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

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, everything after the colon is just
a long and awkward nominal. There's already a main verb in the very
first line, all the rest is decoration.
.

Relevant Pages

  • 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...
    ... King-Emperor having done, upon succeeding the ... The underlying clause is something ... which "was" is the main verb. ... writer has attempted also to participialize the ...
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  • 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...
    ... 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...
    ... 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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