I am a native American English speaker. I have a grammar question. I am trying to figure out, or at least verify, what the linguistic term is for a grammatic element in the following sentence. I want to be able to discuss this sentence pattern with my friends who speak other lanaguages natively so any input would be appreciated.
When talking about photos, we usually say something like:
1. "This is a photo of Dan and me picking apples at Hamilton Orchards."
instead of something like:
2. This is a photo in which Dan and I are picking apples at Hamilton Orchards.
3. This is a photo depicting Dan and me picking apples at Hamilton Orchards.
In #1, isn't it the case that "picking apples at Hamilton Orchards" is a gerund phrase modifying "Dan and me", much like "waving in the wind" is a gerund phrase modifying "a flag" in "a flag waving in the wind"?
Andrew, I believe "Dan and I" is a hypercorrection; at least it is in American English. I can't speak for Australian English though. The pronoun "me" is used with a preposition like "of", not "I". The fact that a phrase like "picking apples at Hamilton Orchards" follows it doesn't matter. Another commonly used hypercorrection included in Merriam-Webster's usage guide is "between you and I". It should be "between you and me".
oops. "this is a..." and "this is the..." - it happened accidentally.
All the articles i used (including 'a' befoe 'young man') are random:)
The idea is that 'young' means slightly different things here.
Shawn
this is a photograph of young Dan (if this is correct within English, otherwise one may rephrase it)
vs.
this is the photograph of a young man.
Oh yeah, Dan. I got confused with the terminology. I meant a present participle phrase. Not a gerund, I guess.
Gerund phrase functions as a noun and can be either a subject or object in the sentence. For example:
Picking apples at Hamilton Orchards is our favorite way to spend time (subject)
or
Or favorite way to spend time is picking apples at Hamilton Orchards (object)
In your case, ''picking apples'' is a present participle phrase referring to you and Dan. The same for ''a flag waving in the wind'', waving is also a present participle.
