Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds — J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer famously quoted this from The Bhagavad Geeta in the context of the nuclear bomb. The way this sentence is structured feels weird to me. “Now I am Death” or “Now I have become Death” sound much more natural in English to me.

Was he trying to simulate some formulation in Sanskrit that is not available in the English language?

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s from English, not Sanskrit. More specifically, an archaic English feature, where you’d use “be” instead of “have” for the present tense, if the main verb denotes a change of state (such as “become”). Note how “I have become Death” sounds perfectly fine for modern readers.

    Odds are that Oppenheimer was quoting either an archaic translation Bhagavad Gita, or one using archaic language (this is typical for religious texts).

    Also give this a check. English used to follow similar rules for be/have as German does for sein/haben.

    [Shameless community promotion: check !linguistics@lemmy.ml ! This sort of question would fit like a glove there.]

    • Masterkraft0r@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think he translated it himself. It’s an archaic text though, so translating it in modern english would also be weird probably.

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      where you’d use “be” instead of “have” for the present tense, if the main verb denotes a change of state (such as “become”).

      But in that example isn’t the “am” replacing the “have”?

      I have become death

      I am become death

      • mick@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes. The conjugates for “to be” are: I am, You are, He/she is, etc.

      • pianoplant@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you think about it the fact that modern English uses “Have” in this context (primarily describing something you own) is actually weirder than “Am” (something you are)

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s almost like a different word, a hononym. To have and to have done something in the past. Neither being nor possessing really works for the “have done”. Being works for become because become has being as a part of its meaning as well as a transition from some previous thing that was before.

          Though both are used similarly. I have ran. I am running. I will run. I guess have is still the odd one out since will is future tense for am. Though was also works. I was running. But was is more specific than have, it feels like “I was running” is a part of a narrative that includes a specific time, while “I have ran” doesn’t require anything else. It’s like you possess the previous action of running, so maybe it is apt. Language is funny.

    • elxeno@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Can you make “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” correct with some linguistics magic?

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Linguistics is mostly descriptive, mind you; it doesn’t “make” things correct, it explains what happens.

        That said, “are belong” wouldn’t work. “Belong” indicates possession, not a change of state, so even under older grammatical rules you’d still need to use “have” with it. And you’d need to use it in the past participle (belonged), not the base form (belong). Note that Oppenheimer’s quote doesn’t have this problem because the past participle of “become” is still “become”.

        And the present perfect wouldn’t even make sense here. CATS is not saying “those bases used to belong to us, and they still do”; it’s more like “those bases used to be yours, but now they’re ours”. You’d need to use the simple present here, “belong” - “now all your bases belong to us”, without an auxiliary, with the “now” highlighting that this wasn’t true in the past but it is in the current time.