[Ads-l] While V-ing

[Joel Berson]

It seems (to me) especially wrong, whether written or said, because my knowledge of the physical world tells me someone can't prank, or do much of anything except snore or roll over or twitch a leg or ... while napping. And, of course, because like Victor I take the referent as X.

Now if we imagine Rob Gronkowski on the road multi-tasking with his tablet:

"Rob Gronkowski Pranks Tom Brady While Driving, Hacks into His Facebook to Share"

I would not visualize Brady in a car, and I would look forward to the day Governor Baker signs a law banning the use of electronic devices while driving.

Joel


      From: Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Saturday, April 2, 2016 11:07 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] While V-ing
   
Interesting. It seems wrong when written, but I think it sounds normal when speaking, not so? For example, “Rob pranked him while napping.” BB

> On 2 Apr 2016, at 20:04, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I've been spotting constructions similar to this one.
> 
> http://goo.gl/1gRq4x
> Rob Gronkowski Pranks Tom Brady While Napping, Hacks into His Facebook to
> Share
> 
> X V1-s Y while [Y is] V2-ing
> 
> The bracketed part is, of course, omitted, which is what makes it odd for
> me, as the expectation is of X as a referent, not Y. I suspect it's been
> discussed before but I've been mostly out of the loop for a while. I've
> been reading my mail only sporadically over the past year and a half.
> 
> Oh, and "while" could be something else.
> 
> VS-)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org