Participle
Until recently psychology has mainly been working within a disease model: a strong emphasis has been placed on discovering deficits in human behaviour and finding ways to repair this damage. Psychologists hardly focused on doing studies acquiring knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths . In other words, they have focused solely on taking away something negative (the dysfunctioning) instead of adding something positive (increasing mental and behavioural health). The result is that psychologists know little about healthy and happy functioning. This situation has been changing now since the rise of positive psychology a few years ago. What is Positive Psychology? It is a new movement in psychology, originated by Martin Seligman and a few other prominent psychologists. It aims to be a psychological science about the best things in life.
I'd like to know what function 'acquiring~' has. Is this a present participle ?
ex) ~~ doing studies acquiring............. = ~~doing studies which acquired knowledge........... (??)
Top answer
Psychologists hardly focused [on doing studies acquiring knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths] . Preliminary point: 'Present participle' is not a function; it's a word category. The two underlined elements are gerund-participle clauses functioning as complements of the preposition "on".
- Psychologists hardly focused [on doing studies acquiring knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths] .
- Preliminary point: 'Present participle' is not a function; it's a word category.
- The two underlined elements are gerund-participle clauses functioning as complements of the preposition "on".
- The bracketed PP is then complement of the verb "focused".
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Psychologists hardly focused [on doing studies acquiring knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths].
Preliminary point: 'Present participle' is not a function; it's a word category.
The two underlined elements are gerund-participle clauses functioning as complements of the preposition "on". The bracketed PP is then complement
0Psychologists hardly focused on doing studies and on the acquisition of knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths
Studies do not acquire knowledge.
0
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