My first reaction was gerunds, but after studying the sentence, I think the reader would have to assume "I was".  They aren't acting as subjects or objects.. which would be the role of gerunds.  Hmmm .. if  you reverse that clause: daydreaming and ignoring their conversation, I gazed lazily out the window.  ... does that change anything?  I have no clue!  
 
Good question.  I run into the same question when I use a nonsense word paragraph to prove to students that they can answer questions without knowing what many of the words mean.  We then try to decide what part of speech the silly words are.. and some are tough!
 
Mikal Steinbacher
Instructor, ABE/ESL/English
Lake Washington Technical College

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From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of stephen churchville
Sent: Sat 2/14/2009 5:10 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3896] Re: past progressive


A week or so there was thread on the past progressive tense, but I didn't see any discussion of this usage and am very curious:
"Nelly and Francois chatted as I gazed lazily out the window, daydreaming and ignoring their conversation."
(If there was a good explanation in the thread or Azar, I apologize for missing it and repeating what was asked).
 
What is the role of "daydreaming and ignoring" in this example? Can it be past progressive without starting a new clause, with a subject and auxilliary "be"? Certainly not gerunds. 
 
thanks


Stephen J Churchville
www.LessonWriter.com <http://www.lessonwriter.com/> 



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