American workers facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation have gotten the message—or at least a version of it.
Can anyone please explain the structure? Is there any implied be verb after workers, like workers are facing?
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Jason Bassford
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1Does this answer your question? Removing "who were" in "The park was empty except for a group of people who were stretching, jogging, and doing Tai Chi" – Edwin Ashworth Jul 11 '20 at 15:46
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[American workers facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation] have gotten the message.
No: the bracketed element is a non-finite clause functioning as subject of the sentence. It's quite common for non-finite clauses, as well as finite ones, to function as subject.
Within that clause the gerund-participial clause "facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation" is modifying "American workers".
In your example the gerund-participial clause is the semantic equivalent of the relative clause in American workers who are facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation.
But it's not called a relative clause since there is no possibility of it containing a relative phrase (cf. *American workers who facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation).
BillJ
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American workers facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation have gotten the message
"facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation" is what is known as a reduced relative clause.
In full, it is
American workers who are facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation have gotten the message.
("American workers are facing a less prosperous future than their parents’ generation have gotten the message." is wrong for obvious reasons.)
Greybeard
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Don't you think this question suits English Language Learners site better? It's interesting that you kindly left answer for this. I have no clue what your criteria is – user88310 Jul 12 '20 at 12:47