Sorry about my sending troubles.  This should be readable.

From The Economist (Feb. 22):  "Indeed, the idea that [trade deals] will
not do much to help the economy is one excuse for Democrats undermining
their president."  I would have written "for Democrats' undermining their
president," but the possessive before gerunds seems to be getting rare in
both speech and writing.  I hear a lot of "That's no excuse for them
speaking rudely."  So in parsing such sentences, do we consider the -ing
words to be participles modifying the preceding noun?  How many teachers
out there still try to teach that gerunds are preceded by possessives?
Thanks.


Michael Kischner

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/