![]() Supposedly this construction is more common with verbs from Latin. ![]() I don't know for sure, but this might be a case of English incorporating foreign grammar just as it incorporates foreign vocabulary. Notice, though, that English does include verb-framing constructions: the ones I put in parentheses, which literally translate the Spanish into perfectly good, though unusual, English. Linguists call these "satellite framing" and "verb framing", respectively. In Romance languages, usually a verb for motion indicates the direction of motion, and the manner of motion is indicated by an adverbial phrase like the construction you're asking about: salir correndo (exit running), llegar en bicicleta (arrive on bicycle), entrar sonriendo ( Enter Laughing). In Germanic languages, usually a verb for motion indicates the manner of motion, and the direction of the motion is indicated by a preposition or particle: "run in", "walk out", "crawl through", "bike to". For example, in Spanish:Įstudio Inglés escuchando música. In the Romance languages, it has the same ability to represent actions that occur together or one describing how the other is accomplished. Foreign grammar?īy the way, this construction is somewhat unusual in English but very common in the Romance languages. So, a sentence like that needs context to indicate the relationship between "listening" and "study", but when that context is provided, the relationship can be clear. Different native speakers understood "I study English listening to music" in your original question in very different ways, or found the sentence ambiguous or unclear. ![]() Consequently, it is also very ambiguous on its own. Here is the important grammatical principle: because "listening to music" lacks a subject and lacks a preposition to explicitly connect it with the verb, it is extremely flexible with regard to those missing items. If the preceding sentences already establish such a relationship, the mind is "primed" to find that relationship very easily and not to find other reasonable candidates. What is that relationship? Study while listening? Study by listening? The sentence must be asserting some relationship between the two actions. The main verb is "study", and "listening" somehow connects with it. So now the mind understands the sentence as describing two actions performed by "I": studying and listening. "Listening to music" functions as an adverb modifying "study", but the fact that "listening" is a participle makes a listener's mind search the sentence for a reasonable noun to attach it to. That the first example means "while listening to music" and the second example means "by listening to music" are both completely clear and unambiguous even though the second example is absurd. Currently, I study English listening to music and seismology watching interpretive dance. Later, I learned chemical thermodynamics just by listening to music. After a few days, you'll never forget it! I learned the quadratic formula in algebra from a song with the same melody as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". You can learn anything by setting it to music, listening to it, and singing along with it. (2) Music is the greatest pedagogical tool known to humanity. I even study English listening to music and sleep listening to music. (1) I do everything while listening to music! I wash the dishes while listening to music, I jog across campus while listening to music, and I repair cars while listening to music. These examples should clarify what's going on: I think Brian Hitchcock's comment just gave me the crucial clue. ![]()
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