that these groups no longer practice these [hunter-gatherer] lifestyles, then it might make sense to change the main verb "seems" to the simple past.

The disappearance of these lifestyles seemed inevitable. (seemed to whom?)

But it would still be possible to use the present:

It seems inevitable to me now that these lifestyles would have disappeared. That's a little complex.

Appositives

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