to have made him homesick

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Teleostomi

#364154 Sun, 13 May 07 10:46 AM

This is from His Own Country by Pearl Buck.

There was no music in the roar and the grind of trolley cars to have made him homesick.

I don't know why the perfect tense was used in this sentence (I'd have written "to make him homesick"). Could anyone help me?

Teleostomi

Joined on Sat, Jun 10 2006

Regular Member (557)

Tenses

Marius Hancu

#364187 Sun, 13 May 07 12:23 PM

Because the meaning is:
which could have made him homesick

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Teleostomi

#367354 Sat, 19 May 07 05:03 AM

Thanks! Could I ask once more?

Could you tell me what's the difference between these two? As the author (Pearl Buck) wrote 1, not 2, there must be a reason.

1 There was no music in the roar and the grind of trolley cars to have made him homesick.
2 There was no music in the roar and the grind of trolley cars to make him homesick.

Teleostomi

Difference between

Anonymous

#367356 Sat, 19 May 07 05:23 AM

The way it's written implies either that he should be homesick, or he is homesick.

The way you suggested doesn't imply if he's homesick or not.

Anonymous

Marius Hancu

#367432 Sat, 19 May 07 11:20 AM

Teleostomi wrote:

Could you tell me what's the difference between these two? As the author (Pearl Buck) wrote 1, not 2, there must be a reason.

I told you the reason. Read it as I told you and you'll understand.

There was no such music.

If such music had been available, it would/could have made him sick.

It's about a potential event in the past which didn't take place. In such cases, (contrary-to-the-fact), the perfect participle (have made) is used after the modal verbs. In this case, the modal verb is ellipted.