A student today asked me about a sentence he said his Chinese teacher couldn't explain grammatically, and I found I wasn't sure either.

The sentence is "He entered the room, followed by his wife."

How would you describe the words "followed by" grammatically.

Is it a preposition, indicating the relative positions of "he" and "his wife"? (which was my first thought)

Is it an elliptical form that really stands in for
"He entered the room and was followed by his wife."

Is it a conjunction? (The student's idea)

Just what grammatical term would be correct to describe it?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

If one substitutes "with" for "followed by" it would be a preposition, so I'd say prepositional phrase.

Exactly my reasoning.

If the sentence was "He entered the room, followed by a woman," then it might be a proposition.

If seductive gets you arrested, then it's conductive.

Funny, But does anyone have any on-topic suggestions?

I agree with Geoff. Strange as that seems.

Bob, my first vote would be prepositional phrase. But I also like your elliptical form, though I know less about the latter.

I think "followed by his wife" is a bare passive. See Pullum.

I'd forgotten the name "bare passive, though that's what I had in mind when I suggested an ellipsis. Thanks goofy.

Can't say I've even heard of the bare passive. I suspect there is much more to English than I've realized.