Download Killgallon participial phrases

Honors
th
9
Lit
Sentence Composing for High School
Participial Phrases
~ adapted from Don Killgallon
Participial Phrases
• Participles describe nouns or pronouns. Alone, they are a
verb acting as an adjective.
* Note the difference between appositive phrases and
participial phrases: Appositive phrases identify a noun and
are interchangeable with the noun, and thus equal. Participial
phrases describe a noun and are not interchangeable with
the noun.
• The participial phrase is always used as an adjective phrase to modify
a noun or pronoun. It includes the participle together with its modifiers,
objects, or predicate words.
• Here is a list of sentences, all written by professional writers, but with
some parts deleted:
–
–
–
–
We could see the lake and the mountains across the lake on the French side.
Sadao had his reward
The sun rose clear and bright
Spencer took half an hour
Participial Phrases add distinctiveness to
sentences.
Notice how the added participial phrases account for the
distinctiveness of the following sentences.
- Sitting up in bed eating breakfast, we could see the lake and the
mountains across the lake on the French side.
- The phrase Sitting up in bed eating breakfast describes the pronoun we.
- The participial phrase adds an additional contextual element to the
sentence.
- The sun rose clear and bright, tinging the foamy crests of the
waves with a reddish purple.
- The participial phrase describes the rising of the sun. The phrase is a phrase
because it lacks a subject. A phrase has either a subject or a verb, but not
both. A clause must have both subject and verb.
Characteristics of the Participial Phrase
• Present participles always end in ing. Past participles end in ed.
Nouns/Pronouns are Underlined
Participles are capitalized
The rest of the participial phrase is in boldface type.
- She was quite far from the windows which were to her left. And
behind her were a couple of tall bookcases, CONTAINING all the
books of the factory library.
- STANDING there in the middle of the street, Marty suddenly
thought of Halloween, of the winter and snowballs, of the
schoolyard.
- In six months a dozen small towns had been laid down upon the
naked planet, FILLED with sizzling neon tube sand yellow electric
bulbs.
Places for Participles
Sentences Openers:
- Whistling, he let the escalator waft him into the still
night air.
- Amazed at the simplicity of it all, I understood
everything as never before.
(The first example is a present participial phrase, and
the second is a past participial phrase.)
Subject-Verb Splits
• My father, cautioning me not to work a horse till he had fed fully,
said I had plenty of time to eat myself.
– Where is the subject?
– Where is the Verb?
– Where is the participial phrase?
– What kind is it? (Past or Present?)
My father (S), cautioning me not to work a horse till he had fed fully (present
participial phrase), said (V) I had plenty of time to eat myself.
Subject-Verb Splits
• Eckels, balanced on the narrow path, aimed his rifle playfully.
–
–
–
–
Where is the subject?
Where is the Verb?
Where is the participial phrase?
What kind is it? (Past or Present?)
Eckels (S), balanced on the narrow path (Past Participial Phrase), aimed
(V)his rifle playfully.
Putting it all together: How could you rewrite the sentence so it contains
an appositive in place of the participial phrase? What distinguishes the
two?
The Appositive must identify the subject (so it can be interchangeable
with the subject). The participial phrase describes the subject.
Sentence closers
• The entire crowd in the saloon gathered about me now, urging
me to drink.
• The entire crowd (S) in the saloon gathered (V) about me now,
urging me to drink (present participial phrase).
• She called to him, excited.
• She (S) called (V) to him, excited (past participial phrase).
Unscrambling those Participial Phrases
Sometimes, the positions of participial phrases within a
sentence are interchangeable: the same phrase could
occur in any position – sentence opener, subject-verb
split, or sentence closer. Sometimes, however, only one
or two positions are acceptable.
- In the following slides, you will unscramble each list of
sentence parts three times: first, two produce a
sentence with a participial phrase as the sentence
opener, second, as the subject-verb split, and third, as
the sentence closer.
- Next, you will determine which ones are
grammatically correct and which ones do not work.
Discuss with a neighbor.
Unscrambling three ways
• lost his grip
• coming down the pole
• dropping helplessly straight
down toward the far end of the
trailer
• with no control over my
movements
• and fell free
• Malcolm
Original: Malcolm lost his grip and
fell free, dropping helplessly
straight down toward the far end of
the trailer.
• had a sense
• I
• of being whirled violently
through the air
Original: Coming down the pole, I
had a sense of being whirled
violently through the air, with no
control over my movements.
Unscrambling three ways
• black
• a little house
• and yet knowing no way to
avoid it
• perched on high piles
• that winter my mother and
brother came
• in the distance
• buying furniture on the
installment plan
• appeared
Original: A little house, perched on
high piles, appeared black in the
distance.
• and we set up housekeeping
• being cheated
Original: That winter my mother
and brother came and we set up
housekeeping, buying furniture on
the installment plan, being
cheated and yet knowing no way
to avoid it.