Both "play" and "playing" is correct here. People often see him (who is) playing basketball on the playground at the weekend. People often see him (who) play basketball on the playground at the weekend. So essentially both carry the same meaning.
Is there no way to state the generic playing without a direct object? Or is "playing" inherently a transitive verb? Cambridge Dictionary first sense seems to suggest intransitive, but it seems to always have a "with him" or "on the street" after it. Is it natural to have this kind of conversation: "What were you doing?" "I was playing." "Oh, what did you play?/Who do you play with?"
Is it idiomatic to say "I just played" or "I was just playing" in ...
Played myself in scrabble. I won! What is the difference between playing with someone and playing someone? What if someone is replaced with the speaker themselves? Is the sentence in the quote cor...
meaning - What difference is between playing with someone and playing ...
I need to be playing in Europe I need to play in Europe Which sentence is more correct or is there any difference at all?
Cook (2000) defined language play as playing with words and meanings, playing in language and creating fictional words, and playing with pragmatics, which entails enjoyment with language.
+1, though it's a bit of an oversimplification; something like "she who is playing the piano" or "she of the long hair" is grammatical but literary, whereas the OP's *"she playing the piano" is out-and-out ungrammatical.