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I have difficulty understanding the following sentence:

-Or does it somehow lie behind its properties, supporting them, a solid peg on which they happen to hang.

Please help me grasp what the present participle function here, together with why a noun phrase followed by a relative clause stands alone.

Thank you!

HypnoticBuggyWraithVirileBevy
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    Does this answer your question? Can a participle phrase modify a clause? That answers question (2). Question (1) ('Can a sentence start with "or" / and / but ...) has been dealt with elsewhere. Question (3) is really about two-participial-clause-modified sentences, 'Does it lie ...' supporting ... ' '[being/acting as] a solid peg ...' (with deletion). I'd use a dash. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 14 '20 at 13:15
  • I don't think the nominate absolute "supporting them" is modifying the whole sentence preceding it, and rather I consider the logical subject is "it“. And could you further explain when deletion like this "[being/acting as] a solid peg ...' (with deletion)." occur? – HypnoticBuggyWraithVirileBevy Sep 14 '20 at 13:57
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    I'd say it's in apposition, adding further detail It lies behind its properties (supporting them). It [lies behind its properties]: [{further,} it supports said properties]. The NP is also in apposition, this time paraphrastic: It [lies behind its properties]: [it supports said properties]: [ie It is a solid peg {we might say} on which they happen to hang]. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 14 '20 at 14:25
  • As a metaphor, "a solid peg" is not just being/acting as a support, it is (in the imagination) a solid peg. – Yosef Baskin Sep 14 '20 at 19:33

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