"Keeping moving forward is important" - felicitous or not?

Question

Is the following sentence felicitous or not? If it is, why?

Keeping moving forward is important.

The "keeping moving" is what bothers me, it sounds pretty weird to me. I am a nonnative speaker, though, so I'd like to hear some feedback from native speakers.

This is known in syntactic circles as the "Doubl-ing Constraint". Some discussion here and here. — John Lawler, Aug 31 '15 at 20:21
Enjoying dancing is the only requirement.
Going fishing is the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning.
Regretting saying something insulting can keep you up at night. — Chuckk Hubbard, Apr 06 '18 at 05:50

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 31 '15 at 17:31

1

Keeping moving forward is important.

Grammatically speaking it is perfectly correct. Stylistically I agree - it sounds a little clumsy.

Formally (as in a military handbook): To keep moving forward is important.

Conversationally: It's important we/you keep moving forward.

In general: It's important to keep moving forward.

There may be other contexts.

answered Aug 31 '15 at 17:31

chasly - supports Monica

37,215

Do you have any thoughts on why the sentence sounds clumsy? – user132181 Aug 31 '15 at 17:35
1

Yes, it's simply because you have two consecutive words ending in '-ing'. As I say, there's no grammatical problem. – chasly - supports Monica Aug 31 '15 at 17:38

"Keeping moving forward is important" - felicitous or not?

1 Answers1