The followed by present participle

[Twin]

I have just had a talk with a friend of mine who argues that it is correct to say
The missing is a child.

I tried to explain to him that the missing would refer to a group of people, but he cited examples of the + present participle which do not refer to a group of objects such as the washing in I have to do the washing.

Does this stem from that fact that in the first case we talk about people and in the second one we do not? Or perhaps I am wrong. If so, please correct me.

BTW, is it correct to say a poor meanig a poor person? [/i]

[Pamela]

In English literature I often observed poor thing referring to a person(when you sympathize with a person ) But if you mean poor man in a sense of without money,beggar,it's better to say a poor man but it's just my opinion.

The missing is a child. This expression is not so common for me. I look to the missing as the verbal noun :D I'd better say :A(the if it's a definite child) child is missed" or missed is a child.

The moderators will help you.I just expressed my ideas :D

[Conchita]

[Conchita]

[Yankee]

Hi Twin

I agree completely with Conchita.

"The missing" = people
"The poor" = people
"The washing" = a single "collective" activity involving many clothes, many motions and a lot of work. :lol:

Amy

EDIT:
"a poor" = not possible as a stand-alone noun to refer to "a poor person"
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Twin]

Thank you for your answers.

We cannot say the missing is, but I guess we can say the washing is. My next question is: why? Is this because the former refers to people, whereas the latter does not? What do you think? What is the rule behind this?

[Yankee]

Hi Twin

I think you can also take the following things into consideration in attempting ;) an explanation:

"The washing" is a gerund and was a verb before "deciding" to act like a noun. A gerund describes an activity (or possibly a state). It is grammatically singular. Gerunds can also sometimes be countable and made plural. The plural form would have the usual "s" at the end.

the washing
the cleaning
repeated and furious cleanings :lol:
his writing
his various writings
your cheating
the owing

"The missing" was a participial adjective describing people before "deciding" to act like a noun.
You can sometimes take a general adjective and turn it into a noun in order to categorize or group people who have a particular characteristic in common. This sort of noun is plural. (Nationalities would be an exception in this case.)

the poor
the rich
the missing
the starving
the over-worked
the under-paid

Just my thoughts.

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Pamela]

Amy,as far as I know gerund cannot be used with an article :( The missing should be treated as a verbal noun.Am I not right?

[Twin]

That's a very good point.

Many warm thanks to all those who contributed to the solution.

[Yankee]

Hi Pamela

Would you say that "the underpaid" and "the underfed" (e.g.) are also verbal nouns?

If so, wouldn't that take us right back to the original question? :lol:

Let's try it this way: One "ing form" ;) refers to an activity and the other "ing form" ;) refers to whole lot of people who share a common attribute.

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Pamela]