Flor

Hello http://www.esl-lounge.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif Can anyone help me identify the function of the underlined structure in the following nominal phrase, please? "Its refusal to impose new income taxes on its residents..." I know it's a to-infinitive clause, but I'm not sure what its function here is. Can it be a postmodifier of "refusal"? (I doubt it, though, because I don't think such a clause can have adjectival force). Is it an appositive? One more: what's the category and the function of the underlined structure in the following? "She died in an accident after suffering a stroke while at the wheel." Is "suffering a stroke" a non-finite (gerundive) clause acting as object of the preposition "after"? http://www.esl-lounge.com/forum/images/smilies/dunno.gif Thanks in advance. Flor