Learn English – Being taken and being beaten

dangling-participleparticiple-clausespassive-voicepresent-participles

In the previous question I was told that these sentences are clumsy and their meanings are confusing:

  • Being taken to the hospital, he survived.

  • Being beaten by the snow, he died.

Can I convert these sentence into meaningfull sentences as follows:

  1. Being taken to the hospital, he died.

(To mean: while he was being taken to the hospital, he died)

  1. Being beaten by mother to her son, the father arrived.

(To mean: While the son was being beaten by his mother, the father arrived)

and,

Do I have to use "while" in front of "being+past participle in above sentences to imply those intended meanings?

Best Answer

I think you are mistaken in your belief that starting a sentence with

Being past participle

in isolation has an implication of

While he was being ...

In all cases I can think of we would explicitly include the extra information

While he was being taken to the hospital he died

While he was being beaten by his mother his father arrived

When we start the sentence with Being we are using the adjectival form

Being a doctor he was able to give medical assistance

Being a lawyer he was familiar with the legal process

Your example of

Being beaten by the snow, he died

is actually an example of the adjectival form of being. It is important to realise that beaten also may be a verb or an adjective. In this example we are using beaten as an adjective meaning defeated.

having been defeated by the snow, he died.

is the interpretation of

being beaten by the snow, he died.

You are thinking of this as if it were like your previous "mother" example, as if the snow were beating, that is hitting, a person.

while he was being beaten by the snow, he died

which is not the correct interpretation.

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