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Difference between participal adjective and relative clause

English Language & Usage Asked on December 12, 2020

I saw someone explained that participal adjectives have the same function as relative clauses. If that is correct, what is the difference between them?

for examples,

  1. a bill requiring approval of the committee
  2. a bill that requires approval of the committee

1 is a participal adjective, 2 is a relative clause.

Do those sentence have the same meaning?

2 Answers

The two are identical in meaning; the difference is solely stylistic, though for me, the participial construction makes for tighter prose. The phrase "requiring the approval of the committee" is, however, neither a clause nor a gerund-participle, a term the Cambridge Grammar employs to remind us all that English doesn't really have a gerund, but still requires that the verb form be used as a noun.

Answered by KarlG on December 12, 2020

A full relative clause has a tense while "requiring" in "requiring approval" (reduced clause/participial-gerund clause or whatever you call it) is a non-finite.

Answered by user384492 on December 12, 2020

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