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I have started to read a novel for practice. I came across these sentences. I can't make sense of the part 通って中に.
少年はあそこ一夜過ごすことに決めた。彼は羊の群れが、壊れかけた門を通って中に、入るのを見届けてから、夜中に羊が迷い出さないように、何本かの棒を門にわたした。
I cannot find an explanation for the use of the combination of the verb in te-form and chuu ni. Figuring out this part would help me a lot to put together what the sentence says.
中 does not belong to the te-form 通って. The right way to parse this sentence is
羊が門を通って、[中]{なか}に入るのを見届けてから
After [he] made sure that the sheep had passed the gate and got inside
In this case, the te-form simply joins multiple verb actions.
The comma between 通って and 中 may have confused you, however, when I google for the given phrase, I find it without the comma.
