Do You Mind Me Teaching You About the Fused Participle?

I wonder if it is possible to write a blog about writing without covering grammar at some point. Until such a time comes, I have devoted the Everything About English section of the Wordsmith on the standard rules for constructing sentences into meaningful prose. What better way to begin than with a concept I've always struggled with?

Of the following sentences, which would you be more likely to use in speech, writing, or both?

Sentence 1: I object to him singing at twelve o’clock in the morning

Sentence 2: I object to his singing at twelve o’clock in the morning

What is the difference between the two sentences? When the letter combination “-ing” is added to the end of a verb, the word can act as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. When used as a noun, like in the previous sentences, the created noun is called a gerund, in all other cases it is called a participle.

The participle as an adjective: I’m a traveling salesman

The participle as a verb: I’m cooking these eggs

The participle as a noun (gerund): I enjoy singing as a hobby

            In the first two sentences, the verb to sing should be acting as a gerund, because it is the late-night activity that the person has a problem with. Since the pronoun him in Sentence 1 is not possessive, the idea is that the person objects to the gentleman who happens to be singing, not to the singing itself. When you place a non-possessive pronoun before a gerund, thereby making it a participle, you create what H.W. Fowler called a fused participle. This is easily corrected by you changing the non-possessive pronoun to a possessive pronoun (him to his), or by your changing the syntax of the sentence (if the possessive sounds strange).       

Activities:

1      Find and correct the fused participles in the following:

Me sitting by the door doesn’t bother anybody        

 I hate that man being ripped off like that

I wonder if Sam’s singing is good enough for Broadway       

 I don’t mind you using my iPhone

I loathe them dancing while I’m thinking         

I question the speaker’s understanding of grammar

        Now that you have mastered this lesson, do you know how many fused participles were in this post all together?

    Source here

Lightning Bolt Wielders Gathering Wool

As writers, we should always be willing to grow in our craft, wherever we need to grow. Despite the form, every wordsmith can and will benefit from working on improving his vocabulary. Mark Twain once said that for writers, the difference between a word that suffices and a perfectly applied word is the difference between a lightning bug and a bolt of lighting. For this reason, I added the Definitions and New Words section to the blog. To start off, here is a word I learned recently.

Woolgathering

 

The dictionary defines woolgathering as engaging in behavior that is idle and purposeless; oftentimes daydreaming. Woolgathering is a fun word since it can be used as either a noun or a verb depending on the construction.

Example

The only thing that kept John from his promotion was his woolgathering.

Jenny didn't hear her mother call her for dinner because she was woolgathering at the time.

In the first sentence, woolgathering is a noun because it is the thing that keeps John from his promotion (I wonder what job John has that would allow him the time to gather wool?). In the second sentence, Jenny's woolgathering is the action that keeps her from hearing her mother.

I close with a word of caution. When I first started writing, I tried to squeeze every grown-up sounding word in my prose as I possibly could and I wound up sounding ridiculous. The point you should remember is that lightning bolt words are words that convey the meaning from the writer's head to the reader's with little confusion or misinterpretation. Just because you know sixty-five different words for the white blobs in the sky doesn't make the word clouds a lightning bug word. As with many other things in life, one should honestly evaluate what their word choice is doing for their piece: will the word microscopic instead of small give the idea that the newborn baby was not big? is small just fine?

When it comes to choosing the right word over the almost right word, do not be a wool-gatherer.

Christian Temples

The first post of the Greatest Quotations is an idea every Christian ought to consider:

C.H. Spurgeon - "The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God!"

Introductions and Rules of Conduct

The following posts are primarily about stories, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, or the English language in general; but will occasionally cover other topics of the author's interest. Readers must know that the author is a born-again Christian, which will determine both the worldview/bias of the author and the general direction of the blog posts.

Any comments made are expected to be respectful, but by no means utterly compliant. If at any time the reader disagrees with the author, said reader is encouraged to leave a comment clearly expressing that disagreement. That said, the author asks that the visitor read with an open mind, evaluating the content of the post on it's own merit before commenting. If the author feels that the resulting comment is unnecessarily offensive, disrespectful, or provocative, the comment will be ignored and/or removed.

The purpose of this blog is to provide thought food for those interested in or thinking about the mechanics and presentations of story-crafting. Bear in mind that the author is an ever-growing student of storytelling and will therefore make mistakes he will gladly (with some embarrassment) acknowledge.

~The Wordsmith Rules of Conduct

All formalities aside, I do hope that any of my brother or sister story lovers reading this blog will find something they can take away and think about, even if only to find an argument against it.

Tentative Structure


I intend to write somewhat along these lines:

Amateur Apologetics -- Pastor Voddie Baucham Jr. once defined apologetics as knowing what you believe, why you believe it, and being able to properly communicate that belief to other people. Posts with this label will mostly include my thoughts and opinions on biblical matters

Bible Readings and Reasoning -- Under this label will be Bible texts selected on my whim and some hopefully helpful comments on said texts.

Craft Talk -- Here I will talk about what I am learning in terms of the craft of writing. The intended focus will be on novel writing, but occasionally I will talk about the craft of other forms of writing.

Definitions and New Words -- I'm always trying to improve my vocabulary and posts with this label will share my attempts with the world.

Everything About English -- This blanket term includes lessons on grammar, occasional word histories, and reflections on how language works and is used in the world today.

Fiction Reading, Writing, and Thinking -- When I have the time, I will combine all of the above labels in a post that analyzes a piece of text discussing its construction, audience, and biblical merits.

Greatest Quotations -- Winston Churchill once encouraged men with poor education to devour books of quotations. And while I can honestly say that I have been blessed with an better education than many in my country, I have a soft spot in my heart for words of wisdom. Every now and then, I will post a quotation that I disagree with and expect my readers to disagree with, but I'll try to point out any positive aspects I may find that would lead me to post it.

Let's see what we can come up with.