Re: The first thing he having done being...

On Oct 10, 10:15 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 9, 4:57 pm, "benli...@xxxxxxxxxx" <benli...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Oct 10, 4:27 am, António Marques <m...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

'One, of course, is the great Private Park, and, of course, the greatest
thing about it is that it's no longer private: the first thing which the
King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the reclusive Mazzimilian the
Mad on the throne, being to throw open the Private Park to the pulic.'
-- Avram Davidson, _Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman_

I can neither read that 'having' as correct, nor find an alternative, at
least without a major rewrite. This is one of the Transbalkania stories,
in which I don't know if Avram uses deliberately non-standard language
as he's wont whenever possible.

In general terms, how do you apply the is -> being transformation to a
pluperfect? Is it the way above?

is -> being
will X -> will be Xing
was -> ?
had Xparticiple -> ? having Xparticiple ?
--
António Marques

The problem in the above is that the participial transformation should
be applied only to the main verb in the clause you're trying to
participialize. The underlying clause is something like "The first
thing the King-Emperor did....was to throw open...", a kind of pseudo-
cleft in which "was" is the main verb.
I think "being" is OK there, but if the underlying form is "was", you
could use "having been". I think that's the only available
alternative. The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb
in a lower clause ("did"), which just makes a mess. If you leave "did"
it reads tolerably, though I think it's a mistake to combine the
clefting and the participle. Too much fancy syntax.

The "lower clause" isn't a clause,

The clause I am talking about is "[which] the King-Emperor did", a
relative clause modifying "thing".

everything after the colon is just
a long and awkward nominal.

I don't know what you mean by "nominal", and calling it "awkward" is
hardly an analysis of what's wrong with it.

There's already a main verb in the very
first line, all the rest is decoration.

?? What do you consider the main verb? And main verb of what?

Ross Clark
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The first thing he having done being...
    ... King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the reclusive Mazzimilian the ... cleft in which "was" is the main verb. ... The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb ... longer private:" is one big nominalization of the latter kind. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: The first thing he having done being...
    ... King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the reclusive Mazzimilian the ... cleft in which "was" is the main verb. ... The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb ... longer private:" is one big nominalization of the latter kind. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: The first thing he having done being...
    ... King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the reclusive Mazzimilian the ... The underlying clause is something like "The first ... cleft in which "was" is the main verb. ... The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: The first thing he having done being...
    ... The underlying clause is something like "The first ... cleft in which "was" is the main verb. ... The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb ... The greatest thing about it is that it's no longer private ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: The first thing he having done being...
    ... King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the reclusive Mazzimilian the ... The underlying clause is something like "The first ... cleft in which "was" is the main verb. ... The writer has attempted also to participialize the verb ...
    (sci.lang)
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