"... is having ... executed by ..."

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TheParser

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***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello,


Here is some information that may interest you:

"When we wish to show that some action was performed ... by somebody else at our instigation [our orders], we use the

verb to have and the past participle."

The book's example: I have + my shoes + shined + (by someone).

Then the book says: "The participle ... is really [in reality] a passive infinitive with to be suppressed [not said]."

*****

Thus, your quoted sentence seems to be:

The leader + is having + senior generals + (to be) executed + (by mortar fire).


IF my analysis is correct, all the the credit goes to Practice Exercises in Everyday English For Advanced Foreign Students

by Robert J. Dixson, pages 156 -157 in the 1957 edition.


James
 

Tdol

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It's the present progressive form of the causative- the killing of the generals is a current unfinished process- more will die according to this report.
 
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