Yet again, I was taught a good lesson here. It still hasn't been long ago since I discovered that language in its complexity and ways to convey information goes beyond a set of, as it were, rules to which we get accustomed at school. The rules should be treated only as guidance, I think. At least, this is how I, as a layman, understand it. That is why I sometimes seek a logical explanation while there may not be such at all.
(I hope that the above is mistake free) :)
Cytat:
....and tense complexity in narrative can be quite a bitch :)
well said :)
Thank you for the peculiar compliment, you motivated me to ask yet another question. Sorry :)
"So it is perhaps not that surprising (as we recently discovered) that in 1912, well
before Einstein had in fact even completed his general relativity theory,
he had performed calculations - as he tried to find some observable phenomenon that would convince astronomers to test his ideas - that were essentially identical to those he published in 1936 at the request of Mr. Mandl."
Am I correct in interpreting that here the 'before + Past Perfect' construction emphasizes the period of incompletion of the theory which is strengthened by the words 'well before' and 'even', if that makes sense or this is the case which you are describing as
Cytat:
And another thing is that we could've been trying hard to extarct any kind of situational context out of this sentence, but again, we woudn't have gone far enogh out of it without the right one.
? Perhaps, I am over-analyzing it. :)
What could we say about the following example:
I had got/gotten up before the sun had risen.