Need help with explaining the grammar of a sentence

[SupportSanity]

There used to be a lot of commercials on tv to sell paintings by
"starving artists"

I realize that grammatically, starving artists can be taken two ways:

artists who are starving
-and-
the act of starving the artists (nobody buys their paintings so the artists starve)

Can anyone explain grammatically (as in verbs, adverbs, objects, etc) the second interpretation (the act of starving artists)?

Thanks.

[dchill]

1. Starving artists are artists who are starving. Hope that helps!

[some_of_us_are_sane]

2. Well...

The first example of "starving artists" uses 'starving' as an adjective to describe the artist because they haven't made any, or very few sales.

The second uses 'starving' as a verb. An act performed ON the artist.

[Ocelot II]

3. If "starving artists" means the act of causing artists to go hungry,

"starving" is a verb. If it refers to the state of the artists' health, "starving" is an adjective.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. I can diagram the sentence for you but not online.

See if there’s a website that can do this both ways.

[SupportSanity]

5. diagram would be great

I tried looking online to diagram, but.

a verb ending with ING is a gerund or a participle?

so "starving" would be a gerund or a participle?

and "artists" would be the object?

[SupportSanity]

6. I think I might have it. Can anyone confirm? Thanks.

"Starving Artists"

In the first interpretation:
"Starving" would be a participle acting as an adjective modifying a noun?
And the noun would be "Artists"?
but this looks more like the first interpretation.

the second interpretation implies
(the act of) starving artists

so what would be "starving" grammatically here?

Thanks.

[claudette]

8. It's a

gerund

[SupportSanity]

9. Yes. I got it. Gerund it is. "starving" as a gerund . Thanks. nt

[claudette]

7. I think

“starving the artists” is a gerund, which is a noun derived from a verb.

[Iggo]

10. You sure it's not artists who starve people?

[GreenWave]

11. Just a minute, Andy. Just a goddarned minute.

A third, more nefarious, interpretation is there.

Our paintings will not sell unless we starve artists.

sell paintings by "starving artists"

[SupportSanity]

12. There are two ways to look at ...

I was originally thinking of that famous Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" where the aliens come to down to earth and seem to want to help all mankind. But then their secret book is found entitled "To Serve Man" and it turns out to be a cookbook - all the recipes were how to cook up meals using humans - another way of looking at "to serve man".

So I was thinking about other dual meaning phrases and came up with "Starving Artists".
it could be interpreted as
(The) Starving Artists
or
Starving (the) Artists.

So, just playing with two or three word phrases that have dual meanings as a mental exercise.
I just wanted an explanation as to why the same phrase can be different grammatically. It's been many many years since I touched Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style".

I figured there are a lot of smart people on this board and someone knows the answer.

And thanks. I do appreciate the help.

So,..... Anyone have any other dual meaning phrases?

[Jeebo]

13. You have pointed out that "starving artists" is ambiguous.

The term has two possible meanings, but I think the context, and the usual intended meaning of the term, make it clear.

This discussion is putting images in my mind from one of my favorite old movies, "The Life of Emile Zola", which won Best Picture of 1937, by the way. The title character and his Paris roommate Paul Gaugin were both starving artists in the early scenes of the movie, before Zola started having success as an author.

This discussion also reminds me of the Puccini opera "La Boheme", which portrays the lives of characters in a similar situation.

— Ron