Post date: Feb 28, 2012 10:14:00 PM
Today, we discovered that some words can indicate action or state of being but also modify NOUNS and ADJECTIVES.
You said that in the following sentence, "crying" describes the baby but that it also tells us how the baby is acting.
The crying baby had a wet diaper.
I told you that when a word is acting in this way, we call it a PARTICIPLE.
We looked at the following sentence:
Gazing into Mathilde's eyes, Mumfort sang her a love song.
We decided that "gazing into Mathilde's eyes" has a similar function to "crying" in the first sentence. It describes Mumfort and tells how he is acting.
We noted that, here, the whole phrase was acting like an adjective instead of just a single word.
I told you that this was called a PARTICIPIAL PHRASE.
Things to Do/Actions to Take:
Write 5 sentences about any topic using the format of the sentence about Mathilde and Mumfort, above. Your sentences should tell a story.
Based on:
Fearn, Leif and Nancy Farnan, "When Is a Verb? Using Functional Grammar to Teach Writing," Journal of Basic Writing, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Spring 2007).
Paraskevis, Cornelia, "Grammar Apprenticeships," The English Journal, Vol. 95, No. 5 (May 2006), pp. 65-70.
Purdue OWL: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives; http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/02/; last accessed 2/28/12.