. . . saw a girl walking . . .

Question

Hello, everyone,When I paraphrase the sentence - “I saw a girl walking on the street.“, which would be close to the original one’s meaning?;1) I saw a girl who was walking on the street.2) I saw a girl's action in the process of walking on the street.While I think 2) has the same meaning since ‘a girl walking’ is actually ‘object-complement’ construction, some people say the relative clause of 1) could be reduced into the original one and then the present participle ‘walking’ is functioning as a post modifier.Your clarification would be much appreciated.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

deepcosmos
When I paraphrase the sentence - “I saw a girl walking on the street.“, which would be close to the original one’s meaning?;
1) I saw a girl who was walking on the street.
2) I saw a girl's action in the process of walking on the street.

2)

(Definitely not 1. In this pattern we are not trying to describe the girl more accurately as the girl who was walking as opposed to some other girl who was not walking.)

Verbs of perception (chiefly see and hear) are catenative verbs. One of the typical catenative patterns is as follows:

SUBJECT {VERB1} [Noun Phrase] [VERB2/VERB2ing] ....

The NP that intervenes between the two verbs can usually be interpreted in two ways: The object of the first verb and the subject of the second verb.

I saw the dog eat the biscuit.
Two components: I saw the dog. The dog ate the biscuit.
Meaning: I saw this: (The dog ate the biscuit).

I saw the dog eating the biscuit.
Two components: I saw the dog. The dog was eating the biscuit.
Meaning: I saw this: (The dog was eating the biscuit.)

deepcosmosWhile I think 2) has the same meaning since ‘a girl walking’ is actually ‘object-complement’ construction, some people say the relative clause of 1) could be reduced into the original one and then the present participle ‘walking’ is functioning as a post modifier.

Most grammarians bypass all of these attempts to explain it by saying it's a catenative verb construction. It's a very useful concept because there are more than a hundred verbs which can be found in this pattern.

There is no object-complement construction there, and no relative clause. The grammar of catenatives is a separate thing.

CJ

. . . saw a girl walking . . .

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