past continous tense vs past perfect tense

[Duc]

hello,
please look at the following sentence:
We asked the librarian for the book the professor had recommended while he WAS GIVING lectures on history.
I wonder why we don't change ''WAS GIVING'' into ''had been lecturing'' because the action ''give lecture'' occured before the act ''we asked'',just like ''had recommended''
Please help me.
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[Alan]

Hi Duc,

I think this is a style matter. Technically Dr Grammar would want both 'recommend' and 'give' in the past perfect but that would be very cumbersome. The important point is that 'recommend' is properly in the past perfect but the 'was lecturing' is a description of what the professor 'was doing'. You could of course cheat a bit and make it sound better if you simply said: 'while giving ....'

Alan
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[Duc]

It's quite interesting
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