[Grammar] Stella has seemingly vanished, having taken on a white persona.

[maxminmink]

Hello,

I would like to know the intended meaning and grammatical structure explanation of the underlined sentence. I know that "having taken on a white persona" is modifying preceding clause, but i don't really understand how the underlined sentence modifies it. Could anyone explain the grammatically intended meaning of it.

Thank you,
Max


The Vanishing Half is a story about the way that identity is formed, and tells of identical, light-skinned twin sisters, born in the Jim Crow South, who run away from home as teenagers. The girls then go their very separate ways. Desiree returns home 14 years later, while her sister Stella has seemingly vanished, having taken on a white persona. The follow-up to Bennett’s 2016 debut The Mothers, The Vanishing Half has been widely acclaimed. As The New York Times puts it: “Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterisation with the historical and social realities of her subject matter.”

source : https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200327-the-best-books-of-2020-so-far

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum, Max.

Always tell us the source and author of any text you quote, please.

***

Please note that I have changed your thread title.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[maxminmink]

Hello Rover_KE,

I am so sorry for not telling the source, here is the source where i found them.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200327-the-best-books-of-2020-so-far

 

[Tarheel]

Back in that day it was called passing as white.

There is no grammatically intended meaning (whatever that is).

If my advice has been helpful ....

 

[TheParser]

I know that "having taken on a white persona" is modifying preceding clause, but i don't really understand how the underlined sentence modifies it.

NOT A TEACHER

Maxminmink, I have checked some of my books, and I hope the following analysis may be helpful.

There are several ways to phrase your sentence:

1. "Stella has vanished, having taken on another persona."
2. "Having taken on another persona, Stella has vanished."
3. "Stella, who has taken on another persona, has vanished."

"Having taken on another persona" is a present perfect participial phrase that modifies (refers to) "Stella."

Notice that this is clearly shown in No. 3, in which "who has taken on another persona" is an adjective clause that modifies "Stella."


Sources: Pence and Emery, A Grammar of Present-Day English (1947 and 1963), pages 59 and 376; Liles, A Basic Grammar of Modern English (1979), page 110.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello, Rover_KE.

I am so sorry for not telling you/providing the source. Here it is: [STRIKE]the source where I found them.[/STRIKE]

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200327-the-best-books-of-2020-so-far

Note my corrections above.

 

[jutfrank]

The subject of having taken on a white persona is Stella. The basic sense is that Stella took on a white persona prior to the time when Desiree returned home. It may help to paraphrase, using the past perfect:

When Desiree returned home 14 years later, Stella had taken on a white persona.