Learn English – “He committed a crime killing/by killing a bird”

grammaticalityprepositionsverbs

Which wording with kill should be used here:

He committed a crime (killing/by killing) a bird.

My guess is the answer would be by killing. But I am really confused with the answer killing.

My questions relating to this sentence are:

  1. Which one is correct and why? (or are they both correct?)

  2. If one of them is incorrect, why is it incorrect? (or, if both of them are, why?)

  3. If they are both correct, what is the difference in meaning?

  4. If they are both correct, what is the difference in their grammar?

Best Answer

He committed a crime killing a bird. [CORRECT]

The part - killing a bird - is a Gerund-Participle Clause, formed by the ing-form of the verb - kill - together with the complement of kill - a bird.

The meaning of this sentence is ambiguous -

  • While killing a bird, he made a crime. Both "committing a crime" and "killing" happened simultaneously.

  • He committed a crime, because he killed the bird.

  • He committed a crime, and as a result a bird was killed.

So if you want to explicitly tell that "you committed a crime because you killed a bird", it's preferred to use the following sentence -

He committed a crime by killing a bird. [CORRECT]

Here by killing a bird is a Preposition Phrase and the complement of the preposition - by - is a Gerund-Participle clause - killing a bird.

The function of both killing a bird and by killing a bird in the sentence is an Adjunct.

REFERENCES:

  1. From Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber et al. Page No. 782

10.2.1.9 Overlap and ambiguity

Although many circumstance adverbials clearly fir only one of the seven major semantic categories, not all occurrences of circumstance adverbials are so clear cut.

first, there are many cases in which adverbials fit primarily into one category, but have secondary roles that fit another category. manner adverbials in particular often include aspects of another semantic category; for example, slowly and quickly in examples below are not only descriptions of the manner of an action, but can also be interpreted as describing duration:

I've started but it's going rather slowly. (CONV)
They evidently expected him to go quickly. (FICT)

Other manner adverbials can include a meaning of extent/degree:

They ahve no desire to investigate this matter properly. (NEWS)
The disease pattern has changed radically. (ACAD)

In addition, certain adverbials have extremely ambiguous meaning. The ambiguity in the use of just as restrictive and extent/degree was noted above. Ing-clauses often present an even greater problem for interpretation. These clauses typically have an implicit and somewhat ill-defined relationship with the main clause. Consider the following:

  1. Watching him as the days went by, the guilty collector had noticed signs of physical and moral decline. (FICT)
  2. Three weeks ago Swedish and Scottish police searched Talb's flat in Uppsala, removing fifteen bags of clothing. (NEWS)
  3. The result of the operation is placed in the accumulator, destroying its previous contents. (ACAD)

In 1, the adverbial clause could be interpreted as showing a concurrent time relationship (i.e. while watching him, the collector noticed the decline) or as giving a reason (i.e. because he watched him, the collector noticed the decline). In 2 and 3, the adverbial clause could be interpreted as describing a result, a concurrent time relationship, or an event that happened in a time sequence. The distribution and uses of this semantically ambiguous form, termed supplementive clause, is discussed further in 10.2.8.1 and 10.2.8.3.

Circumstance adverbials can also serve functions similar to linking adverbials. Much of the information in circumstance adverbials creates cohesion with information that has come before. for example, the time adverbials then and meanwhile show the connection between the events in the previous clause and the subsequent clause:

He planked the bottle on the table, and shambled muttering round the corner. Then he put his head back into sight. (FICT)
The 21 sambas originally submitted were whittled to one. Meanwhile, seamstresses and tailors all over Rio made costumes. (NEWS)

With adverbials such as these, the connective function is made semantically, through the circumstantial information which indicates time relationships. Thus, they are still categorized as circumstance adverbials.

The circumstance categories of addition and contingency also occasionally exhibit similarities with linking adverbials (see 10.2.1.6 for discussion of the former, and 10.4.1 for linking adverbials in general).

  1. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber et al. page no. 362 sec. 11.6 Semantic categories of circumstance adverbials

  2. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (ASIEG) by Huddleston & Pullum page no. 213 Sec. 3.3 Gerund-Participals

NOTE: There is some difference between the grammatical framework used in Biber et al. and ASIEG. So the terminology differs. The Adverbial referred to in Biber et al. must be an Adjunct in ASIEG. I, however, followed in this answer the framework ASIEG followed.

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