0

I don't understand the usage of "being" in these sentences. Is this some kind of special way to use it? I think this is the usage called "reduced adjective clause" but in that rule we omit the "be form of the verb" if there is one.

Example for the rule I talked about:

He is the student who is responsible for making a trouble in the class.

Reduced version =

He is the student responsible for making a trouble in the class.

The sentences that I don't understand:

  1. Due to the setup being higher than a regular deadlift you remove much of the posterior chain.

  2. He had it all planned out before he brought it up for discussion, my Uncle Roy being a man who liked to have his ducks lined up in a row before shooting them.

  3. She amused herself with a number of supposed fits, hallucinations, nothing being lacking to the impersonation but Ophelia’s wildflowers.

1 Answer 1

0

You are seeing adjective and adverbial clauses

Adverbial clauses convey additional information about a noun (adjective clause) or verb (adverbial clause).

The third example is very stylized. It's from the book Alias Grace and the author is mimicking a writing style of an older time period in a personal letter within a chapter.

In modern conventions, I believe it would read something more like this:

While she was with us she pretended to have various hallucinations or fits. Only the wildflowers in her hair, not being consistent the kind of person she was pretending to be, gave Ophelia away.

4
  • 1
    @Tal Thank you! I was thinking that participle clause encompassed both adjective and adverbial clauses. Thank you for pointing out my error! I've updated the answer to reflect that both are used (instead of "participle clause").
    – Rykara
    Jan 31, 2019 at 19:43
  • 1
    Thanks , but there are still part that I don't understand . When I study participle clauses I come across with that rule "The subject of the participle clause and the main clause cannot be different." . Here is my problems : 1- The subjects of the first sentence are "the set up" and "you" so they are not same ? 2- Could I rewrite the second sentence as : "My Uncle Roy had it all planned out before he brought it up for discussion, being a man who liked to have his ducks lined up in a row before shooting them ." Jan 31, 2019 at 20:27
  • 1
    It's been a long time since I had to diagram out sentences but I think what's happening with sentence 1 is: You have a participle clause "being higher than a regular deadlift" within a subordinate clause "Due to the setup ..." which relates to the independent clause "you remove much of the posterior chain."
    – Rykara
    Jan 31, 2019 at 21:14
  • 1
    @Tal Regarding sentence 2, not quite, but you could rearrange it a little differently: "My Uncle Roy, being a man who liked to have his ducks lined up in a row before shooting them, had it all planned out before he brought it up for discussion." In fact, this is a more natural arrangement that is easier to understand because the aside ("being a man...") immediately follows the proper noun it is describing and precedes the main verb and predicate.
    – Rykara
    Jan 31, 2019 at 21:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .