Download Unit 7:＜Contracting long sentences＞

Unit 8:＜Contracting long
sentences＞
Kevin Chen
Verbals
 Verbals
are forms made from
verbs but used for other
purposes. Verbals can be the
modifiers come in a variety of
forms—single words, group of
words (phrases), even clauses.
I. Gerunds
A
gerund, in the form that always
ends in –ing, is a verbal used as
a noun. Like a noun, a gerund
can be a subject, an object of a
preposition, or a complement.
Gerunds-Examples
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Pitching against left-handed batters is his
specialty.
Stretching exercises are helpful before
distance running.
Being a member of a successful New York
basketball team is a mixed blessing.
He was going to blame for breaking the
window.
I appreciated your taking time to help me.
His gentle act, giving Annie his coat, plainly
showed his generosity.
II. Participles
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A participial modifier is a verb form
used as a single word of as part of a
phrase. Participles have three forms:
Present ＜ending in -ing＞
Past ＜ending in -d or -ed＞
Irregular ＜so irregular that you
will have to check the dictionary＞
Participles-Example
The car approaching ( = which
approached)the intersection slowed
down.
 The prices listed ( = which are
listed) on the manu do not include
dessert.
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Participles Phrase
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A participle phrase at the beginning
of a sentence must refer to the
grammatical subject of the
independent clause. The subject
must be the idea or person you
describe in the modifying phrase,
not some other person or word.
Participles Phrase
The dangling participles usually
result in illogical statements, like
the following:
 Walking on the street, the spotlight
followed the singer. 【the subject
“spotlight walked” is illogical】
 Overgrown with moss, the gardener
cleaned his seed flats for spring
planting. 【the subject “gardener was
overgrown with moss” is illogical】

Participles
Correct Examples
Expecting a spectacular display,
the crowd eagerly awaited the
fireworks.
 Inspired by the magnificent view,
he was able to finish his novel.
 Printed in Old English and bound
in real leather, the new edition of
Beowulf was too expansive for the
family to buy.
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III. Infinitives
 An
infinitive usually has a simple
form of the verb preceded by to.
An infinitive can function as a
noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
Infinitives-Example
He wanted to know the secret.
 He has many books to read this
week.
 The troop moved fast to escape the
enemy.
 To be a biologist has been his
dream.
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Position

The position of the words in a sentence is
the principal means of showing their
relationship. Confusion and ambiguity
result when words are badly placed. The
place of the modifier or whether to have a
comma or not, can make the sentence
mean differently. Sometimes, the modifier
seems so normal that it sounds clear
without a comma, but at other times you
must have a comma to keep the reader
from misinterpreting your sentence.
Position
As a whole people tend to be happy.
【A clause, not a complete sentence】
 As a whole, people tend to be happy.
【A complete sentence with “people” as
the subject】
 To begin with some ideas are difficult.
【The subject is “To begin…”】
 To begin with, some ideas are difficult.
【The subject is “some ideas”】

Position
 Inside
the child was noisy.
 Inside, the child was noisy.
 Below the traffic liked like a
necklace of ants.
 Below, the traffic liked like a
necklace of ants.
Suffixes signifying attachment
—verbals as adjectives in the form
of –ing and –ed
 gerund
or present participle
 —ing
 past participle  —ed
Single-word adjectives
 The
single-word adjectives
formed by verbals is usually used
in modifying nouns or pronouns.
These single-word adjectives can
come before or after the nouns
they modify.
Single-word adjectives
She was a highly motivated
employee.
 I had so much of my old heart left.
 About mountain climbing, he is an
experienced man.
 About climbing the mountain, he is an
experienced man.
 This self-inflating bias may be even
stronger when it comes to moral
judgment.
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Single-word adjectives
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In life, an inflated sense of personal
virtue can also be a minefield.
There is something in the unselfish and
self-sacrificing love of a brute.
Some of the most critically acclaimed
films of the year were not honored at
the Academy Awards ceremony.
The person who just boarded our bus is
a nationally known scientist.
Hyphenated Adjectives
The five-year-old boy was injured.
 The injured man is twenty-five
years old.
 I hope you can come up with an
easy-to-remember rule to help me
know when to use the hyphen.
 The four-year-old ran to the
bramble-covered fence rail, where
she charmed a tough, too-tall-totango hombre.
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Appositional forms
 Appositive
phrases are used to
clarify a noun’s meaning within a
sentence. Usually we use
commas to distinguish the
appositives from the clauses.
Appositional forms-Example

Animal Farm charts the progress of an
idealistic movement of liberation towards a
totalitarian dictatorship headed by a despotic
tyrant; Nineteen Eighty-Four describes what
it’s like to live entirely within such a system.
Its hero, Winston, has only fragmentary
memories of what life was like before the
present dreadful regime set in: he’s an
orphan, a child of the collectivity. The
government of Airstrip One, Winston’s
‘country’, is brutal (Margaret Atwood’s
“Orwell and Me”).
Appositional forms-Example

In Beneath the Wheel (1906), the
only Hesse book I’ve read that
has a hopelessly unhappy
ending, he shows himself as an
abused schoolboy who gets drunk
and drowns (Kurt Vonnegut, “Why
They Read Hesse”).
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