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


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](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/9831/chocolate)
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/47800/correct-translation-
of-%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84-in-this-
sentence/47870#47870).




> 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)




> 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)

