Seoul Brother Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

About participle construction

Having dinner ,I heard the phone rang.

I would like to know what the verb form and conjunction is in the sentence above.

I think they may be " when I had" or while I was having".

Am I right?

How about "when I was having"

Thanks in advance.

  

Top answer

We would more naturally say something like " When/while having dinner , I heard the bell ring". The analysis of the underlined expression is in fact quite problematic. One solution is to treat it as a PP, with the preposition "when/"while" as head and the non-finite subordinate content clause "having dinner" as its complement.

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1 Answers
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We would more naturally say something like "When/while having dinner, I heard the bell ring".

The analysis of the underlined expression is in fact quite problematic. One solution is to treat it as a PP, with the preposition "when/"while" as head and the non-finite subordinate content clause "having dinner" as its complement.

If instead you say "When/While I was having din