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I know these two sentences are correct:

Europeans consider climate change to be the most serious problem facing the world.

Perhaps the most serious problem facing the environment is global warming.

But I really do not understand the grammar. I think the first sentence should be...

Europeans consider climate change to be the most serious problem the world is facing.

And the second one should be...

Perhaps the most serious problem the environment is facing is global warming.

This is extremely confusing for Chinese native speakers, as in Chinese it does not make sense to say "A problem is facing the world" or "A problem is facing the environment".

Can anyone explain the reason?

Spider
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  • Where's this putative subject-verb inversion? Both your sentences have the subject before the verb. Have you charted out the constituents to see the actual grammatical structure here? – tchrist Jul 07 '21 at 20:19
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    Possibly there is a legitimate question here, but the OP does not know how to phrase it... – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Jul 07 '21 at 23:01
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    The answer to your question is that “face” is a verb that describes a relationship between two entities using a spatial metaphor. Both the relationship and the spatial relationship are reciprocal. If you face your friend, your friend is also facing you. Similarly, if a problem faced the world, the world faces that problem. In your examples, the noun phrase following facing is the object, not the subject, of the verb. – Araucaria - Him Jul 07 '21 at 23:05
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    @Cascabel Yes, I believe so. See my unavoidable ‘answer in a comment’ above. – Araucaria - Him Jul 07 '21 at 23:06
  • @Cascabel Yes, as I said, I agree! – Araucaria - Him Jul 07 '21 at 23:20
  • There is a new answer to the question you have been referred to, that is to say, here. – LPH Jul 08 '21 at 00:40
  • @LPH That doesn’t address the chief concern of this question, though :-) – Araucaria - Him Jul 08 '21 at 06:21
  • @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. The chief concern would be the semantic of "to face", which implies a reciprocal relationship (meet face to face, figuratively); that is answered by your comment; but then the OP speaks of grammar, which is another matter. – LPH Jul 08 '21 at 10:10
  • @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. Thanks for your answer! Sorry that I did not phrase it properly. Do you want to put your comment as an answer to this question? Then I will accept it. – Spider Jul 08 '21 at 10:24
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    @Spider I can’t do that because the question’s still closed. I’d try giving it an edit to make it very clear why the examples are confusing (I.e. showing why those NPs look like subjects). That should help get it reopened. – Araucaria - Him Jul 08 '21 at 16:15

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