Simple Vs. Complex Gerund Phrases

[morn_ie]

Hi!

I read about simple and complex gerund phrases in chapter 11, Manhattan SC Guide, but I can not understand it well.
Here are the examples:

1. The rebels demanded the withdrawal of government forces from disputed regions, significant reductions in overall troops level, raising the rebel flag on holidays, AND a general pardon.

the problem here is "raising", is mentioned that the correct version is: THE raising OF


2. The rebels demanded the withdrawal of government forces from disputed regions AND releasing of certain political prisoners.

"releasing" is wrong. Even "THE releasing OF" is not correct. The correct version is "the RELEASE of".

I will be very grateful if someone can help me.
Thank you in advance

[Willy]

Hi!

I read about simple and complex gerund phrases in chapter 11, Manhattan SC Guide, but I can not understand it well.
Here are the examples:

1. The rebels demanded the withdrawal of government forces from disputed regions, significant reductions in overall troops level, raising the rebel flag on holidays, AND a general pardon.

the problem here is "raising", is mentioned that the correct version is: THE raising OF

Let me try to explain a bit.

In ex. 1

The rebels demanded the withdrawal of government forces from disputed regions, significant reductions in overall troops level, raising the rebel flag on holidays, AND a general pardon.

withdrawal, reductions, pardon --> all these are action nouns, they represent the some kind of action.

now, as you might have read in the SC book that we can make only action nouns parallel to complex gerund phrases but 'raising the rebel flag' is not complex gerund it is simple gerund phrase.
"THE raising OF" is complex gerund phrase, hence is parallel to action nouns (withdrawal, reductions, pardon)

2. The rebels demanded the withdrawal of government forces from disputed regions AND releasing of certain political prisoners.

"releasing" is wrong. Even "THE releasing OF" is not correct. The correct version is "the RELEASE of".

I will be very grateful if someone can help me.
Thank you in advance

in ex. 2

'withdrawal' is action noun and 'releasing' is simple gerund so again not parallel.

Complex gerund phrase 'The Release of' must be considered right here as per the rules of action nouns ('withdrawal') are parallel to complex gerund phrases ('The Release of') but if there is already action noun in place of complex gerund phrase then use that action noun.

i.e. here in the ex 2

for 'the releasing of' there is action noun already - release.

I hope, I made some sense.

P.S.- please don't worry about all these terms as these won't matter on GMAT. Just remember what should be made parallel to what!

[morn_ie]

Thanks Willey.

I also hope that GMAT doesn't go into very detail!

I only have one question, in the first example, why can't we consider "raise" as an action noun? and change it to "the raise of"?

[Willy]

Thanks Willey.

I also hope that GMAT doesn't go into very detail!

I only have one question, in the first example, why can't we consider "raise" as an action noun? and change it to "the raise of"?

That is a good question actually and I didn't think about it.

I'm not sure of the answer to your question, but "the raise of" doesn't sound good to me (It doesn't sound good to my ears is not good answer though!)

[tim]

Most of this boils down to common sense - what do these things MEAN? What have you seen before in correctly written English and what have you not seen? In fact, this is one of the few cases where I would say you're better to rely on your own experience with understanding the language than what you read as a rule in the book. For instance, here you talk about "the raise" - when you use "raise" as a noun it means an increase in salary; that's why we can't use it here!