With their legs spread apart

Question

Dear all,Would you please help me understand the usage of "with..." Here is the context for your reference.Another exceptional animal is the dancing lemur. Normally, these lemurs jump from free to tree like monkeys. But when trees are far apart, they dance along the ground. their legs spread apart and hands in the air, they look like dancers crossing a stage.a) As b) On c) With d) ToThe answer given is c, but I was wondering if a) is a possible answer. Also, "with their legs spread apart" is weird. Why did the writer use past participle (spread) here? I thought you would write as "with their legs spreading apart" Thanks in advance.Gloria

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Dear all, Would you please help me understand the usage of "with..." Here is the context for your reference. Another ... writer use past participle (spread) here? I thought you would write as "with their legs spreading apart" Thanks in advance.[/nq]
Are you thinking of "spread" as the infinitive form of the verb? In this case it's the past participle. As Don points out, the phrase could have been "with their legs () apart"; making a change in the reverse sense, the next phrase could have been "(with their) hands raised in the air". The word "spread" is the same in tense and function as the word "raised" would be.
It's true that you could also change the second phrase to "with their hands waving in the air, but that is the intransitive use of the verb, not the transitive. The intransitive use of "spreading" in the first phrase would make it mean something like "with their legs continuously going farther apart", whereas what is meant here is "with their legs positioned apart". The participles in English perform a dual function: the passive participle also carries the notion of completed action; the active participle also carries the notion of continuing action.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Would you please help me understand the usage of "with..." Here is the context for your reference. Another exceptional animal ... writer use past participle (spread) here? I thought you would write as "with their legs spreading apart" Thanks in advance.[/nq]
"As their legs spread (present indicative) apart, they look like..." means "While their legs are spreading apart..."
("As" doesn't work in the example you gave because "As hands in the air" isn't a sensible clause. Note that "spread" is syntactically different in this example.)
"With their legs spread (past participle) apart, they look like..." means something like "In the spread-legged state..." (Cf. "With his hair dyed green, he notices people staring at him")

"With their legs spreading (present participle) apart, they look like..."
means "While they are (in the act of) spreading their legs..."

A "past participle" indicates that the action has been done with respect to the main point in time but not necessarily that the action has been undone by that point; it often indicates that the state resulting from the action persists:
His house is painted blue.
His hair is dyed.
This table is reserved.

Unix is a user-friendly operating system. It's just very choosy about its friends.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Would you please help me understand the usage of "with..." ... Normally, these lemurs jump from free to tree like monkeys.[/nq]
Free to tree, you and me.

Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Dear all, Would you please help me understand the usage of "with..." Here is the context for your reference. Another ... c) With d) To The answer given is c, but I was wondering if a) is a possible answer.[/nq]
No. "As" would require a verb for each clause, such as "As their legs were
spread ...", and "hands were".
[nq:1]Also, "with their legs spread apart" is weird. Why did the writer use past participle (spread) here?[/nq]
Because the word order is unusual for English. The two prepositional phrases should have come after "dancers crossing the stage". Unusual word order is useful as it brings attention to the out-of-place words. For
some reason the author emphasized the position of the legs and hands, but the basics of the sentence remain the same.
When your students are presented with unusual word order, they should rephrase the sentence in standard word order and then fill in the answer.
English depends on word order for meaning. Other languages use inflections.
GFH

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Another exceptional animal is the dancing lemur. Normally, these lemurs ... but I was wondering if a) is a possible answer.[/nq]
[nq:1]No. "As" would require a verb for each clause, such as "As their legs were spread ...", and "hands were".[/nq]
(You probably meant to include this, but just to be clear...) "As" could also work with one verb suitable for both clauses but omitted from the second, although I can only think of a fairly contrived example similar to the original one:
"As their legs move left and right and their hands (move) up and down, they look like dancers."

With their legs spread apart

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