sentence-meaning
A dog followed the man into the store.
Is it only me who thinks the sentence above means both?
I think it's possible the sentence means both, although the second version sounds very weird, but anyways, it can be interpreted the 2nd way.
The difference between
I walked the dog.
and
I made the dog walk.
is the willingness of the dog to walk. The first implies the dog wants to walk, the second implies the dog is unwilling to walk.
This is a legitimate sentence but one that could benefit from a little polishing.
We will plant saplings in our school and nearby area, followed by a[n] exhibition, poster competition, and a speech by our MLA on "Sav[ing] Earth".
A native speaker would not construe it to mean that you will plant an exhibition after you plant the saplings. A native speaker would understand that these are distinct activities, despite the fact that your first clause does not put a name on the activity but expresses it with a verb phrase, "we will plant". However, it is best when we don't rely upon the good graces of the reader or listener, expecting them to make little mental adjustments to our words.
Parallelism is a practical way of organizing your sentence to make its meaning as clear as can be. What you want is four nouns, four names for activities. You would want the first clause to contain a nominal, a name for something, just like "exhibition", "competition", and "speech".
There will be a symbolic planting of saplings, followed by an exhibition, a poster competition, and a speech...
or you could simply bring in the word "and" to link two independent clauses:
We will plant saplings, and then there will be an exhibition, followed by a poster competition, and finally a speech...
Best Answer
Your conjecture is invalid.
Follow takes an object and an optional locative complement designating the destination or path of movement. But it never has a causative sense: the subject does not cause the object to move.