やることもなく ; "doing nothing" or "doing nothing but/except"

Question

Attempting to make some flashcards from the dialogue in Dad of Light on Netflix.

Near the very beginning of Ep1, we have the following:

夏休みにやることもなくフローリングの床に寝そべって足の力でクルクル回るという

English subtitles read:

I had nothing else better to do during summer vacation than lie on the kitchen floor and turn in circles using my legs.

my question is about やることもなく -- I can think of two ways this could be:

"During summer vacation I did nothing. I was lying on the floor, turning in circles using my legs."

--or--

"During summer vaction I did nothing except lie on the floor, turning in circles using my legs."

Can anyone point me toward a resource to understand this usage? I found something close from user Chocolate here.

Answer 1

夏休みにやることもなく...

means "During summer vacation I had nothing to do, and/so..."

「やること」 → "things to do" "something to do"
「やることがない」 → "have nothing do to" (≂ 「ヒマだ」 in your context)

cf:
「話すこと」 → "things to talk about"
「話すことがない」 → "have nothing to talk about"
「書くこと」 → "things to write about"
「書くことがない」 → "have nothing to write about"
「見るもの」 → "things to see"
「見るものがない」 → "there's nothing to see"

The continuative form (連用形) なく is used here to connect two clauses, like a conjunction "and" or "so".

---

_{As for the も replacing the が, it's used to indicate...}

_{も　🈩〘副助*〙
⓬ さりげなくとりたてて、文意をやわらげる。
「お腹もすいたし、食事にするか」「天気もいいから、散歩でもしよう」
-- from 明鏡国語辞典 (*明鏡 categorizes 係助詞/binding particle as 副助詞/adverbial particle)}

Answer 2

(1) 夏休みにやることもない。そして、フローリングの床に寝そべって
(2) 夏休みにやることもなくフローリングの床に寝そべって
"During summer vacation I did nothing. I was lying on the floor, turning in circles using my legs."

"point me toward a resource"は出来ませんが、質問者が考えた１番目の案は、(2) ではなく、(1) に対するものです。 (2) は (1) と違って、「やることもなく」と連用形で終わっていますので、例えば「やることもなく ～する」のように用言が続く必要があります。

(2) の例では、「～する」に相当する部分は「（床に）寝そべる」です。

従って、(2) の解釈は質問者が提示した２番目の案だけです。

"During summer vaction I did nothing except lie on the floor, turning in circles using my legs."

因みに、質問者が提示した下記の例は、(1) と同じく終止形「ない」で終わっています。

(3) ベルが人を突き飛ばすこともない。-- The bell wouldn't ever push people away, either. / Nor would it ever push people away.

Answer 3

I think なく is close to "without".
So やることもなく is "without even something I want to do."

I interpret the く as a word expressing a state or a circumstance of someone/something.

for example

彼は朝食を食べることなく家を出て行った

If translating it into English, it would be like

"He left home without having breakfast."

And く is a conjunction. it make us feel a connection to the following clause.
Your two sentences are very good, but you shouldn't punctuate after く. If I translate that sentence into English, it would be like this:

During summer vacation, without even something I want to do I was lying on the floor, turning in circles using my legs.

So I mean, く expresses a state in pallarel rather than a cause and result in order.

I'm so sorry for my bad English.