different participial phrases

Question

1. His coming home late made his mom angry
1.1. He came home late and it made her mom angry.
1.2.. He came home late, making his mom angry.

2. North Korea's firing a missle into the East Sea caused a threathening atmospher between South and North Korea.
2.1 North Korea fired a missle into the East Sea, causing a threathening atmospher between South and North Korea.

Q1) Does #1.2 make sense semantically, grammatically?

Q2) Does #2.1 sound off? Can it mean like #2?

Q3) I ask these questions to compare them with other participial phrases(concurrent events) below. They are different, aren't they?

3. He danced on the stage, pretending to play an invisible guitar.
4. The gentleman extended his hand, saying "I love you"

Elanguest · Accepted Answer

Hi Moon, the sentences are grammatically okay. In sentences 1 and 2, the present participle is being used in a causative way, and in 3 and 4, it is, like you said, being used in a concurrent way. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

CalifJim · Answer

moon7296Q1) Does #1.2 make sense semantically, grammatically?

1.2. He came home late, making his mom angry.

Yes. It is more or less equivalent to

He came home late, thereby making his mom angry.

moon7296Q2) Does #2.1 sound off? Can it mean ~~like~~ the same as #2?

2. North Korea's firing a missile into the East Sea caused a threatening atmosphere between South and North Korea.
2.1 North Korea fired a missile into the East Sea, causing a threatening atmosphere between South and North Korea.

No, it doesn't sound wrong. The meaning of these two sentences is the same. The semantic relationship here is essentially the same as in example 1.2. ... fired a missile ..., thereby causing ....

moon7296Q3) I ask these questions to compare them with other participial phrases(concurrent events) below. They are different, aren't they?

3. He danced on the stage, pretending to play an invisible guitar.
4. The gentleman extended his hand, saying "I love you".

Correct. The semantic relationship between the main clause and the participial clause in 3 and 4 is different from that relationship in 1 and 2. The focus is on causation in 1 and 2, and on concurrent events in 3 and 4. The relationship between these kinds of clauses is not always the same, and it requires the imagination of the reader to find this relationship from the semantics of the clauses themselves.

CJ

Fivejedjon · Answer

For those who differentiate between a gerund and a present participle, Sentences 1 and 2 contain a gerund, 1.2, 2.1, 3 and 4, a present participle.

Elanguest · Answer

Are you sure about that, fivejedjon? Isn't a gerund where the -ing form of a verb is used as a noun?

Grammarfreak · Answer

ElanguestAre you sure about that, fivejedjon? Isn't a gerund where the -ing form of a verb is used as a noun?

I can't speak for Fivejedjon but I am sure " his coming home" and North Korea's firing a missile" are both gerunds.
How would you define them then?
1. His coming home late made his mom angry
2. North Korea's firing a missle into the East Sea caused a threathening atmospher between South and North Korea.

3. He danced on the stage, pretending to play an invisible guitar.
4. The gentleman extended his hand, saying "I love you"
Both "pretending" and "saying" are present participles heading the verbal phrase which added extra information to the main clauses

Fivejedjon · Answer

ElanguestAre you sure about that, fivejedjon? Isn't a gerund where the -ing form of a verb is used as a noun?

Grammarfreak said what I would have done. The possessive forms in front of the -ing forms indicates that these -ing forms are functioning as nouns.

Elanguest · Answer

Ah, I see. I was looking more at 1.2 and 2.1. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

different participial phrases

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