Lighting up the streets of Hong Kong's mini Venice

[Maybo]

Lighting up the streets of Hong Kong's mini Venice, the festival features a slew of handmade lanterns in all shapes and colours, all made and decorated by Tai O locals and volunteers. (Best things to do to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival this year by Jenny Leung)

Is the following the basic form of the above sentence?:

The festival lights up the streets of Hong Kong's mini Venice. The festival features a slew of handmade lanterns in all shapes and colours, all made and decorated by Tai O locals and volunteers.

 

[jutfrank]

Think about how the grammatical form of the sentence is being used by the writer.

The initial participle clause (the bit before the first comma) expresses the effect of the presence of all those lanterns.

 

[Maybo]

Think about how the grammatical form of the sentence is being used by the writer.

The initial participle clause (the bit before the first comma) expresses the effect of the presence of all those lanterns.

Is the following correct?

Since the festival features a slew of handmade lanterns in all shapes and colours, all made and decorated by Tai O locals and volunteers, it lights up the streets of Hong Kong's mini Venice.

 

[jutfrank]

Correct in what sense?

Leave the original sentence alone.

 

[Maybo]

Correct in what sense?

Leave the original sentence alone.

When do we use a participle clause at the beginning of a sentence? Is it usually for showing cause and effect?

 

[jutfrank]

It is often for showing some kind of causal (one thing is the result of another) relationship, yes. It is also commonly used for showing a cotemporal (two things happening at the same time) relationship, and a sequential (one thing happening directly after another) relationship.

 

[Tdol]

Is the following correct?

Since the festival features a slew of handmade lanterns in all shapes and colours, all made and decorated by Tai O locals and volunteers, it lights up the streets of Hong Kong's mini Venice.

Not really- other people could make similar lanterns.