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Take this sentnece for example: "The people sitting here who are...."
Now my question is, and I am not familiar with the english syntax(structre), you see after "the people" I have a gerund, right? (sitting) so what should I insert before sitting?

-who (are)?
-that (are)?

Holyduke · Accepted Answer

I don't know what exactly you mean but i would change the sentence into:

1. The people sitting here are my family. (become noun clause?)

2. The people who are sitting here are my family. (still look like a noun clause to me but sound redundant, in speech I would choose sentence #1))

BillJ · Answer

PicnicTake this sentnece for example: "The people sitting here who are.." Now my question is, and I am not familiar with the english syntax(structre), you see after "the people" I have a gerund, right? (sitting) so what should I insert before sitting? -who (are)?-that (are)?

You're on the right lines, but the verb 'sitting' is not a gerund here. It's a present participle heading the non-finite clause 'sitting here'. Clauses headed by participles have an adjective-like character, whereas those headed by gerunds have a noun-like character. The function of this clause is to modify the noun 'people' (just like adjectives do), so we call it a post-head noun modifier. Like most non-finite clauses, it has no overt subject, but the subject is understood, or retrieved, from the sentence as a whole - in this case it's clearly 'the people'. This kind of construction is very common in English with both present and past participles:

Students living on campus ... (present participle, head of clause modifying 'students')

The letter written by his uncle ... (past participle, head of clause modifying 'letter')

Syntactically, you don't have to insert anything before 'sitting'; the clause is fine as it is, but you may find it helpful to think of it as meaning 'the people who/that are sitting here...', although the actual tense can only be recoverable from the context.

BillJ

Picnic · Answer

if it is a clause I need to put a comma before right?

present participle heading the non-finite clause 'sitting here'
-where is the present participle?
non-finite clauses
- what?

I think syntax not grammar, right?

BillJ · Answer

Picnic1. if it is a clause I need to put a comma before right? 2. present participle heading the non-finite clause 'sitting here'-where is the present participle? 3. non-finite clauses- what?4. I think syntax not grammar, right?

1. No, not right. And why would you want to do that anyway? We don't normally separate a verb from its locative complement with a comma.

2. 'Sitting', of course. I thought I made that very clear.

3. Try looking in any good grammar book. You'll find plenty of information about non-finite clauses.

4. No, not right. Syntax is grammar (at least it is for the purposes of this thread).

BillJ

Picnic · Answer

Thanks very much!

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