TGC wrote:
My Query:
Why option (A) is nullified by saying in OE/
OG:
The phrases are expressed in an illogical and potentially confusing sequenceBeing a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee(1).Some poster said that 'Being'and 'born' are not parallel. However, they are indeed parallel since they are -ING and -ED modifiers modifying the author. Hence , ||.
(2). The other reason given is that -ING and -ED are being stated as a cause of the FACT that 'author Bharati Mukherjee has lived in England and Canada'.
However, in my opinion it should not necessarily be the case that the starting -ING modifier should present a causation. The starting/initial ING modifier just presents the additional fact about the following clause/author.
It perfectly says :
Being a US citizen since 1988 and born in blah blah,author has lived........Playing basketball and tired of studying, John has done good in the sport.Please suggest
Let me explain this:
There is a difference between how we shorten the clauses with a passive verb (or any clause that has a be-from verb) and how we shorten the cluases with other active verbs. Notice this:
Because he was faced with problems, he decided to work harder. (We simply omit the be-form verb and the subordinator)
Faced with problems, he decided to work harder
Author X,
who was born in India, is a successful one.
Author X, born in India, is a successful one. OR alternatively: Born in India, Author X is a successful one.
Author X,
who wrote many good novels, won the Y prize.
Author X, writing many good novels, won the Y prize. OR Writing many good novels, Author X won the prize.
Here, in contrast to cases that there is a
to be verb in the sentence, we have eliminated the pronoun and then have changed the verb into an -ing form.
Compare to the above example:
Author X, who was born in India, is a successful one. --> If we apply the same formula here, i.e. eliminating the pronoun and chaning the verb into ing-form we will have:
Being born in India, Author X is a successful one.But this is not the way we shorten clauses with to be verbs.
But consider this example:
Because he is being ridiculed now, he is crying.
How can we shorten the first clause? Answer: Eliminate the auxiliary to be verb and the subordinator and leave the rest.
Being ridiculed, he is crying.
Compare with this one:
While he is often criticized, the author X shows no reaction to his ...
Often criticized, the author X shows no reaction to his ...
Another sentence:
The phones, which are being imported from country Z, are expensive. -->
Being imported from country Z, the phones are expensive
BUT:
The phones, which are imported from country Z, are expensive. -->
Imported from country Z, the phones are expensive
As you have noticed, being + past participle conveys a progressive passive voice.
Now lets' go back to our question:
Being born ..., Author X ...: means
she is/was being born:: Progressive Tense does not make sense for the verb 'to be born' unless something is happenning at the moment of speaking: His child is being born. (This means that his child at the moment is being born).
being a US citizen, Author X ...:
means she was/is being a united states citizen, doesn't make sense.
He, who was a US citizen, won the Y prize. --> He, a US citizen, won the Y prize. OR A US citizen, He won the Y prize.
Does this make sense?