What is the grammar rules that governs the words highlighted?

Question

This sentence is an excerpt from The Economist website.

The Kremlin denied the advance, saying that Russian troops had repelled Ukrainian attacks in the region.

What is the grammatical rule that's governing the "saying that Russian troops had repelled Ukrainian attacks in the region" in the sentence above?

I've been looking into the types of clauses to find any applications that match this, but I think I'm lost.

The non-finite gerund-participial saying clause is a supplementary adjunct. Supplements are loosely attached expressions set off by intonation (and usually punctuation) presenting supplementary, non-integrated content. — BillJ, Aug 29 '23 at 13:01
Or to put it slightly more simply, it's a participle clause. Can't you work out what it means? What information do you need? — Stuart F, Aug 29 '23 at 13:02
Bill and Stuart replied, choosing to comment rather than answer. — DjinTonic, Aug 29 '23 at 13:17
@DjinTonic The question is such a simple one that a comment is all that is required to handle it. — BillJ, Aug 29 '23 at 13:25
@BillJ, Yes, of course, but I couldn't resist adding another example :) — DjinTonic, Aug 29 '23 at 14:10
Does this answer your question? Can a participle phrase modify a clause? Examples given: A major accident occurred on our bus's route to school, making us late for class. // The gas tank exploded, sending shrapnel through the air. //// In addition to BillJ's syntactic analysis, one could add that semantically, this is an adjunct used for restatement / reinforcement / expansion. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 29 '23 at 15:09

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 29 '23 at 13:30

It adds supplementary info to the matrix clause and isn't explicitly connected to the matrix clause with any kind of connector word.

In such a clause, the participle on a semantic level indicates that the info added in the non-finite clause is relevant to the matrix clause as it occurred during the same time-frame as the action or event of the matrix clause. The time-frame is that of the matrix clause.

Yesterday, he collapsed into the easy chair, saying "I am exhausted".

And tomorrow he will collapse into the easy chair, saying "I am exhausted."

What is the grammar rules that governs the words highlighted?

1 Answers1