GRM-020 Hard constraint layer: sentence

Avoid fused participle logic

IF an -ing construction implies a cause, sequence, or actor that the sentence does not support, THEN state the relation in a finite clause ELSE retain.

Why the rule exists

Compressed participial clauses can hide impossible timing or unsupported causation.

Condition

The rule fires when this evaluates true. Paths marked below must be present in the fact base; the engine reports the rest rather than guessing them.

ALL
- sentence.ing_clause.exists eq true
- ANY
  - sentence.ing_clause.actor_ambiguous eq true
  - sentence.ing_clause.time_relation_impossible eq true
  - sentence.ing_clause.causal_relation_unsupported eq true

Facts this rule reads

Fact paths read by GRM-020 and whether the analyser derives them
Path	Source
`sentence.ing_clause.exists`	You supply it
`sentence.ing_clause.actor_ambiguous`	You supply it
`sentence.ing_clause.time_relation_impossible`	You supply it
`sentence.ing_clause.causal_relation_unsupported`	You supply it

Then

expand — target sentence.ing_clause

Else

retain — target current_text, No triggering condition is present.

LAKA

Smallest sufficient intervention

Yes

Primary axes

Sources

The Copyeditor's Handbook — Amy Einsohn; Marilyn Schwartz
Professional copyediting practice, grammar, and editorial process.
The Sense of Style — Steven Pinker
Reader-centered clarity informed by linguistics and cognition.
Microsoft Writing Style Guide — Microsoft link
Warm, clear, concise, helpful technical communication.

The raw rule record

Verbatim from 07-core-grammar-rules.json. Also available at /v1/rules/GRM-020.

{
  "id": "GRM-020",
  "name": "Avoid fused participle logic",
  "domain": "grammar",
  "layer": "sentence",
  "strength": "hard_constraint",
  "human_logic": "IF an -ing construction implies a cause, sequence, or actor that the sentence does not support, THEN state the relation in a finite clause ELSE retain.",
  "when": {
    "all": [
      {
        "path": "sentence.ing_clause.exists",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": true
      },
      {
        "any": [
          {
            "path": "sentence.ing_clause.actor_ambiguous",
            "operator": "eq",
            "value": true
          },
          {
            "path": "sentence.ing_clause.time_relation_impossible",
            "operator": "eq",
            "value": true
          },
          {
            "path": "sentence.ing_clause.causal_relation_unsupported",
            "operator": "eq",
            "value": true
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "then": [
    {
      "action": "expand",
      "target": "sentence.ing_clause",
      "to": "finite_clause",
      "include": [
        "actor",
        "time_or_logic_connector"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "else": [
    {
      "action": "retain",
      "target": "current_text",
      "reason": "No triggering condition is present."
    }
  ],
  "unless": [],
  "because": "Compressed participial clauses can hide impossible timing or unsupported causation.",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "examples": {},
  "source_ids": [
    "BK-007",
    "BK-008",
    "WEB-004"
  ],
  "laka": {
    "smallest_sufficient_intervention": true,
    "primary_axes": [
      "scope",
      "depth",
      "magnitude",
      "reversibility"
    ]
  }
}