Hi, John:

I believe that that we might be able to make sense of this syntactic 
structure, which seems to be a complex sentence, if we reordered the 
words: 

"A patch of white hair that opens up into his lips is running from 
the back of his scull down to his front."

It appears now clear that the main sentence is: 

"A patch of white hair is running from the back of his scull down to 
his front."

The subject is *a patch of white hair*, and the predicate *is running 
from the back of his scull down to his front.*

The verb of the main clause, *is running,* is in the Progressive 
Present Tense. 

There are two verb complements in the sentence, both prepositional 
phrases. The first prepositional phrase, *from the back of his 
scull,* is an adverbial of place. The second, *down to his front*,is 
also an adverbial of place. 

The main clause, "A patch of white hair is running from the back of 
his scull down to his front," is interrupted in the middle by a 
restrictive relative clause, *that opens up into his lips.*

Let me summarize, now:

A patch of white hair [subject] that opens up into his lips 
[restrictive relative clause ]is running [Verb in the Present 
Progressive Tense] from the back of his scull [Prepositional Phrase - 
Adverbial of Place] down to his front [ Prepositional Phrase - 
Adverbial of Place].

The comma seems to separate the two parts of the compound verb, that 
is, it separates *is* from *running* and should probably be left out, 
unless you consider "Running from the back of his skull down to the 
front" an introductory verbal phrase in the initial syntactic 
structure. In such a case, I would leave it there.


Eduard 



On Sun, 12 Mar 2006, John Crow wrote...

>A student wrote the following sentence in an essay:
>
>Running from the back of his skull down to the front, is a patch of 
white
>hair that opens up into his lips.
>The comma doesn't belong there, but I'm not sure why.  Is 
the "Running"
>phrase a gerund?  If so, then I understand why the comma is wrong:  
it
>separates the subject from the verb  However, the phrase doesn't 
behave like
>a gerund.  Compare:
>
>Running around the lake is a part of my daily routine. --> It is a 
part of
>my daily routine.  --> A part of my daily routine is running around 
the
>lake.
>
>In this sentence, the "Running" phrase behaves like a true noun 
phrase in a
>linking verb sentence.  My student's "Running" phrase doesn't behave 
like an
>NP.  It feels participial, modifying "patch".  If so, then the comma 
would
>be correct.  But it's not.
>
>Any ideas out there?
>
>John
>
>To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web 
interface at:
>     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
>and select "Join or leave the list"
>
>Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/