What type of clause or phrase is the sentence “watching the tide roll in.”? ?

D-participial phrase. This is the  correct option.

Watching the tide roll in, Otis sat on the dock of the bay and found himself suddenly inspired. The underlined structure is headed by a participle because  its full form would be: While Otis was watching the ride roll in The words in bold  type show the full pattern: to be , in the past, plus the verb ,to watch, in the participle form. It is also called a phrase because it can be replaced by a phrase: During that time, Otis sat In fact, this is a prepositional phrase indicating time. As the speaker wants to give more details, she/ he  tells what Otis was doing during that time. Besides, the speaker is referring to Otis in this phrase, so he/ she does not need to mention him again; Otis is mentioned in the main clause.

These options are not right:

A-main clause. ( Example: Watching the tide roll in, Otis sat on the dock of the bay and found himself suddenly inspired. )

B-Gerund phrase (Example : Watching the tide is nice. This differs from a participle because watching is not part of  a continuous form. We cannot replace it by " Otis was watching the tide ..." Watching ,here, has a nominal function. It can be replaced by "This").

C-independent clause (Example: Watching the tide roll in, Otis sat on the dock of the bay and found himself suddenly inspired. )

in railroad songs, workers swung their hammers during the offbeat. work songs combined with traditional musical and lyrical forms, such as hymns and ballads, to create spirituals, the blues, and other jazz styles. this blending of old and new can be seen when comparing the lyrics to the traditional irish song "lass of roch royal" and the blues song "the deal."

as work songs and other forms of jazz developed, jazz music spread across the united states. for example, a jazz style known as dixieland went from new orleans to chicago by means of the famous trumpet player louis armstrong. the original dixieland band developed out of armstrong's influence and, in the early 1920s, moved to new york city. once jazz reached new york, especially harlem, its development