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Consider the sentence:

I saw her cry.

Why is it, then, that we can't say:

I saw her be crying.

And instead say:

I saw her crying.

?

Why is the second sentence infelicitous?

user132181
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  • I saw her sad/ being sad; upset/ being upset; happy/being happy; angry/ being (or) getting angry. [What do these words: sad, upset, happy, and angry have in common?] – Mari-Lou A Aug 10 '15 at 19:30
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    Perhaps this question would fit better on our sister site: http://ell.stackexchange.com/ – Mari-Lou A Aug 10 '15 at 19:35
  • There are three sentences. Which one of the three does the title refer to? That is, which one do you call infelicitous? And what are you saying about the other two, are they felicitous? Please be more specific. – chasly - supports Monica Aug 10 '15 at 19:38
  • @chaslyfromUK I've edited the question. – user132181 Aug 10 '15 at 19:40
  • It doesn't sound infelicitous; it sounds wrong. I can't think of any variety of English that allows that. – Mitch Aug 10 '15 at 20:13
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    Sense verbs like see can take several different kinds of complement clause, including gerunds (e.g, crying) and infinitives without to (e.g, cry). Sentence (2) is bad because be crying is a progressive infinitive, and these are rare without to; there is a rule called to be-deletion that removes both to and be, but not just one. If you tried a passive infinitive, the be might do better: I saw him be arrested is not too bad, and I saw him being arrested is just fine. – John Lawler Aug 10 '15 at 20:18
  • @John Lawler Would you give the precise definition of 'gerund' as you use it? I'm using 'ing-form nearer the verbal end of the noun-verb continuum' for say 'crying' in 'I saw her crying'; I've come across conflicting usages of 'gerund' but would match the term more closely with the POSS-ing usage 'I heard his crying'. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 10 '15 at 20:53
  • @EdwinAshworth That’s too long a phrase for convenient use. Whatever you call it, it’s a non-finite VP whose subject is indicated in a non-nominative way. For purposes of answering the question asked by the OP, one should probably find something that works to describe all of: I’ve seen him eat chips, I see him eating chips, I see his eating chips bothers her. – tchrist Aug 10 '15 at 21:12
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    @Edwin: I did a post on various uses of -ing forms and their properties some time ago. These days the only thing I'd add would be the ACC-ing gerund complementizer as well as POSS-ing. Otherwise it corresponds to the way I use the term. It's the verby end of the noun-verb cline, all right. Direct objects, no articles, adverbs, subjects either present or indefinite or governed by Equi, complement clauses used as subject or object. The gerund clause is an NP, but the gerund itself heads a VP. – John Lawler Aug 10 '15 at 21:24

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