Alexey86
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2018
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Russian
- Home Country
- Russian Federation
- Current Location
- Russian Federation
Hello! Would you please help me clarify grammatical and syntactic functions of being? Look at the following sentences:
a) "It begs to be said that the trial of four police officers accused of murdering Amadou Diallo -- as sad, politicized and polarized as it is
-- nonetheless betrays unmistakable signs of being better off here than there. Here being Albany, there being the Bronx."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/03/...in-new-venue-diallo-trial-is-settling-in.html)
b) “Baseball is made for the human eye,” he said. “Umpires make mistakes just like us players. You don’t want robots out there being the umpires. It might be like that one day."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/sports/baseball/10phillies.html)
My analysis and questions:
1) 'Being' is the head of the gerund phrase 'being better off here than there' within the adjectival phrase 'unmistakable signs of being better off here than there syntactically functioning as the direct object of 'betrays'. Grammatically the gerund phrase functions as a noun ('sings of what?'). What is its syntactic role?
2) 'Being' looks like a verb grammatically. But why not is?
3) Is 'being' a part of the structure to be + subject complement ('the umpires')? If so, can I change it to 'to be': 'You don’t want robots out there to be the umpires'?
a) "It begs to be said that the trial of four police officers accused of murdering Amadou Diallo -- as sad, politicized and polarized as it is
-- nonetheless betrays unmistakable signs of being better off here than there. Here being Albany, there being the Bronx."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/03/...in-new-venue-diallo-trial-is-settling-in.html)
b) “Baseball is made for the human eye,” he said. “Umpires make mistakes just like us players. You don’t want robots out there being the umpires. It might be like that one day."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/sports/baseball/10phillies.html)
My analysis and questions:
1) 'Being' is the head of the gerund phrase 'being better off here than there' within the adjectival phrase 'unmistakable signs of being better off here than there syntactically functioning as the direct object of 'betrays'. Grammatically the gerund phrase functions as a noun ('sings of what?'). What is its syntactic role?
2) 'Being' looks like a verb grammatically. But why not is?
3) Is 'being' a part of the structure to be + subject complement ('the umpires')? If so, can I change it to 'to be': 'You don’t want robots out there to be the umpires'?