Gerund vs participle

Question

See the below sentence.Living in a country as ethnically and hence culturally diverse as Trinidad and Tobago, and being myself a blend of cultures, has been one of the most significant influences in my life.The phrase 'and being myself a blend of cultures' is enclosed by commas so it could be regarded as inserted phrase and if so, it might well be regarded as a participle phrase than a gerund phrase,but it is natural that we should take it that the phrase is a gerund phrase when we interpret the given example.1) If we treat the phrase as a participle phrase, is the conjunction followed by a participle phrase?2) if we think of the phrase as a gerund phrase, is the phrase "Living in a country as ethnically and hence culturally diverse as Trinidad and Tobago, and being myself a blend of cultures" the subject and why are the commas before 'and' and 'has' put in the phrase ?In advance, thank for your help.

Grammarfreak · Accepted Answer

park sang joonLiving in a country as ethnically and hence culturally diverse as Trinidad and Tobago, and being myself a blend of cultures, has been one of the most significant influences in my life.

This is my approach toward your question. I find this passage with questions. Living in a country as ....... has been one of the most ... experience. Clearly, "living" is a gerund without the underlined phrase. So if you joined Living ...and Being myself...that will make them 2 gerund phrases acting as subjects and thus require " have" rather than "'has". If you take the underlined phrase out of the sentence, the sentence ( in green) still maintains its grammatical structure perfectly. The phrase is "participle " in nature. I found the phrase reluctantly, if not awkwardly slipped into the sentence by the writer, Participle phrase typically is not preceded by conjunction in my recollection.

CalifJim · Answer

park sang joon... enclosed by commas so it could be regarded as inserted phrase and if so, it might well be regarded as a participle phrase than a gerund phrase

No. Commas can't change a gerund into a participle.

park sang joon1) If we treat the phrase as a participle phrase, is the conjunction followed by a participle phrase?

It's not clear what 'the phrase' is, but in any case the phrases that are headed by "living" and "being" are gerund phrases because they form the subject of the clause.

park sang joon2) if we think of the phrase as a gerund phrase, is the phrase "Living in a country as ethnically and hence culturally diverse as Trinidad and Tobago, and being myself a blend of cultures" the subject and why are the commas before 'and' and 'has' put in the phrase ?

Commas set off a parenthetical remark, so the material in parentheses may be considered a sort of secondary subject that does not enter into the subject-verb agreement. As already mentioned above, the sentence is awkward.

To make it clear that "being ..." is not a gerund, but a participle, you would have to recast the sentence as shown below; however this only makes it more awkward in my opinion.

Being myself a blend of cultures, living in a country as ethnically and hence culturally diverse as Trinidad and Tobago has been one of the most significant influences in my life.

CJ

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you both
You both have different opinions, and I haven't noticed that 'has' is used in place of 'have'; thank you grammarfreak.
"Participle phrase typically is not preceded by conjunction in my recollection."
As I also agree with you about your opnion, I hope your recollection is correct.

"Commas set off a parenthetical remark, so the material in parentheses may be considered a sort of secondary subject
that does not enter into the subject-verb agreement."
Your informative account is very helpful for me; thank you Calif Jim.

I also don't know the intention of the writer and the usage of the phrase in question.
Do I have to decide which usage the writer used?

CalifJim · Answer

park sang joonI also don't know the intention of the writer and the usage of the phrase in question. Do I have to decide which usage the writer used?

No. You can offer two or more analyses whenever there is ambiguity within sentences.

CJ

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you CJ for your helpful advice ^^

Gerund vs participle

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