Re: USAGE: 'born'

From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> Tommie L Powell wrote:
> > > "...the city is still becoming. There may be arguments
> > > as to what it's becoming, but no one can reasonably
> > > doubt that the place is still giving birth to itself."
> >
> > Hmmm.  Let's look at that first quoted sentence first:
> > "...the city is still becoming."  Since there's no object,
> > what we have here is either an intransitive verb that
> > isn't in my dictionary, or else a copula ("is") plus an
> > adjective ("becoming").  As an adjective, "becoming"
> > means attractive, so the sentence then means that the
> > city hasn't yet lost its attractiveness.
>
> "Becoming" means "attractive"?
Yup. "Pleasing or attractive to the eye." (AHD4)  (cf. "comely"?)

So it may be one of those nasty puns.  <The city's still becoming[=attractive],
but whatever it's becoming[=changing into]..>  But one would need the context of
the phrase immediately before it for a certain prognosis.

    *Muke!