Odd editorial today, reminiscing on Pope John Paul II.

What oddity? Exemplified below by the first six sentences and several following ones.

. . . .Trim. Athletic. Tireless hiker. Skier. Soul of a saint in an athlete's body. Robust, almost Nietzschean vitality in the service of a preacher's faith. …
. . . .A young pope. A pope who, before he became this living-dead man whose last throes were witnessed by the world, from the outset signified the rediscovered youth of the church. …
. . . .[the way people thought back then:] Not one Europe but two. Not one history, but two distinct histories. A kind of dark Manichaeism maintaining that there are, in these two Europes, two different humanities, with diverging destines and hopes, inscribed in temporalities that can never meet. …
. . . .A personal memory. May 1994. The height of the war in Bosnia. …
. . . .One final image. An image of a journey. His shortest and, at the same time, his longest. The journey he made when, one day in 1986, he crossed the Tiber and pushed open the door to the synagogue of Rome.

In total, twenty-five sentences without a principal verb! How bizarre!

Hmmm … "By Bernard-Henri Lévy". A French name, n'est-pas? Perhaps a style characteristic of French [men of] letters? Or alternatively, a prevalent Parisian jeu de mots?

How curious. Any information?

I guess I am not sure what a principal verb is, then. I find some verbs, such as:

were witnessed, became, signified, thought, maintaining, are, meet, made, crossed, and pushed

Yet, I see your point.

No main clause verbs. All the verbs in there are dependent on noun phrases or in subordinate clauses.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
I guess I am not sure what a principal verb is, then. I find some verbs, such as:

were witnessed, became, signified, thought, maintaining, are, meet, made, crossed, and pushed

Yet, I see your point.

Maybe an example will help.

Kalleh, who posts regularly, found lots of verbs.

There are two verbs there "posts" and "found".
The principal verb - the main clause verb - is "found". This can be easily seen by first removing the other clause.

Kalleh found lots of verbs.

This leaves a perfectly sensible sentence.

And then trying it the other way round.

Kalleh, who posts regularly.

This leaves a nonsense construction. It doesn't have a main clause verb.

quote:

Kalleh, who posts regularly.

This leaves a nonsense construction.

But a darn good movie title.

Yiddish bridesmaids for $800.

A: Kalleh, who posts regularly.

Q: Which Kalleh would that be?

As opposed to the Kalleh who never posts...

"Oy vey," says Kalleh who posts regularly.

Thanks, Bob. However, you know me, I have one question. What about that last sentence? "The journey he made when, one day in 1986, he crossed the Tiber and pushed open the door to the synagogue of Rome."

Are not "crossed," and "pushed" main clause verbs? Or, are they still subordinate clause verbs because the journey was the subject of the sentence (if you can call it that), and not the Tiber or the door to the synagogue?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
"Oy vey," says Kalleh who posts regularly.

Thanks, Bob. However, you know me, I have one question. What about that last sentence? "The journey he made when, one day in 1986, he crossed the Tiber and pushed open the door to the synagogue of Rome."

Are not "crossed," and "pushed" main clause verbs? Or, are they still subordinate clause verbs because the journey was the subject of the sentence (if you can call it that), and not the Tiber or the door to the synagogue?

Correct.

'When he crossed the Tiber' is subordinated by the conjunction 'when', and can't stand on its own (except as a fragment, in the style in question). 'He made the journey when he crossed the Tiber' has the topmost verb 'made'. 'The journey he made' is a noun phrase with head 'journey' qualified by a relative clause 'he made': relative clauses also can't stand on their own. So the actual phrase used, of the form 'the journey he made when he crossed the Tiber' (but longer and with more subordinates) is a noun phrase with a compound relative clause.

quote:

Originally posted by shufitz: Odd editorial today, reminiscing on Pope John Paul II. What oddity? In total, twenty-five sentences without a principal verb! How bizarre! Hmmm … "By Bernard-Henri Lévy".

The gent has an article in this month's Atlantic Monthly, and he seems to follow the same style. Here's the part of it available to non-subscribers like me.

It was here, a little south of Boston, on this East Coast that still bears the mark of Europe so clearly, that Alexis de Tocqueville came ashore: Newport, Rhode Island. Its well-kept Easton's Beach. Its yachts. Its Palladian mansions and painted wooden houses that remind me of the beach towns of Normandy. A naval museum. An athenaeum library. Bed-and-breakfasts with a picture of the owner displayed instead of a sign. Gorgeous trees. Tennis courts. A Georgian-style synagogue, exhibited as the oldest in the United States, but which, with its well-polished pale wood, its fluted columns, its spotless black rattan chairs, its large candelabra, its plaque engraved with clear-cut letters in memory of Isaac Touro and the six or seven great spiritual leaders who succeeded him, its American flag standing next to the Torah scroll under glass, seems to me, on the contrary, strangely modern.

Yes, I'd say the gentleman has an affectation.

He was no more than a name to me; one hears of fashionable figures but often doesn't get why they're fashionable. However, on closer inspection he seems to have a sultan's harem of affectations.

Oh, that's great, aput. I hadn't known him at all, and I don't think I've missed a thing! I loved this quote from your article: "The headline of one article about him coined the immortal dictum, 'God is dead but my hair is perfect'."