The new owner of the house is John

[manhhiep2509]

Hi instructors.

I know that "comma + V-ing" indicates that the action in the V-ing phrase happens at the same time with actions in the main clause.
How about "V-ing phrase" that modifies a noun in a clause?
Do all V-ing indicate the meaning?

For example
(1) The new owner of the house is John having several houses in other cities.

(2) I bought the M magazine at the news stand near my house selling other popular magazines.

do "having several house ..." and "selling other popular magazines" take the tenses of the main verbs?

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Well, see, these are problematic examples"”largely for reasons that aren't what you are asking about.
Specifically, if a modifier is blocked off by commas, then it's not narrowing down the previous idea; if it's not, then it does narrow down the previous idea.

E.g.,
I like Balmain jackets, which are influenced by punk-rock style.
--> According to this sentence, "influenced by punk-rock style" doesn't narrow down "Balmain jackets". So, for this sentence to work, ALL Balmain jackets must be influenced by punk-rock style.

Vs.
I like Balmain jackets that are influenced by punk-rock style.
In this sentence, "influenced by punk-rock style" narrows down "Balmain jackets". In other words, only some Balmain jackets are influenced by punk-rock style... and those are the ones I'm talking about.

This distinction isn't tested on the GMAT, but it causes problems with your examples. (see below)

[RonPurewal]

For the reason above, the first sentence is just nonsense. "John" is already a single person, so we can't have a modifier that narrows that any further.
If you had something like This building is owned by John[/b], who[/b] also owns similar properties in other cities, then that would work"”but then the element of interest (the __ing) wouldn't be there anymore.

But the point remains: If the sentence is nonsense to begin with, it's impossible to analyze.

As far as the other sentence, you probably didn't intend to indicate that you were talking about just one of several newsstands, so that example is not so hot, either.

So, you should probably try again here. (:

* If this question was inspired by a particular problem, you should probably just go ahead and post the problem (or, if it's an OG problem, just list the edition and problem number).