Another English teacher and I are having a disagreement about the following sentence: “He screwed up his eyes, trying to see what it was.” Clearly, “He” is the subject and “screwed” is the predicate. “Up his eyes” is a prepositional/ adverbial phrase. The part we’re arguing over is the “trying to see what it was”. I’m maintaining that it is another adverbial phrase, although I don’t know that I’ve ever had to analyze one that answered the question of why the action is happening. Any ideas?

Question

anonymous · Answer

I think you are correct

anonymous · Answer

It is an adverbial phrase.  Adverbs answer the questions "how, when and why."