Present participle

Question

Hello, everyone,..Would you pleae take a look at the following example:Undercover police investigation leading to mass convection of top officials.In the example, the investigation is leading, i.e. it leads to the conviction - Typical, no questions asked.But if you take a look at the following:Magnification of tumor cells using advanced Microscopic technologies has opened doors for researchers to develop future treatments for the disease.In this example, the structure is similar to the previous one, but a semantical difference exists is that magnification is not actually what's using -using there tells how the magbnification was carried out. Is that acceptable?Thank you.

GPY · Accepted Answer

SurferIs that acceptable?

Just about, but it is not the greatest sentence ever written.

CalifJim · Answer

SurferUndercover police investigation leading to mass conviction of top officials.In the example, the investigation is leading, i.e. it leads to the conviction - Typical, no questions asked.

Not so fast. I have a question! Where did you see this? Was it a headline for a newspaper article or something like that? I ask because that is the only kind of situation where you can leave out "is" like that.
(By the way, 'conviction' is very different from 'convection'.)

Surfertake a look at the following:Magnification of tumor cells using advanced Microscopic technologies has opened doors for researchers to develop future treatments for the disease.

I suspect that this one was not from the same kind of context as the first.

CJ

Surfer · Answer

CalifJimSurfer
Undercover police investigation leading to mass conviction of top officials.In the example, the investigation is leading, i.e. it leads to the conviction - Typical, no questions asked.

Not so fast. I have a question! Where did you see this? Was it a headline for a newspaper article or something like that? I ask because that is the only kind of situation where you can leave out "is" like that.(By the way, 'conviction' is very different from 'convection'.)

That was my own production. I meant to show a typical usage of the present participle (as a headline, yes), for the sake of comparison.

The 'e' was a typo, sorry about that.

CalifJimSurfer
take a look at the following:Magnification of tumor cells using advanced Microscopic technologies has opened doors for researchers to develop future treatments for the disease.

I suspect that this one was not from the same kind of context as the first.

Also mine. In this one, the present participle using is functioning differently from a semantical point of view, as leading in the first sentence has a subject (?), "investigation", while it (using) in this sentence is only giving further information about "Magnification" - i.e. magnification acheived/done with advanced Microscopic technologies.

The way the present participle was used in this second sentence felt weired to me and I wanted to ask whether it was correct..

If I'm correct in me prediction, then the whole part:

"Magnification of tumor cells using advanced Microscopic technologies",

in the context of the second sentence, is simply a lengthy phrase. Right?

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

SurferIf I'm correct in me prediction, then the whole part:"Magnification of tumor cells using advanced Microscopic technologies",in the context of the second sentence, is simply a lengthy phrase. Right?

Yes. It's a noun phrase, and it's the subject of the sentence.

CJ

Present participle

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