Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)

A. I. Pronichev: On the Question of Distinguishing Between Syntactic Constructions in English

49 All these considerations usually apply in cases when the substantive and the participle follow the verbs to see, to notice, to watch. And even in such cases the rule is not absolute. Let us take this example: 4. Then he looked out of the window and saw clouds gathering. (Th. Dreiser) In this sentence the substantive which occurs after the verb "saw" is indefinite, but the following participle is ambiguous as to its syntactic meaning. At any rate, we cannot be quite sure that the participle here is used as an attribute to the word "clouds", because the transformation "He saw clouds that were gathering" in the given context seems to be very doubtful. It is more natural to understand this sentence as follows "He looked out of the window and saw that clouds were gathering", which proves that the words "clouds gathering" in this context should be regarded as the construction "Accusative with the Participle". Evidently, this happens when the participle has no modifying words, and it alone is not enough to fulfil an attributive function. But if we try and use some modifying words referring to the participle in the previous example, we shall see that the syntactic meaning of the participle will change and it will obtain an attributive meaning: 5. He

... saw clouds gathering in the West. (=He saw clouds that were gathering in the West) On the other hand, there may be cases when the substantive is definite, but the following participle is used as an attribute. Let us take this example: 6. Jolion saw the figures of Holly and Val Dartie moving across the lawn. (J. Galsworthy) In this sentence the participle "moving" is used as an attribute to the word "figures" (the figures ... that were moving). This usually happens when the substantive has some modifying words. The participle in this case is separated from the head word and loses its chance to enter into a predicative relationship with that word. In fact, the shorter the substantive part in such cases is, the less probability exists for the participle to be understood as an attribute, and when the substantive is represented by a personal pronoun such probability disappears altogether. And it is not without reason that English grammarians prefer to illustrate the "Accusative with the Participle" constructions with examples of this type: 7.1 saw him working in the field. (Curme) 8.1 saw him running. (Jespersen) 9.1 saw the man crossing the road. (Hornby)