| fused participle |
| Definition -
A participle regarded as being joined grammatically with a preceding noun or pronoun.
Note: Some consider this a usage error. They feel that the preceding noun or pronoun should use the possessive apostrophe or the possessive case to distinguish it from the participial phrase that follows. |
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Example - I objected to him drinking so much. (fused) I objected to his drinking so much. (unfused) |
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Oxford English Dictionary - The term's first citation is from 1906: "The mistake is caused by certain types of sentence in which a real, not a fused participle is so used that the noun and its (unfused) participle give a sense hardly distinguishable from a possessive noun and a gerund." (H. W. & F. G. Fowler King's Eng. ii. 119) |
