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/