almog6k

Hi all.

I am trying to understand the problem and solution but to no avail.

*With one* of the most successful African American businesses in history, the Motown Record Corporation was founded in 1959 in Detroit by Berry Gordy, Jr.

*With one* is underline.

The answer that i chose was "Being one". but the correct answer in "One".

Here is the explanation.

Choice (C) involves faulty parallelism. The opening phrase renames the noun “Motown Record Corporation” and should be grammatically parallel, or equal, to the noun it renames. The opening phrase is a participial phrase (introduced by “Being”), which cannot serve as a noun.

I just don't get where is the faulty parallelism and what it renames.

Thank you.

QuantMech

The opening phrase is intended to be grammatically equivalent to "the Motown Record Corporation." This means that it should be an appositive of "the Motown Record Corporation. If you are not familiar with term "appositive," you should look it up.
Essentially, "the Motown Record Corporation" = "one of the most successful African American businesses in history." In this sense, the opening phrase renames "the Motown Record Corporation.

Faulty parallelism occurs when two grammatical structures that ought to be identical to each other are not. A typical simple case would be: Jim likes hunting, fishing, and to swim. Here the forms "hunting" and "fishing" are parallel, but "to swim" is not the same type of construction, so it is not parallel.

Now, where I differ from the explanation that you were given is this: a participial phrase functions as an adjective, so it can modify a noun. The construction "Blah blah blah, noun verb whatever," will permit a participial phrase in the spot "Blah blah blah." For example, "Walking home from school, Sally spotted her dog running toward her down the sidewalk."

I think the reason that CB prefers "One" to "Being one" is that the Motown Record Company was not *already* one of the most successful African American businesses at the time that it was founded. The use of the present participle "being" tends to suggest that what happens in the main clause happens at the same time.

Another form of the sentence that would be ok is "Now one of the most successful . . . ," provided that the Mowtown Record Company still exists.

A form that would not be ok is "As one of the most successful . . .," because it wasn't the most successful when it was founded. It might have been founded in the hope that it would become one of the most successful, but it wasn't (technically) *founded* as one of the most successful.

almog6k

Thank you QuantMech.

I read a few times your post and then went to Youtube. I found a short movie that explains appositives in a really short time. I knew what it was, but didn't know its name.

I believe I understood it. I will see if I would be able to spot it in the next test.

Thank you again.
This is an amazing forum.

fogcity

The question is why is "being one ..." wrong and "one ..." right.

Grammatically the two choices are very different. "Being one ..." is a participial phrase. It serves as an adjective so that it must modify something. The only choice for a subject that "being one .." can modify is the Motown Record Company. In the context of the sentence (however you see it ... parallel construction or a matter of logic) this modifier doesn't belong. A participial phase most often characterizes an action and not a state of being.

Consider the example "Being the best student, John received perfect grades." Is this correct?

In imprecise spoken English "being" is occasionally used to add emphasis -- but it is an unnecessary and incorrect addition to a simpler form of the phrase. In this example that simpler form is the choice that starts with the pronoun "One". The pronoun refers to the Motown Record Company -- i.e. simple and direct.

In my simple example above, drop the "being" and you get "The best student ...". "Being" is not only grammatically wrong but also redundant.

Those choices that start with prepositions, such as "with one" are also wrong. Prepositional phrases also serve as modifiers, and they present the same issues as does "being."