Syntactic Functions/Tenses in Subordinated Clauses

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AjaxHamburg
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Syntactic Functions/Tenses in Subordinated Clauses

Post by AjaxHamburg »

Hey there,

I was just at writing when suddenly, I felt really insecure about tenses and the actual syntactic functions of each word in my subordinated clause. Here's the sentence:

Being published in the post-war era, it had to deal with a particular audience and its corresponding expectations on movies.

I am concerned about the subordinated clause. I suppose that "Being" functions as the subject in this case?

But what if I would rewrite it in this way:

Having been published in the post-war era, it had to deal with a particular audience and its corresponding expectations on movies.

Even though the tense does not make so much sense here, from a theoretical point of view this sentence should be correct.

Does "Having been" function as the subject now? Does it not just mark the usage of present perfect tense?

Which other tense possibilities do exist here except for "Being published" and "Having been published"?

I am feeling really confused about the grammatical rules here and would be very grateful if you could bring some light into the darkness for me :)

Best regards from Germany

Benny
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Alan
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Re: Syntactic Functions/Tenses in Subordinated Clauses

Post by Alan »

Neither 'being' nor 'having been' here functions as a subject. They are, respectively, a participle and a (perfective) participial phrase relating to the sentence subject 'it'.

Either form of the sentence would be grammatical, although there is no particular advantage in replacing 'being' with 'having been' in this context.
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