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Do the following (1) and (2)sentences have the same meaning ?

  1. Being taken to the hospital, he died.

  2. While being taken to the hospital, he died.

( Do both sentences mean: while he was being taken to the hospital, he died)?

Is it correct to use No1 and No2 sentence? What kind of sentence construction they have? I Was told by @P.E Dent in previous question Past participle vs being+past participle that first example sentence is in "continueous participle clause in passive voice". I don't understand what "continueous participle clause in passive voice" mean.

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yubraj
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    The meanings are not identical, but the difference is so small as to be not worth mentioning. The second is much more idiomatic. The problem with the first one is that the Being clause is in the present tense, while the main clause is in the past tense. While in the second sentence changes the temporal perspective, making died in the main clause more obviously the result of the action in the first clause. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Oct 17 '16 at 06:31
  • Sentence No. 2 is much, much better. – Mari-Lou A Oct 17 '16 at 07:37
  • Do sentences "give" meaning, or "have" the same meaning....? – Mari-Lou A Oct 17 '16 at 07:38
  • Mari-LouA "give" can't substitude the meaning of "have" ? – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 10:18
  • @P.E Dent I thin I should have asked thishttp://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/106638/being-taken-and-being-beaten/106653#106653 All I want to know is starting the sentence from "being+past participle" as I have shown in my examples too I thought that starting sentence with" being+p.p" gives the meaning the past participle continueous in passive as said by "P.E Dent". But I don't know what "continueous present participle in passive voice means". For example: – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 10:33
  • 1."Being taken to the hospital,he died." Does it mean "while he was being taken to the hospital,he died"? Or do I have to add "while" in front of "being" in the sentence to get that meaning ? If this(1) sentence doesn't give that meaning, is it worthless to start the sentence with" being+past participle" ? – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 10:35
  • Yubraj, Yes both of your sentences have identical meaning. But your sentence #2 is much more common, especially in daily conversational English. Though the first one is not incorrect, it's more common in fiction/literature. @Mari-LouA already commented that your second sentence is far better. I think it's in line with the data analysis Biber et al demonstrated in LGSWE. – Man_From_India Oct 17 '16 at 14:05
  • @P.E Dent please don't mind, I have addresed your name in my question – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 15:20
  • @FumbleFinger It can't be duplicate of previous question. Previous question's answer don't answer what 'continues passive participle clause " is. In this question I'm asking different question, please read that again, Next, here i'm here also asking about the construction of those sentences. – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 16:19
  • @yubrajsharma Pleaae don't worry! It is not a breach of etiquette to cite a username in a question, or even to misspell it. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Oct 17 '16 at 16:56
  • @Man_From_India If you can cite the language from the Longman's book, it might help our Yubraj here, who does not seem to be benefiting from my own efforts! – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Oct 17 '16 at 17:05
  • @yubraj sharma: Your question title asks whether including the word "while" affects the meaning, but in the actual text you seem to be asking what "continuous passive participle clause" means. I think both these points are fully covered by P. E. Dant's answer to your earlier question but if there was anything you didn't understand, you should post a comment there asking for clarification. – FumbleFingers Oct 17 '16 at 17:08
  • @P.E.Dant Ok will do it later. But it's one or two lines as to what is more common and what is not. Will write an answer tomorrow. – Man_From_India Oct 17 '16 at 17:13

1 Answers1

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While being taken to the hospital, he died.

You are explicitly saying that while he was en route to the hospital, he died.

Being taken to the hospital, he died.

This is ambiguous, we can't tell when he died. It almost sounds like you are saying he died because he was being taken to the hospital, which is weird and will cause your listener or reader to have questions.

The exception to the ambiguity is if your context is recounting a series of events in terse language, in that case, this may translate to the first sentence. Otherwise you should include the while for clarity.

LawrenceC
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  • @Larence C All I want to know is starting the sentence from "being+past participle" as I have shown in my examples too In previous question's answer "@P.E Den said that the first sentence is in "present continues participle in passive voice.But I don't know what "continueous present participle in passive voice means".And is it worthless or meaningless to start the sentence with' being+past participle' ? – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 13:05
  • previous question means this question http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/106047/past-participle-vs-beingpast-participle/106091?noredirect=1#comment213121_106091 – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 13:25
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    In this case, you want to include while, but it's not automatically wrong to begin a sentence with being + past participle. In this one it mostly is wrong, though. – LawrenceC Oct 17 '16 at 13:28
  • The 2nd example is ambiguous, I interpret it as he died some time after reaching hospital (if you meant the first case, you would have used that construction, so you must mean the opposite). – Sean Houlihane Oct 17 '16 at 13:30
  • @Lawrenc c If it's not to start sentence with being+p.p,Could you provide some meaningfull example sentence starting with "being+p.p" like my examples – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 13:33
  • @Lawrence c Thanks for your answer. But there is a question about 'construction' of those sentence' and 'continueous passive participle' which hasn't been addresed in your answer. – yubraj Oct 17 '16 at 15:15