grammatical function of "being" in this sentence...

Question

I recently posted a question about the function of "being" in a sentence. However, I feel that I should be more specific with my question. My question is...what are the functions of the words "being" and "worse" in the following sentence: I can not imagine it being any worse than the flu.

I'm trying to do a word-by-word grammatical analysis of the sentence, and this is what I have been able to come up with so far:

I = subject
can = modal of "imagine"
not = negative
imagine = predicate
it = direct object
being = ??? (object complement???) I'm not sure
any = modifies "worse"
worse = ??? (modifies "it" ????) I'm not sure
than = adjective complement? I think
the = determiner
flu = object of the preposition

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi Jason;

You will be a much happier camper if you analyze a sentence in terms of its larger syntactic units, rather than word-by-word.

I can not imagine it being any worse than the flu.

The main unit is the main clause: I can not imagine it.
This simply follows subject-object-verb pattern, with an adverb (not) thrown in.

The next unit is a participial phrase (the head word is a participle).
At this point, the question arises: Is the phrase is used as modifier (participial phrase) or noun (gerund phrase)?

being any worse than the flu.

If you change the participle to a finite verb, you can more easily determine the functions of the other words in the phrase:

(it) is any worse than the flu.

It consists of the verb (be) and a complement.

The next unit is the complement (phrase): any worse than the flu - where than is a comparative conjunction or preposition (see note), any is adverb, worse a comparative adjective. Flu is a subject complement / object of preposition.

Note (from dictionary.com) In formal English, than is usually regarded as a conjunction governing an unexpressed verb: he does it far better than I ( do ). The case of any pronoun therefore depends on whether it is the subject or object of the unexpressed verb: she likes him more than I ( like him ); she likes him more than ( she likes ) me . However in ordinary speech and writing than is usually treated as a preposition and is followed by the object form of a pronoun: my brother is younger than me.

Now, back to the question - gerund phrase or participle phrase? That is a bit sticky, because there are arguments on both sides.
I'd tend to leave it as an object complement.

BillJ · Answer

jasonh247I recently posted a question about the function of "being" in a sentence. However, I feel that I should be more specific with my question. My question is...what are the functions of the words "being" and "worse" in the following sentence: I can not imagine it being any worse than the flu.

I can not imagine it being any worse than the flu.

Some comments:

"cannot" (or can't) is the usual negative form of the modal "can"

The predicate is "imagine it being any worse than the flu". ("Imagine" is just the predicator, not the whole predicate).

"It being any worse than flu" is a participial clause as catenative complement of "imagine", headed by the verb "being" (its function is predicator)

"Any worse than flu" is predicative complement of "being".

"Any" is an adverb of degree modifying the adjective "worse"

"Than" is a preposition.

"Flu" is the object of the prep "than".

BillJ

Anonymous · Answer

BillJ, it is your business that you consider than a preposition, but in stating that the word is just a preposition is a tad dogmatic.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

BillJ's post shows how different parsing can lead to different analyses.

I can not imagine [it being any worse than the flu].
I can not imagine it [being any worse than the flu].

I agree with Bill's parsing, that "it" is the "subject" of the participle "being," and that the entire phrase is the complement of the main verb.

grammatical function of "being" in this sentence...

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions