Here are several sentences which are puzzling me.

"While practicing, he had trouble concentrating."  Is "while practicing" a
prepositional phrase or is it a collapsed clause "while he was practicing"?


"Before they began to play, we arrived."
"She seems to understand the problem."

"to play" seems to be an infinitive acting as an object, and "to understand"
seems to be the infinitive acting as an adverb. Is the fact that "began" is
a strong transitive verb and "seems" frequently functions as a linking verb
part of the grammar determination?


How about "He used his money to purchase leather." Does the infinitive
modify the noun money?


One more question. Consider the following sentence. "He gathered a basket of
flowers: delphiniums, roses and lilies." Are the appositives included in the
prepositional phrase?

thanks, cj

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