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“Hamilton,” a grammatically creative musical
The first line of the third paragraph of Ben Brantley’s review of the new hit Broadway play Hamilton delighted and shocked me. Following up on a line from the play, “History is happening in Manhattan,” he writes: “’Happening’ qualifies as both an adjective and a verb in this instance.”
Wow. Just wow.
For those who don’t get Brantley’s observation or my reaction, a quick lesson. The verb to be, followed by a present participle, often means some form of what many of us call a progressive tense: I am walking. She was spinning the wool. They will be starting their motors in a minute. Some verbs, though, despite being commonly found in the form of participles following to be, function not as verbs, but as complementary adjectives or nouns. Many people call these stative verbs, in that they seem to indicate a state of being: He’s understanding. It’s fitting for him to give the eulogy. She is amusing.
The test for distinguishing present progressive from to be + subjective complement has traditionally been to insert differing adverbs into the sentence. (I am not addressing the verb vs. gerund problem here, wherein the trick is inserting the before the -ing word, e.g., Seeing is believing = The seeing of it is the believing of it.) If you can insert an adverb of manner, we’re told, you probably have a progressive tense:
I am walking fast.
She was deftly spinning the wool.
They will be starting their motors loudly in a minute.
But look what happens with:
He’s understanding rapidly.
It’s eloquently fitting for him to give the eulogy.
She is determinedly amusing.
The first of this latter group of sentences has now changed, from the characterization of an understanding person to the description of the mental action the person is taking. The second makes for a misplaced modifier; we have to mentally transpose the eloquence to the eulogy, not to the fittingness of the choice of eulogist. But the last example is a bit fuzzy. Obviously, if you were to insert a direct object for amusing, you would have She is determinedly amusing him, a clear case of amusing being part of the verb. But we have all known people who seem to be, as a matter of character, determinedly amusing.
Likewise, some suggest, you can insert an adverb of degree before the -ing word and determine if it forms a complementary adjective:
He’s very understanding.
It’s very fitting for him to give the eulogy.
She is so amusing.
But looks what happens with:
I am very walking.
She was very spinning the wool.
They will be so starting their motors in a minute.
This test works a bit better, though current slang use of so bends the rule somewhat — e.g., I am so going to that party!
Which takes us back to Ben Brantley. When he points out that “History is happening in Manhattan” yields happening as both verb and adjective, he is seeing the sentence in that ambiguous area where action and description overlap. If happening is part of the verb, the sentence means that history is taking place in Manhattan: The play he’s reviewing is making history, or the re-enactment of history within this play about the founding fathers brings the history to such life that it seems to be taking place now rather than almost 250 years ago.
But if happening is an adjective acting as a subjective complement in “History is happening in Manhattan,” then history is a “happening thing,” as in the song by the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. History, in this sense, has become hip, groovy, cutting-edge, as opposed to that fusty nonsense you find in textbooks. Brantley is telling us that we don’t have to make a choice here. He loves the play because it comprises both meanings of the term; it’s happening in both denotations of the word.
Why do I love that? It’s economical, for one. (Look at all the verbiage I just spewed trying to say what Brantley expressed in a few words.) It presupposes a knowledge of and delight in the expressive possibilities of grammar references. And while the sentence doesn’t cut off those who don’t get what Brantley’s on about — because the review proceeds to discuss the play in both senses of happening — it gives a few of us a fun space to linger in, before we move on to the apparent impossibility of finding tickets to a hot new musical.