Ran sobbing

Question

She ran sobbing through the forest.What is the grammatical form and function of "sobbing"?Is it an adverb?

Englishmaven · Accepted Answer

Yes. It's an adverbial participle phrase.

CalifJim · Answer

Jigneshbharati
She ran sobbing through the forest.
What is the grammatical form and function of "sobbing"?
Is it an adverb?

"sobbing" is a (very short) participle (clause) that tells us what she was doing while she was running through the forest.

You can even move it to the end if you want.

She ran through the forest sobbing.

As with almost all participle clauses, it has the same subject and tense (implicitly) as the main clause to which it is attached, so its implicit subject is 'she', and it means She was sobbing. That's what I would call a secondary predication.

First predicate: ran through the forest
Second predicate: (was) sobbing

You can make the clause longer if you want:

She ran through the forest sobbing uncontrollably into her long woolen scarf.

but that doesn't change its form or function in the sentence.

CJ

[ posted at the request of the OP ]

Ran sobbing

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