The sentence ‘a number of animals have almost disappeared because hunted for their fur’ may seem confusing at first due to the lack of a subject before the verb ‘hunted.’ Let’s break down why this works in English and how it’s connected to participle constructions.
The Role of Participle Constructions in English
In English, participle constructions like ‘hunted for their fur’ are often used to simplify sentences. Here, ‘hunted’ is a past participle that functions in a passive sense, implying that the animals were the ones being hunted, not the ones doing the hunting. This allows the sentence to remain concise while still conveying the meaning clearly.
Understanding the Subject-Verb Relationship
In the sentence, ‘hunted’ doesn’t require a subject because it is part of a reduced passive construction. The full version of the sentence could be ‘because they were hunted for their fur,’ where ‘they’ refers to ‘a number of animals.’ In this reduced version, the subject is implied and omitted to avoid repetition.
Why the Subject is Omitted
English often omits subjects in participle constructions when they can be inferred from the context. The structure is very common in cases where the subject is already understood from the main clause. In this case, ‘a number of animals’ is the subject of the main sentence, so there’s no need to repeat it in the participial phrase.
Conclusion: How to Recognize and Use Participial Constructions
In conclusion, the phrase ‘because hunted for their fur’ is a grammatically correct example of a participle construction. By understanding how English simplifies structures with implied subjects in passive constructions, you can create more concise and natural sentences. This technique is particularly useful when the subject is already clear, as in this case.
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