why use Gerund here ?

Question

I would like to ask some questions in terms of English.
May I ask you some English questions ?

My questions are :

-We all went out to celebrate "completing" the big deal.
-The light traversed the sky "searching" for enemy planes.

Q: why the quotation marks of two sentences here need to add ING.
I know they are Gerunds but still don't know WHY they have to use the Gerunds to complete the sentences here.
By the way, another grammar is that we have to add VING or RV after some words like see / watch / feel... etc,
I've already known that. But I don't realize both of those sentences I've typed why need to add Ving.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hello, Zoey—and welcome to English Forums.

We all went out to celebrate "completing" the big deal.-- 'Celebrating' is a gerund (a noun) as object of the verb 'celebrate'.
The light traversed the sky "searching" for enemy planes.-- 'Searching' is not a gerund; it is a participle whose phrase ('searching for enemy planes') is a verb complement to 'traversed'.

Q: why the quotation marks of two sentences here need to add ING.-- There is no answer that I know beyond what I have given you above; that is the way our grammar works, that is all.

By the way, another grammar is that we have to add VING or RV after some words like see / watch / feel... etc. Yes, this is another grammar point, where a subject is needed, too: I see him dancing; We watched her writing, etc. I have no explanation for why we do that, either.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Welcome to English Forums!
We are happy to answer questions, and you might get many different answers.

-We all went out to celebrate "completing" the big deal.
-The light traversed the sky "searching" for enemy planes.

The way to understand V-ING words is to break the sentence into logical parts. The V-ING word will be in one of those parts. Then you can ask - Is it part of the verb? Is is a noun? Does it qualify another noun? Does it act as an adverb (answering how? why? when? or where?)

The easiest sentence is where V-ING is part of the verb. These are the progressive tenses:

We were running.
Mary is jumping over the rope.
Joey will be going to school tomorrow.

Next easiest is where the V-ING is a subject or object:

Jogging is my favorite exercise. (subject)
They celebrated completing the big deal. (object)

Next are sentences where the V-ING describes another noun. Often the V-ING starts a phrase that is after that noun. Sometimes it starts a sentence and modifies the subject:

Mary, wearing her best dress, walked onto the stage. (tells about Mary)
Running into the street, the dog was hit by a car, but not hurt. (tells about the dog)
-The light, searching for enemy planes, traversed the sky .

And finally, there are sentences where the V-ING phrase tells, how, why, when, where, etc. The phrase starting with V-ING is not next to a noun that it qualifies. As you see, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the previous case (adjectival) and this one (adverbial.)

-The light traversed the sky searching for enemy planes.

Also, as Mister Micawber wrote, there are the cases where the V-ING is the short form of a clause, used after see, watch, hear, listen, feel (verbs of perception)

I watched her. She was reading. -> I watched her reading.
I see her. She is walking down the street. -> I see her walking down the street.
I listened to him. He is playing the piano. -> I listened to him playing the piano.
I felt him. His heart was beating. -> I felt his heart beating.

Zoey Yeh · Answer

Hello, Mister Micawber

I've read your reply. Your explanation is clear and excellent.
After reading your reply, I was thinking how to distinguish the differences between a noun and a verb complement from
V-ING. Sometimes I was a bit confused with those phrases. I will try to analyze and practice more. =D

Thanks a lot.

Zoey Yeh · Answer

Hello, AlpheccaStars
Thanks for you explanations. Indeed, it's sometimes hard to tell the adjectival and adverbial which modify the noun.
- The light traversed the sky "searching" for enemy planes. Is it an adverbial here ?
- The light, "searching" for enemy planes, traversed the sky. Is it an adjectival here ?

If they are, I am sure I comprehend what you said.

Thanks. =D

Rajesh jain · Answer

Zoey just concentrate on reading english newspapers or articles . If you do that this kind of grammar will subconsciously get embedded in your mind and you won't have to inspect every element of grammar . You will realise what to use when . You will also feel a little awkward if you use gerund at wrong places.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

- The light traversed the sky "searching" for enemy planes. Is it an adverbial here ? Yes, I would say so, thus agreeing with Mister Micawber. But modern grammarians have developed terminology which was not in traditional grammar which tries to avoid these ambiguities. See this description of adjuncts. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/function/adja.htm
- The light, "searching" for enemy planes, traversed the sky. Is it an adjectival here ? Yes, I would say so, but as above, these situations are debatable. Modern grammarians would just call these "adjuncts"

Here is an old response to the last of my examples from one of our experts in modern linguistics:

BillJ:
I saw him sitting on the bench.

This is a complex catenative construction. "Saw" is a catenative verb with the subordinate participial clause "sitting on the bench" a catenative complement, and "him" the intervening noun. The subordinate clause is interpreted with progressive aspectuality: "He was sitting on the bench".

Zoey Yeh · Answer

Thank you, AlpheccaStars. I've comprehended what the adjunct  is in the sentence. The link is useful to me. =)

why use Gerund here ?

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