"He was seen running down the street." Is it correct to say that "running down the street" fulfills the predicate while also being part of the subject, a complex subject?
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it is not part of the subject; the subject is he.– ToothrotCommented May 1, 2019 at 18:54
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Well, I am talking in regards to the "complex subject" that some grammars use.– AJK432Commented May 1, 2019 at 18:57
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@AllexKramer, there is no complex subject here.– ToothrotCommented May 1, 2019 at 19:25
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@LucianSava I understand this, which is why I'm asking in reference to the terminology that I have laid forth, but thank you!– AJK432Commented May 1, 2019 at 19:25
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@Toothrot I am sorry, but I believe you are wrong. We will see, however.– AJK432Commented May 1, 2019 at 19:27
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1 Answer
- He was seen running down the street.
is a complex sentence. It's got two verbs (run and see) used in different forms, and therefore two clauses, one main and one subordinate. In addition, it's had several things done to the main clause -- it's been passivized, and the indefinite agent subject (the 'somebody' that saw him) has been deleted.
Several more things have been done to the subordinate clause -- it's been made into a gerund complement clause, and its subject (him, as in Somebody saw him running down the street) has been raised to be the object of see which gets passivized in the main clause.
The original question asks about the gerund verb phrase running down the street.
For the record, this constituent is not the subject. Of anything.
It is not part of the subject of the main clause, nor of its predicate.
It is, however, part of the object complement clause of see.
Finally, fulfills the predicate is a meaningless phrase and has nothing to do with grammar.
answered May 1, 2019 at 20:45
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The “fulfills the predicate” line should been said differently, as I assume you are part of the study that recognizes “arguments” of the predicate, like complements. However, I do not see where a gerund comes into place. Gerund is the participle form functioning as noun, correct?– AJK432Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:26
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@AllexKramer: Fulfill is grammatically meaningless. Does a subject fulfill a verb? Does an object? Does the verb fulfill the subject? No way to tell what it might mean or how you could check. Predicate is a term in logic (as is argument), not grammar. As for the gerund, you're confusing participial -ing verb forms with gerund clause constructions, of which this is one. Gerund clauses do use participial -ing verb forms, but those are verbs and don't function as nouns -- rather, the clause they are the verb in functions as a noun. Commented May 2, 2019 at 16:08
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That makes sense. However, do we not just consider single-standing gerunds as clauses now also?– AJK432Commented May 4, 2019 at 18:02
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Also, was the gerund clause not a complement in the “original” version before being made passive?– AJK432Commented May 4, 2019 at 18:33
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1In I saw him running down the street, yes, that is the gerund complement. The him now functions as the object of see, which is why it can passivize and become the subject. This is all using the "transformation" metaphor, understand -- it's just a way to keep track of the thousands of sentence types in English. Commented May 4, 2019 at 23:13