Gerund as appositive

Hello,

Gerund is a V-ing that functions as a noun. In this sentence:

"Her job, analyzing data brought in by satellites, is exciting."

The gerund phrase 'analyzing data brought in by satellites' is an appositive modifying 'her job.' Does it mean then, that a gerund may also function as an adjective or is there another way to explain this?

 

Thanks,

Specter

 

Specter wrote:

"Her job, analyzing data brought in by satellites, is exciting." The gerund phrase 'analyzing data brought in by satellites' is an appositive modifying 'her job.' Does it mean then, that a gerund may also function as an adjective or is there another way to explain this?

The words ' analyzing ' and ' exciting ' in the sentence are present participle NOT gerund.

Whl626 wrote:

Specter wrote: "Her job, analyzing data brought in by satellites, is exciting." The gerund phrase 'analyzing data brought in by satellites' is an appositive modifying 'her job.' Does it mean then, that a gerund may also function as an adjective or is there another way to explain this? The words ' analyzing ' and ' exciting ' in the sentence are present participle NOT gerund.

Yes 'exciting' is a present participle and it functions as an adjective. I agree. And yes, 'analyzing data brought in by satellites' could also be a present participle functioning as an adjective such as in this sentence:

'Analyzing data brought in by satellites, she has found a lot of interesting information.' 

In this example, 'analyzing...' modifies the subject 'she' and points out the action of the subject.

However, in the previous example it doesnt imply that the action is done by the subject 'her job' unlike this sentence: 

"Jane, sitting at her desk, read the letter carefully.'

I believe 'sitting at her desk' is a participle phrase because it describes the action of the subject 'Jane'. 'Her job' on the other hand cannot do an action.

Compare:

'My hobby, reading,  improves my vocabulary.' (gerund)

Jane, reading in her room, got bored and went for a walk.' (participle)

Please explain if my interpretation is wrong. I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

Specter

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gerund phrase 'analyzing data brought in by satellites' is an appositive modifying 'her job.' Does it mean then, that a gerund may also function as an adjective or is there another way to explain this?

You presuppose that an appositive is an adjective.  It's not.  It's a noun.  And strictly speaking an appositive restates the noun with another noun; it doesn't actually modify it.  At least I wouldn't call it modifying in function.  It's more predicative in function:  Her job is analying data ...  Her job, which is analyzing data ..., is ....

CJ

I think you misunderstood.

(analyzing data brought in by satelite) is a noun phrase.  analyzing is a noun like analysis.

Her job, the analysis of data brought in by satellite, is exciting.

The job is not performing an analysis of data, which is what an analyzing job would be, so analyzing is not an adjective.  The job cannot actually do anything.  People, and perhaps certain special machines, can perform analysis, but not jobs. 

Here's an example where the same phrase acts as an adjective.  Note the difference.

The electronic spectrograph analyzing data brought in by satellite is a very complicated piece of machinery.

CJ