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In this page, http://www.ucblueash.edu/now/2016/03/07/let-us-hear-you-student-survey/, the first sentence says:
Students – We need your help in letting us know why you attend UCBA, how you rate your experience, and how we can make improvements for the future.
"letting us know why you attend UCBA" is the gerund phrase I am interested in. So I have some questions:
- Is the gerund phrase in this case called an object of the preposition "in"?
- If we will remove the preposition "in", what will it be called now? Just a normal noun?
- So if there is no "in" before the gerund phrase, what is the correct term to call the gerund phrase in the sentence?
For questions 1 and 2, according to a user here, https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/58097/19539, using "in" in many cases is not necessary. For example, "Thank you for your help in cooking dinner" could also be written as "Thank you for your help cooking dinner". So my last two questions are related to the correct term to use if there is "in" and if there is no "in". If there is no "correct" term for that, at least the "common" or "usual" term instead.
user1764381
Posted 2016-11-17T09:25:11.090
Reputation: 461
1Any gerund or gerund phrase functions as a noun. We call "letting us know why you attend UCBA" a noun phrase. Here, the noun phrase serves as the object of the preposition in. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica – 2016-11-17T09:36:47.007
@P.E.Dant, if we will omit the preposition in, may I know what will be the function of the noun phrase, since it will not be an "object of the preposition" anymore? – user1764381 – 2016-11-17T10:41:15.047
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The noun phrase is still the object of the preposition; the preposition is understood still to be there. Read about ellipsis here (the first definition.) It is quite common in English.
– P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica – 2016-11-17T10:53:16.913I'd say that your example, with or without "in" is ungrammatical. The correct preposition, which would be obligatory, is "by". – BillJ – 2016-11-17T16:22:17.447
1@BillJ when you say "obligatory" do you mean in your preferred dialect? Is this BrE or AmE? I say this because in the US (or at least in my experience) it's perfectly natural to omit the preposition here -- but I accept that it might sound ungrammatical to other English speakers. – Andrew – 2016-11-17T18:05:59.433
@Andrew I speak BrE. But it's not the preposition that really bothers me; it's the odd use of the clause "letting us know why you attend UCBA ..." as complement to "help". Perhaps it is a dialectal thing. – BillJ – 2016-11-17T19:07:36.447
@BillJ, you mentioned
complement to "help", if you call that "complement", may I know how do you call "help"? – user1764381 – 2016-11-17T19:12:14.6502"Help" is a noun in your example. Sorry, I should have said complement to "need" (not "help"). Some would see the clause as a modifier of "help". – BillJ – 2016-11-17T19:18:26.527
1@BillJ I see what you mean: who's helping whom? As written, it says We need you to help us let ourselves know. The sentence would be better written We need you to help by... As written, though, the NP headed by the gerund is the object of in, and that preposition phrase is a modifier of help. The noun often takes in +verbing, but I don't know of a term specific to this kind of modifier. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica – 2016-11-17T20:32:08.023