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Arbizonne Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Verbs of perception +ING to indicate part of the action - are state verbs an exception?
My sentence is "she derived as much pleasure from seeing me live as from living herself". The bare infinitive after a verb of perception usually means you heard/saw/felt the entirety of the action. Here, clearly, she doesn't see the entirety of the narrator's life, so one might think it correct to use "living". However, this sounds wrong to me. Is the bare infinitive necessary here because "to live" is a state verb?
Top answer
No, I think either will work; too many '-ing' words, however, would make it hard to read and interpret.
- No, I think either will work; too many '-ing' words, however, would make it hard to read and interpret.
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3 Answers
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No, I think either will work; too many '-ing' words, however, would make it hard to read and interpret.
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I think you're right, actually. If I turn the sentence around and say "She watched me living with great pleasure", it sounds OK.
Many thanks!
Many thanks!
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seeing me live connotes to me 'seeing me participate in the activities of life'.
seeing me living connotes to me 'seeing me alive' (as in not dead after a serious injury or illness).
Even the brief context given makes me prefer the first of the two.
I like the stative verb explanation.
CJ
seeing me living connotes to me 'seeing me alive' (as in not dead after a serious injury or illness).
Even the brief context given makes me prefer the first of the two.
I like the stative verb explanation.
CJ
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