She’d morphed into the busy, warm, cheerful lady she'd be ...

[Tarheel]

"Within a year, she’d morphed into the busy, warm, cheerful lady she'd be till she died"

I don't understand the sentence. If she had already morphed into a cheerful lady, why isn't it that "she was till she died"?

I think you are ignoring the "Within a year" part.

 

[Matthew Wai]

There's no past perfect tense in it.

No past perfect will be used when the present narrative tense is used.

 

[teechar]

"Within a year, she’d morphed into the busy, warm, cheerful lady she'd be till she died"

I don't understand the sentence. If she had already morphed into a cheerful lady, why isn't it that "she was till she died"?

The meaning is the same. However, "she would be till she died":
- Has the moment she morphed as the starting point in time [ a point in the past].
- From that starting point, it looks forward in time, but until another point in the past (the time she died).

 

[Matthew Wai]

I don't understand the sentence. If she had already morphed into a cheerful lady, why isn't it that "she was till she died"?

Because it refers to the future in the past. See below:

Future in the past

Future in the past - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary

dictionary.cambridge.org

 

[Maybo]

The meaning is the same. However, "she would be till she died":
- Has the moment she morphed as the starting point in time [ a point in the past].
- From that starting point, it looks forward in time, but until another point in the past (the time she died).

I see. Her transformation was ongoing until she died. Is that right?
Or is it the status of the being cheerful was ongoing until she died?

 

[teechar]

Her transformation was ongoing until she died. Is that right?

No.

Or is it the status of the being cheerful was ongoing continued until she died?

Yes.

 

[Matthew Wai]

If I don't backshift the underlined part, how should I write it using present tense?

Perhaps you don't know what backshift is.

Backshift in Reported Speech | Learn English

We sometimes change the tense of the reported clause by moving it back one tense. For example, present simple goes back one tense to past simple. We call this change 'backshift'.

www.englishclub.com

 

[Tarheel]

The change happened before she died, of course. However, I wouldn't assume that she kept becoming more cheerful without end.

 

[Maybo]

However, I wouldn't assume that she kept becoming more cheerful without end.

I understand the change before she died
I didn’t understand why “would” is used.

…cheerful lady she would be till she died.
=she would be a cheerful lady till she died.

Compare:
1. She has morphed into a cheerful lady.
She will be a cheerful lady till she dies.

If she has morphed into a cheerful, the transformation is finished, then she “is” a cheerful lady until she dies. Why “will be a cheerful lady until she dies”?

2. She had morphed into a cheerful lady.
She would be a cheerful lady till she died.

If her transformation was finished, then she “was” a cheerful lady until she died. Why “would be a cheerful lady until she died”

 

[Maybo]

But now I guess I understand.

“Would be a cheerful lady till he died”

It means the status continued into the future in the past until she died.

 

[Matthew Wai]

the future in the past

I already said so in post #24 above.

 

[Tarheel]

@Maybo Now that you have figured it out you probably also see why it can be so hard to explain. (There's an American expression "Either you get it or you don't" which means if you've been through the experience you understand, but if you haven't then you might have a hard time explaining it to somebody else.)

 

[Maybo]

I already said so in post #24 above.

You didn’t explain that it was the status of being cheerful that continued until she died.

In that post, I were asking about transformation.

 

[Maybo]

@Maybo Now that you have figured it out you probably also see why it can be so hard to explain. (There's an American expression "Either you get it or you don't" which means if you've been through the experience you understand, but if you haven't then you might have a hard time explaining it to somebody else.)

If I hadn’t asked you all, I wouldn’t have figured it out.

 

[Matthew Wai]

In that post, I were asking about transformation.

If I were you, I would use "was" instead of "were" in that sentence.

 

[teechar]

Since the original question has been answered, I'm closing this thread.