There stands the man?

There stands the man marrying my daughter. = There stands the man who will marry or who is marrying my daughter.

Thank you Mr. Micawber. So we don't need relative clauses (I mean the man who.... wording) when they describe the object. Right? We can use -ing forms.

johnerI think that we don't need to use relative clause in this case where the relative clause indicates the object

1 In the sentences with the there-construction the man is the subject, not the object.
2 Whether it's a subject or an object is irrelevant.

CJ

johner. So we don't need relative clauses (I mean the man who.... wording) when they describe the object. Right?

That is often true, but I'll bet that it is not always true: no doubt confusion could reign in some contexts.

Thank you Jim and Mr. Micawber for the replies. But I got confused here a little.

Why can't the first sentence mean "There stands the man who married my daughter" while the third sentence can mean "I shot the man who was going to come shave me." I mean what's the criteria for this? How are we supposed to understand which tense the speaker is talking about?

Thanks.

johnerwhich tense the speaker is talking about?

It matches the tense in the other clauses. The action or state expressed by the -ing word is at the same time as the main verb or later.

There stands (present) ..., so marrying does not mean "who married" (past). ("married" would be before "stands".)

I think that's

CalifJimI think that's what you're asking about.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. And I've got a perfect explanation now. Thank you so much. We need more of these key points. Specific questions get specific answers but these specific questions never end even on the same topic. But when we get "the key" like you gave it to us by saying "The action or state expr