what is the role of this sentence?

[alpacinou]

Sometimes, in passages, I come across these sentences that have ing and are put between two dashes. Example:

Everyone has encouraged her to become a doctor including her family members -her sister being a doctor- who have told her they would support her in this endeavor.

I wrote this sentence myself because I could not find a passage with the this kind of sentence. But I'm fairly certain the sentence was structured that way.

Grammatically speaking, what is the underlined part called and what is its role in the sentence?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You structured it almost perfectly. Put a comma after "doctor" and it'll work.

Grammatically, I can't help you.

Regarding the role it plays: The infinitive of being is to be. You could simply use the present tense, "is."

The literal meaning would be exactly the same. But using "being" adds a bit more force. Saying "is" has a sense of fact. Saying "being" has a sense of fact and evidence.

 

[jutfrank]

That sentence is not a correct use of what I think you're talking about. Try and find an authentic example.

These are called parenthetical phrases. The kind of phrase that you seem to be talking about is a participle clause. We need to see an example to say for sure.

 

[alpacinou]

That sentence is not a correct use of what I think you're talking about. Try and find an authentic example.

These are called parenthetical phrases. The kind of phrase that you seem to be talking about is a participle clause. We need to see an example to say for sure.

What is wrong with my sentence? How can it be fixed?

There is a similar sentence here:

https://books.google.at/books?id=HJ...onepage&q="her father being a doctor"&f=false

 

[jutfrank]

What's wrong with it is the coherence (the relationship of meaning) between the bit between dashes and the part of the sentence that comes before the bit between dashes.

It can be fixed by saying what you mean, which I'd express like this:

Everyone has encouraged her to become a doctor—including her family members (her sister is a doctor), who have told her that they would support her.

As you can see, the bit that you put between dashes should be expressed as a finite clause (is not being) and in brackets, not between dashes. Note that I've shortened the sentence to make it easier to work with. This shortening does not affect the sentence in any important way. Note also my use of a dash before including in place of your original comma. It's not wrong to use a comma there but I think the dash works better. That preference is largely a choice of style.

The sentence you posted a link to is different in important ways. Don't worry about that at the moment. What you should do now is decide what you want to focus on. The use of brackets to make parenthetical remarks? The use of dashes to make parenthetical remarks? The use of present participle clauses? Understanding the corrected sentence above?

 

[alpacinou]

Thanks a lot for your thorough explanation.

I wanted to see what is the role of those sentences that are put between two dashed. I mean from a technical standpoint.

 

[TheParser]

Grammatically speaking, what is the underlined part called and what is its role in the sentence?

NOT A TEACHER

1. "The teacher being ill, we had no school on Monday." My source tells me that this is a nominative absolute phrase, i.e., it is an independent expression with no grammatical connection to the main sentence.

a. It could be changed to an adverb clause: "Because the teacher was ill, we had no school on Monday." I believe that an absolute phrase is usually limited to writing. It would sound rather strange to use that absolute phrase in a conversation with one's parents, I am pretty sure.

*****

My sentence: Her sister being a doctor, Mona has also been encouraged to become a doctor by everyone, including her supportive family.



Source: House and Harman, Descriptive Grammar (1931 and 1950), pages 293-294.

 

[jutfrank]

TheParser—alpacinoutd is not asking about absolute phrases, or about grammar at all (I think).

I think his question is about the use of dashes for parenthetical insertions. And I think it has been answered.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

What's wrong with it is the coherence (the relationship of meaning) between the bit between dashes and the part of the sentence that comes before the bit between dashes.

It can be fixed by saying what you mean, which I'd express like this:

Everyone has encouraged her to become a doctor—including her family members (her sister is a doctor), who have told her that they would support her. . . .

That's a lot better.

More generally, Al, it's easy to get tangled up if you try to mix different forms of brackets (like commas, dashes, and parentheses) into a single cluster of phrases. It's better to separate everything out. The more simply you say things, the more complex your thoughts can be.