Parallel: Simple Gerund vs Complex Gerund

[samwong]

I hope it's OK to post partial OG SC sentence.

This is from OG Diagnostic SC #36

"...controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of the fire management personnel..."

Blue color text = simple gerund

green color text = complex gerund

According to MGMAT SC guide, simple gerund is not parallel to complex gerund. Can someone please explain. Thanks.

[tim]

what's to explain? is there some confusion about what the rule says or how to apply it?

[samwong]

The phrase "the training of the fire management personnel" is a complex gerund.

Are "controlled small-scale burning" and "forest thinning" simple gerund?

If they are simple gerund then they are not suppose to be parallel with "the training of the fire management personnel."

So, is there a discrepancy between the OG guide and MGMAT SC guide?

Sorry about the confusion. Thanks.

[tim]

you tell me. it sounds like you're asking us to do a lot of work here that you could do yourself. go ahead and write up what you think the case is, and we can take a look to see if you've analyzed things correctly..

[samwong]

I think I figured it out.

There are four categories of noun:

1) concrete noun
2) action noun
3) complex gerund phrase
4) simple gerund phrase

Only action noun can be parallel with complex gerund phrase. "The training of the fire management personnel" is a complex gerund phrase because it is precede by an article "the" and follow by a OF-prepositional phrase.

A simple gerund phrase starts with a verb-ing and end with a noun.

"controlled small-scale burning" and "forest thinning" are action nouns.

"controlled" is adverb and "small-scale" is an adjective. Thus, "burning" is an action noun.

"Forest" is an adjective and so "thinning" is an action noun.

So in this sentence, OG shows that action nouns can be parallel with complex gerund phrase.

Originally, I thought if verb-ing is used as a noun, it can only be a simple/complex gerund. However, verb-ing can also be used as an action noun.

Thanks.

[tim]

i'm not sure the exact terms are particularly relevant here. the important lesson is to realize that the OG considers the noun forms in this example parallel, and you should avoid eliminating an answer choice unless you are SURE the pieces cannot be made parallel..

[mark_macg]

I am still a little confused by the different between a complex gerund from a simple gerund in terms.

"...controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of the fire management personnel..."

Are we able to change the sentence to this and make it parallel:

..controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and fire management personnel training...

If this is parallel then will a complex gerund always have an of or some other preposition after it?

[jlucero]

I am still a little confused by the different between a complex gerund from a simple gerund in terms.

"...controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of the fire management personnel..."

Are we able to change the sentence to this and make it parallel:

..controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and fire management personnel training...

If this is parallel then will a complex gerund always have an of or some other preposition after it?

Fortunately this question doesn't test this issue, b/c it's a subtle difference in meaning. We always teach two rules for parallelism- (1) keep things consistent, but only if (2) they should be parallel and are clear in their meaning.

The problem with "fire management personnel training" is that anyone could be receiving this training. "the training of fire management personnel" is more clear that we are training fire management personnel. In the same way that the teaching of students is different than student teaching, we need to be careful of the ambiguity of certain structures. Ultimately, clear meaning trumps keeping things as pretty/parallel as possible.