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Doubt on participle usage

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Doubt on participle usage

by codesnooker » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:41 pm
Hello Stacey,

I am drilling information on the usage of participle.

Sentence:
Because of a similarity to dance, synchronized swimming—exhibition swimming in which the movements of one or more swimmers are synchronized with a musical accompaniment—is sometimes called water ballet, especially in theatrical situations.

Doubts:
In the above sentence,

1. Does the underline part is Verb Phrase?
2. Is the word Synchronized is Past Participle that requires the auxiliary verb ARE ?


You have answered this SC on the post https://www.beatthegmat.com/to-or-with-t19905.html and also told the necessity of the usage of the verb ARE by giving an example but I am looking for grammatical reason behind this.

Please let me know is my understanding is correct, if not, then what could be the exact reason behind the usage of auxiliary verb ARE over here.

Thanks a lot
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by Bidisha800 » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:59 pm
1. I never heard of a term called "verb phrase"
2. Passive voice/indirect action requires participle. Example - We are moved by his speech.
Drill baby drill !

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by pbanavara » Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:14 pm
What's this 'verb phrase' now ?
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by scoobydooby » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:14 am
are is for the plural "movements", synchronised swimming is singular
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by Stacey Koprince » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:31 pm
By "verb phrase," I think you mean clause? (A phrase, or string of words, that includes a verb is a clause.)

You can use synchronize as a verb:
The swimmers synchronized themselves with the music. The swimmers are actually performing the verb.

But you wouldn't say, for example, "the music synchronized itself with the swimmers" because the music can't synchronize itself, right?

Those are examples of active voice - the subject of the sentence must actually perform the action of the verb.

The subject in this question is the "movements." Can movements synchronize themselves? No - the swimmers could synchronize themselves, but the swimmers are not the subject. Because "movements" cannot actually perform the action of synchronizing themselves, we have to use passive voice here: the movements are synchronized (something else is causing the synchronization - in this case, the swimmers).

Passive construction consists of some form of the verb "to be" (in this case "are") followed by the past participle of the action under discussion (in this case "synchronized"). When you use this construction, the subject is not performing the stated action; something else is performing the stated action ON the subject. (In this case: the swimmers are synchronizing their movements.)
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