Researching

Question

"We are looking for healthy individuals with elevated cholesterol levels who would like to take part in a new UK clinical trial researching potential new treatments."
I saw the above on my Facebook.
What is the grammatical form and function of "researching potential new treatments"?

Is it a reduced relative clause modifying "clinical trial"?

How do we know when to reduce a relative clause?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

JigneshbharatiWhat is the grammatical form and function of "researching potential new treatments"? Is it a reduced relative clause modifying "clinical trial"?

Yes, you can call it that. Or just call it a modifying participle clause. It's poorly written, however, in my opinion. It means something more like

(a new trial) designed for research on potential new treatments

because the trial is not doing the research, which is what a trial researching suggests.

JigneshbharatiHow do we know when to reduce a relative clause?

There is no requirement to reduce clauses, so you never have to reduce a clause. Besides, in this case it would have been been better not to reduce the clause. As we see in this example, you can distort some of the meaning by reducing a clause and make it more difficult for the reader to understand what you've written.

CJ

Researching

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