by VPing is NP

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Sun Sep 11 16:49:52 UTC 2005


On Sep 5, 2005, at 10:45 PM, I wrote:

> over on sci.lang, Ron Hardin (8/5/05) reports on the following,
> from an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman:
>
> -----
> The priority is to try to reduce fatalities and injuries, and by
> focussing on the worst drivers, the extreme drivers first, is an
> important step.

A somewhat different example, from Morning Edition Saturday, 10
September 2005, career FEMA employee Jane Bullock:

-----
The President had actually declared it a disaster on Saturday the
27th.  By his doing that, it meant that FEMA could tap into the
resources of the entire civil and military parts of government...
-----

This *could* be analyzed as a blend:

   His doing that meant that FEMA could...
+
   By his doing that, FEMA could...
     (with "by" 'as a result of')

Or it could just be the use of "by + VPing" to set up a reference to
some topical entity, which is then referred to within a main clause
(the comment) by the pronoun "it" -- a kind of left dislocation, akin
to "My parents, they're going to hate this".  I believe this sort of
information packaging is not uncommon in speech, and it certainly
turns up in the writing of, shall we say, unsure writers.  (I'm still
hoping someone on ADS-L can point me to composition literature on the
phenomenon.)

arnold



More information about the Ads-l mailing list