My inner linguist is interested in the syntax of the expression, “X went from being A to being B.”\u00a0 That second instance of “being” bothers me.\u00a0 It feels like a placeholder word, used only to preserve symmetry.\u00a0 Is it really necessary?<\/p>\n
I would rather say, “X went from being A to B.”\u00a0\u00a0 But now something seems to be missing. So how do others express this idea?\u00a0 I searched went from being a<\/a> <\/em>and found these:<\/p>\n He went from being a singing shoeshine boy to being a popular singer, just as he went from Gennaro Vitaliano to Jerry Vale.<\/span> (Gus Graybill, on Jerry Vale)<\/p>\n He went from being a tag along kid whose constant presence was grudgingly accepted by his older brother’s friends to someone able to pursue appropriate social relationships on his own. <\/span>(Jason\u00a0 “J-Mac” McElwain)<\/p>\n Anne was thirteen when she came here and fifteen when she was taken away. In those two years she went from being a child to being a young woman.<\/span> (Anne Frank House)<\/p>\n In her lifetime she went from being a respected rock photographer to the supporting wife to one of the most famous men on the planet, enjoying a celebrity relationship that lasted until her death.<\/span> (H2G2, on Linda McCartney)<\/p>\n I went from being a Republican to being a Maoist, then back to being a Republican again. <\/span>(P. J. O’Rourke) She went from being a nurse that wanted to be a good person and help people to a murderer.<\/span> (Sword and Scale, on Vickie Dawn Jackson)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He went from being a co-ruler with the Creator of the Universe, to being a slave of Satan; from being perfect to being flawed and broken in every way; from being a friend of God to being an enemy of God.<\/span> (Oasis of Faith, on Adam) I went from being a bully to a medium-level juvenile delinquent. <\/span> (Shaquille O’Neal)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She went from being a cuddle-bunny to being skittish, unfriendly, and growling a lot. <\/span>(Joanne and Mike Juhnke, on their pet rabbit Baby)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She went from being a naughty girl to a good girl which is of course simplistically stated, but that’s something that many of us aspire to do.<\/span> (Fox News, on Snooki)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I learned two things from these examples.\u00a0 Sometimes the extra being<\/em> sounds right and sometimes it doesn’t.\u00a0 If there is a subordinate clause after the from being <\/em>part, you can more easily dispense with the to being, <\/em>but that does not seem to be an ironclad rule. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The other thing I noted was how often people seem to go from being one thing to being the completely opposite thing.\u00a0 In other words, X goes from being A to Not-A. My inner linguist is interested in the syntax of the expression, “X went from being A to being B.”\u00a0 That second instance of “being” bothers me.\u00a0 It feels like a placeholder word, used only to preserve symmetry.\u00a0 Is it really … Continue reading
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