Please help me with the syntactic functions of -ing in the following sentences:

"While governments do nothing, the world is getting hotter."

"A rapidly growing group of scientists believe that ..."

"The first school suggests a wait-and-see strategy, with many scientists and economists calling for more research and a better understandingof the earth �s climate system."

"Governments should make far-reaching economic and political decisions such as phasing out fossil fuels."

Thank you in advance.�

A participle is a verbal adjective that describes a noun as being a participant in the action of the verb. English has two kinds of participles: a present participle, also called an imperfect participle, which ends in -ing and which ordinarily describes the agent of an action, and a past participle, also called a perfect participle, which typically ends in -ed (but can also end in -en, -t, or none of these), and which ordinarily describes the patient of an action.

The following sentences contain participles:

• The talking children angered the teacher. (Here talking modifies children.)
• Annoyed, Rita ate dinner by herself in the bedroom. (Here annoyed modifies Rita.)

In English, the present participle is used in forming the continuous aspect (to be doing); the past participle is used in forming the passive voice (to be done) and the perfect aspect (to have done).

A participial phrase is a phrase consisting of a participle and any adverbials and/or arguments; the participle is the head of such a phrase:

• Gazing at the painting, she recalled the house where she was born. (Here gazing at the painting modifies she.)

A relative clause in the active or passive voice can be reduced to a phrase known as a reduced adjective clause by utilizing a present or past participle.^[2] The reduced adjective clause can be formed even if the present participle is not used as a predicate in the clause.^[3]

• The students who were fidgeting in their seats were anxious about the test.
• The students who fidgeted in their seats were anxious about the test.
• The students fidgeting in their seats were anxious about the test.

[edit] Gerunds

A gerund is a verbal noun that refers to the action of the verb. In English, a gerund has the same form as a present participle (see above), ending in -ing:

• Fencing is good exercise. (Here fencing is the subject of is.)
• Leroy expanded his skills by studying. (Here studying is the object of by.)

A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any adverbials and/or arguments; the gerund is the head of such a phrase:

• My evening routine involves jogging slowly around the block. (Here jogging slowly around the block is the direct object of involves.)