Have Periscoping

Question

"Speaking from a phone just outside the chamber, Peters said that “we have four or five people Periscoping now”" (The Guardian.)

Is "have" a causative or possessive one in the above"? Is "Periscoping" a gerund or present participle in that context?

Englishmaven · Accepted Answer

"Have" is possessive, and "periscoping" is a present participle.

Clive · Answer

It's causative. The Democrats have arranged this activity.

It's a present participle serving as an adjective. ie "four or five Periscoping people."

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousIs "have" a causative or possessive one in the above"?

It's "experiential have". We are "experiencing that" four or five people are Periscoping now. Cf. I had a man trying to sell me something on the street today.
Viewed a little differently, it's a personalized existential. There are four or ... ~ We have four or ... Cf. There was a man trying to sell me something on the street today.

It can be interpreted as causative 'have', but the semantics is a little different there. My personal view is that in the actual situation, causation was not really present in the mind of the speaker of that sentence.

AnonymousIs "Periscoping" a gerund or present participle in that context?

It's a participle if you have to choose between those two.
Viewed differently, it's the non-finite verb form in -ing in the non-finite clause complement of "have".
In another view, it's the second verb in a catenative structure.

We_(subj) || have_(verb) | [ four or five people_(subj) || Periscoping_(verb) now].

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

CalifJimIt's "experiential have".

Thanks a lot for that detailed and fine explanation.

Have Periscoping

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