[Grammar] turning as it does on

[Flogger]

Hello,

I don't understand the construction of "turning as it does on" in the following sentence. Well, actually I guess my problem lies in specifically in the construction "as it does".

Would you please help me?

This debate, turning as it does on such values as equality and liberty, may never be finally resolvable.

Thanks.

 

[teechar]

First, you need to learn what "as it does" means. It's just a language device to add confirmation/emphasis. In other words, you can omit that part without making much difference to the meaning.
Second, can you tell us where you found that sentence please? It was certainly not written by a native/proficient speaker of English.
A natural version might have used "revolving around" instead of "turning on".

 

[Flogger]

First, you need to learn what "as it does" means. It's just a language device to add confirmation/emphasis. In other words, you can omit that part without making much difference to the meaning.
Second, can you tell us where you found that sentence please? It was certainly not written by a native/proficient speaker of English.
A natural version might have used "revolving" instead of "turning".

In the Iranian PHD entrance examination.

You see how full Iranian teachers are! They use sentences written by non-native English speakers to test our English proficiency!!

 

[teechar]

Did you mean "foolish" instead of "full"?

 

[jutfrank]

It sounds to me very much like it was written by a competent native-speaker.

One way of understanding the use of as it does is to rephrase with a non-defining relative clause.

This debate, turning as it does on such values as equality and liberty, may never be finally resolvable.
This debate, which turns on such values as equality and liberty, may never be finally resolvable.

 

[teechar]

I don't find the use of "turning" very natural there. If you disagree, can you cite links that use such phrasing?

 

[Flogger]

Did you mean "foolish" instead of "full"?

oops. a typo. sorry

 

[emsr2d2]

Oops. That was a typo. Sorry.

Remember to write correctly in every post. You must start every sentence with a capital letter, end every sentence with an appropriate punctuation mark and write complete sentences.

 

[Tarheel]

What's equality?

 

[jutfrank]

I don't find the use of "turning" very natural there. If you disagree, can you cite links that use such phrasing?

The only one I could find was the following from an English language forum, which interestingly also uses as it does:

"Shakespeare's comedy of morals is no easy play to stage turning as it does on a series of finely-honed debates on the use and misuse of authority, corruption and deceit."

In this case, the bolded phrase means something like since it turns.

 

[Tdol]

Equality and liberty are the essential points in the debate, and the sentence suggests that we will never have a precise answer to what these mean, so we will never have a precise answer to the question being debated.