I have a sentence:
She's very busy working three jobs.
Is that present continuous? it confuses me that there is a verb in ing after an adjective
Or is a gerund?
Thanks.
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Asked before on ELL, but no adequate answer.– Edwin AshworthJan 7, 2020 at 17:50
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1Here, the sentence is "She's very busy." and the remaining tells 'how'.– Ram PillaiFeb 7, 2020 at 10:29
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1 Answer
'Working' in 'She's busy working [three jobs]' is a complement of the adjective 'busy', not a type of second predicate. In The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum; 2002) (p 1259):
Gerund-participial complements
The adjectives busy and worth/worthwhile license complements of this form:
She was busy preparing her report.
These objections aren't worth bothering about.
It isn't worth taking the matter any further.
CGEL gives further analysis of the 'worth / worthwhile' examples.
..........
Contrast 'She's very tired, [what with] working such long hours'
and 'She's very busy, [what with] doing three jobs'
which use adjuncts, here (ignoring the what with's) participial clauses of reason (or expansion perhaps, in the latter example).
answered Jan 7, 2020 at 17:59
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Why is that book so expensive? I got the Cambridge grammar of Classical Greek for about $30!– user371154Jan 7, 2020 at 18:05
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