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Expression: what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about



 
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Expression: what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about #1 (permalink) Wed May 09, 2007 3:58 am   Expression: what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about		  
Hi,

Could you please help me out with the following passage?
Quote:
He was employed in a vague personal capacity--while he remained with Cody he was in turn steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and even jailor, for Dan Cody sober knew what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about and he provided for such contingencies by reposing more and more trust in Gatsby.


Does the underlined part mean: the sober Dan Cody knew what lavish doings the drunk Dan Cody would soon carry out (might soon be about)?

If so, how should I understand the grammar of the original?

Thank you!

Haihao
Haihao
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grammar #2 (permalink) Wed May 09, 2007 8:48 am   grammar		  
Morning Haihao,

You are as usual spot on in your explanation. The grammar of the thing I would suggest is a contracted (condensed)relative clause - in other words

Quote:
Dan Cody drunk might soon be about
this really means Dan Cody who was drunk.

Perhaps I could introduce a similar construction in more mundane prose:

Politics is a difficult way to earn a living understood only by those by who practise it (which is understood).

Alan
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Expression: what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about #3 (permalink) Wed May 09, 2007 9:04 am   Expression: what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about		  
Good morning Alan,

Thank you ever so much again for your direction. Now I guess I have understood it completely.

Haihao
Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1392
Location: Japan
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An idiom: to milk a joke | intended vs unintended
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