compose

Taka, I'd use "comprising" instead of "composing."

Would that settle the issue?

My dictionary says the progressive form of 'comprise' is quite rare....Hmm...

It's not a progressive. In other words it's not are composing. It comes from

There are a few students who compose the third group.

The relative clause is transformed into a participial construction.

There are a few students composing the third group.

And this is then 'fronted', which triggers there-deletion.

Compo

Hmm...don't you think it might be possible that it is the special usage of '-ing' that implies temporary state or ingressive, Jim?

Or more simply, isn't it possible that the author (my impression is that he/she is not a native speaker of English) has chosen the wrong word?

I think Jim has given a very concise explanation, AND I think it was the wrong word. I would still use comprising.

This is not an uncommon construction.

Six states comprise New England: Maine, New Hampsire.... Comprising New England are six states: Maine, New Hampshire...

According to my dictionary's usage note, the whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. New England comprises six states: Maine, ..., but Maine, New Hampshire, ... compose (constitute, make up) New England.

So the students (parts) compose the group (whole), not comprise the group.

CJ

Ellipsis, to me, is the last resort, and we shouldn't use it in grammatical analysis too much; we can make whatever sentence we want to ralitonalize ourselves.

One of my grammar book has this as an inversion (be-inversion):

In front of the forest was an open field covered with wild flowers.

I think you can also say that it's the ellipsis of:

'I

CalifJimAccording to my dictionary's usage note, the whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. New England comprises six states: Maine, ..., but Maine, New Hampshire, ... compose (constitute, make up) New England.

So the students (parts) compose the group (whole), not comprise the group.

CJ

Oops. You are SO right and I

For your information:

USAGE NOTE: The traditional rule states that the whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole. In strict usage: The Union comprises 50 states. Fifty states compose (or constitute or make up) the Union. Even though careful writers often maintain this distinction, comprise is increasingly used in place of compose, especially in the passive: The Union

1. Composing the third group are a few students.

I think I would take "composing" as non-progressive too; it seems to have an adjectival quality, like "included" in this sentence:

2. Included in the third group are a few students.

If the participle in #1 and #2 were part of a progressive structure, we would have a sense of action: the students would be comp