Language Overflow

Man_From_India

16:00

What if - His/him not having a name is is a little inconvenient.?

V.V.

Please, show me the question.

Man_From_India

Here you go

5

Q: Is 'his not having a name' grammatical correct?

As I read the following paragraph out of the book Breakfast at Tiffany's on page 39, She was still hugging the cat. "Poor slob," she said, tickling his head, "poor slob without a name." "It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll ...

Anonymous

@Man_From_India Seems ungrammatical due to the extra is. Speakers do insert extra ises sometimes, but this doesn't appear to be one of the contexts where it usually happens.

Man_From_India

@snailplane Oh that was my typing mistake. I meant only one "is". Is that fine then?

Cardinal

Source: Grammarly

CowperKettle

16:04

(0:

V.V.

Would you mind his smoking? I believe it's similar.

CowperKettle

Would you mind [his smoking]? \\ Would you mind [him smoking]?

Maybe the emphasis is a bit different

V.V.

Both.

Cardinal

@V.V. I think that is different

V.V.

Remove ".not"

Anonymous

16:08

@Man_From_India Yes

Man_From_India

> Him not having a name is is a little inconvenient.

@snailplane Grammatically it's possible. But I have never seen such usage.

Or maybe that him in the subject position makes it sound bad to me.

Cardinal

Why shouldn't we say "he is not having .." ?

Man_From_India

@Cardinal We can say.But the sentence is different.

Cardinal

I think that progressive aspect is nonsense

Anonymous

@Cardinal An ing-clause (his/him not having a name) can function as Subject or Object, much like a noun phrase. It's not a noun phrase, as it's headed by a verb rather than a noun, and internally it has the structure of a clause, but it's much like a noun phrase.

Anonymous

16:19

However, if you say he does not have a name, that kind of clause cannot function as Subject.

Anonymous

He is not having a name is ungrammatical in AmE/BrE because have in this sense is stative, so the stativizer be V-ing doesn't make sense.

Anonymous

However, when have is dynamic in meaning, it combines freely with the stativizer be V-ing: She's having a baby!

Cardinal

@snailplane nods - Very interesting.

I think I don't understand why "his not having a name" is the subject in that sentence.

I would say:

V.V.

I always forget the terms. An apposition?

Cardinal

It's a little inconvenient that he does not have a name.

CowperKettle

16:27

@V.V. No, apposition is our приложение

Cardinal

0:)

CowperKettle

Train station in Pervouralsk (which we all call simply Pervik)

V.V.

I mean it.

Anonymous

@Cardinal In which sentence?

CowperKettle

@Cardinal [His not having a name] is inconvenient. (Compare: "This bed is inconvenient")

Anonymous

16:31

It is subject there, yes.

Anonymous

Cardinal's paraphrase is fine, too.

Anonymous

But:

Anonymous

> It's inconvenient, his not having a name.

Cardinal

@snailplane That sentence in the question

Anonymous

Now his not having a name is not the subject, but is instead a right-dislocated constituent, coreferential with the dummy subject it.

2

Cardinal

16:32

nods

CowperKettle

@snailplane Now I see. V.V. called it an appositive.

Anonymous

It can be understood semantically as the subject, but grammatically it has been moved out of subject position. English requires an explicit subject in this kind of clause, so we have to insert dummy it in its place.

CowperKettle

It does look like an appositive

Anonymous

It is not appositive.

Anonymous

Apposition is often confused with dislocation.

Cardinal

16:33

GHL ;-)

CowperKettle

Great Hockey League?

Cardinal

God Help Learners

CowperKettle

Abbverivations are an abominable envenomation of the language

ah (0:

Cardinal

A new question came to my mind; in the link that answer provided we can see this claim:

V.V.

Thanks, @snailplane.

Cardinal

16:35

> All child safety seats must be properly installed to reduce the risk of a child being injured.

The site claims that is wrong

I think that "being injured" part can be a passive present participle modifying the child

CowperKettle

@snailplane It is not an appositive because you can't put the two side by side? "It, his not having a name, is inconvenient"?

@Cardinal Looks okay to me

Cardinal

@snailplane Thank you, I learned a new lesson.

> The correct phrases, then, are (1) "your taking," (2) "family’s paying," and (3) "child’s being."

CowperKettle

@Cardinal I see. I'm not proficient enough then. To me it looked okay

V.V.

It, his not having a name, is inconvenient. You can't say, I think

Cardinal

@CowperKettle I think that site is wrong myself.

The site:getitwriteonline.com/archive/022205posscasegerunds.htm

Man_From_India

16:42

@Cardinal This is correct sentence.

Using child's is also fine.

V.V.

Wow, I learned new terminilogy.

CowperKettle

Congrats!

I'm too busy preparing another brag post on a social network.

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I think I agree with Get It Write team there. Then again, they aim at writing, rather than learning or using English.

CowperKettle

What if we read it as [child being]? A child being might be injured.

Damkerng T.

16:57

@CowperKettle Like "a child being", similar to "a human being"? I think it's a bit weird.

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. I think so too

Damkerng T.

I think it's fine (to reduce the risk of a child being injured) in informal English, though.

CowperKettle

I was just trying to maintain some chatting activity, to avoid of possibility of doing something useful.

Damkerng T.

:D

CowperKettle

(0:

Cardinal

17:43

> Already says the sentry, lights-out's being called
> that can cost you three days, comrad let's not get stalled
> We said goodnight right there and then
> How I would love be with you again
> With you, Lili Marlene
> With you, Lili Marlene

Lili Marleen

"Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others) is a German love song which became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops. Written in 1915 as a poem, the song was published in 1937 and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 as "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" ("The Girl under the Lantern"). == Creation == The words were written in 1915 as a poem of three verses by Hans Leip (1893–1983), a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army....

CowperKettle

A famous song

The guy who put the poem on music

> On behalf of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels he created works such as "From Finland to the Black Sea", "the song of the Kleist tank group" "tanks roll in Africa" and "bombs on England".

> His subsequent comment regarding his war work was, "You know, I was at the best age for a soldier, 30 or so. For me the alternatives were: compose or croak. So I decided for the former."

Cardinal

It is a nice song; the translation is also remarkable!

CowperKettle

Did not you heard it before?

* Have not

Cardinal

Nope. I got familiar with the song by this song of L.Cohen:

> Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
> Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
> You'd been to the station to meet every train
> And you came home without **Lili Marlene**

CowperKettle

18:00

1

Q: Which tense is more appropriate in the following context?

I was reading an English textbooks, in which there are examples of present continues tenses: I've lost my key again. I'm always losing things. You are always watching television. You should do something more active. As far as this are an actions, which are repeated always I would gue...

present-tense present-continuous present-simple

"You always watch television" vs. "You're always watching television"

Cardinal

18:42

@Ahmad I created an account; my nickname is "Paeez". — Cardinal 35 secs ago

(^_^)

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I'm contemplating creating an account over there, just to introduce myself to you, "Hello! I'm Damkerng. I'm a native speaker of English!" :P

Cardinal

:-) that would be great

Damkerng T.

LOL :-)

Cardinal

Still I am confused, the U.I. seems very much complicated

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal It allows you to review one sentence at a time, IIRC.

@CowperKettle Another question that the zoom lens vs. wide lens metaphor would work again!

Cardinal

18:50

@DamkerngT. Not exactly IMHO

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Not exactly how?

Cardinal

Hmm, I think that is a "simple present vs progressive present" question

Damkerng T.

Yes, that's right.

Cardinal

I think that animal does not belong to [I saw him climbing over the fence]-family

Damkerng T.

Wait, the question is about the aspect of the main verb, right?

(Then again, you could apply the same concept to I saw him climbing ... as well.)

V.V.

18:53

I deleted my answer which was downvoted, then decided to udelete it, because the other guy said it made sense. Aww!!

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Oh! An answer to what question?

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I didn't read the question, (It seems I shouldnt've (strictly) talked about that question)

:-)

CowperKettle

@V.V. Deleting a question always can wait, because it does not hurt much.

I mean, downvoting does not bring your count down that much

V.V.

With past conditional referring to future, they say it's possible. I don't think so.

CowperKettle

@Cardinal That's great

Cardinal

18:57

@CowperKettle thank you 0:)

Damkerng T.

@V.V. It's indeed quite possible. -- E.g., If you agreed, I would ...

CowperKettle

Good night all!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal CowperKettle is on Lang-8, too, I think.

Good night!

Cardinal

o/

V.V.

With past perfect

Counterfactual

Damkerng T.

18:59

Hmm... I'm pretty sure it's still possible, but it's harder to imagine a suitable context.

Also, I think it's quite possible that in casual speech, it might've come out as If X would've VERBed, ...

Cardinal

Would you put the link of the question here

V.V.

If you had come tomorrow I might have been able to help

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Hmm... being used that way, it doesn't sound very good, I'd say.

V.V.

One person gave an explanation

I forgot how to do it.

2

Q: If you came [had come] tomorrow, I might be [have been] able to help you.

I would like to know which of the following sentences is correct. If you had come tomorrow, I might have been able to help you. If you came tomorrow, I might be able to help you.

modal-verbs conditional-constructions past-vs-past-perfect

Wow.I did it!

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Yay!

Ahh... it makes sense after I read Peter Shor's answer.

The main point is you've already been here today, i.e., you chose to come here today, rather than tomorrow.

V.V.

19:22

My grammar says, it's for past only.

Damkerng T.

Rules in grammar books usually focus only on the most frequently used cases. I suppose that's why.

Hi! @Catija

Catija

Hi :D

Damkerng T.

How are you and the baby? :D

Catija

Doing great.

5

Damkerng T.

Glad to hear that!

Aww... I like his sleeping face. Very peaceful. :-)

2

Anonymous

19:34

Aww :-)

Catija

He's a cutie :D

He keeps me busy, though. I miss getting to hang out on SE.

@snailplane how's the new mod status working for you? ELL keeping you busy?

Anonymous

@Catija Uh-huh! ELL gets a lot more flags and other stuff that needs moderator attention than Japanese.SE. It seems to be working out well so far, though :-)

Catija

@snailplane I had a feeling that was the case. But there's five of you, so that should help.

Catija

22:32

Interesting article: teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/chia-suan-chong/…

Damkerng T.

> But when our students are learning English because it is a tool for successful international communication, it is arguable that there is a better way of spending precious classroom time than devoting hours to perfecting the present perfect, mastering the third person ‘s’, drilling the schwa, and learning idioms that only the English would understand.

That's good (I mean "That's right!"). Maybe we should start greeting each other with "You good?" (because "ni hao" means so) or "Safe to you" (because "sawasdee" means roughly so). :P

Catija

"Be safe" is something I would say when someone is departing. :) I say that to Andy quite often when he leaves to go to work.

Damkerng T.

@Catija Sawasdee is used both for greeting and as a farewell. :D

Catija

Ah! :D

Damkerng T.

For some reason, a translation of Good morning/evening/etc. hasn't quite caught on. :-)

Catija

22:43

That's unusual, I would think. Seems most languages I have studied have an equivalent of "good morning/evening"

Damkerng T.

We've tried (with an equivalent based on Sanskrit), but somehow people don't use it much.

It's an understandable phrase, though. (Good morning ~ อรุณสวัสดิ์)

(But "Good evening" ~ ทิวาสวัสดิ์ might sound rather odd. It's rarely heard. "Good afternoon" ~ สายัณห์สวัสดิ์ could cause a confusion, because it's even rarer! "Good night" ~ ราตรีสวัสดิ์ becomes something only used in late TV/radio programs. :-)

Haha! I misspelled สายัณห์สวัสดิ์ myself! :D

It's pretty rare. :-)

Lawrence

23:54

@Catija Congratulations!

Transcript for