With a deafening bang,

[quietdandelion]

With a deafening bang, a bomb inside the underground station exploded.




I find it hard to translate the underlined part into my language, especially the prep. "With." How would you paraphrase "with" here? Thanks.

 

[tepatria]

The bang from the bomb was loud enough to render anyone within earshot deaf. As the bomb exploded it made a bang that was deafening.
I hope that helps.

 

[quietdandelion]

Thanks, tepatria, for the meaningful reply.
But how could I explain the meaning of "With" to my students?

 

[kelt]

You don't have to take it literarily - the explosion just made a big bang. Calling something deafeaning doesn't always mean it made someone deaf. But it could.

 

[panjandrum]

With a deafening bang, a bomb inside the underground station exploded.

A bomb inside the underground station exploded with a deafening bang.
With = accompanied by.
I have a feeling that is not really enough of an explanation.

This structure, "With <noun phrase>, statement." is common.
With a song in his heart, he set off to work once again.
With a shrug of his shoulders, he rejected the offer of fame and fortune.

I suppose it is an adverbial construction - the with part modifies the verb in the next part.

 

[kelt]

With?

The bomb explosion made a bang. I don't remember a proper language term for this, but the bomb just exploded and that's it.

 

[panjandrum]

With?

The bomb explosion made a bang. I don't remember a proper language term for this, but the bomb just exploded and that's it.

But that's the point, it didn't just explode. It exploded with a deafening bang!
Not a fizz and a phut, but a whopping great enormous thunderous deafening bang.

 

[quietdandelion]

With a deafening bang, a bomb inside the underground station exploded.

A bomb inside the underground station exploded with a deafening bang.
With = accompanied by.
I have a feeling that is not really enough of an explanation.

This structure, "With <noun phrase>, statement." is common.
With a song in his heart, he set off to work once again.
With a shrug of his shoulders, he rejected the offer of fame and fortune.

I suppose it is an adverbial construction - the with part modifies the verb in the next part.

Thanks, panj.
I think "accompanied by" is a good answer.

 

[panjandrum]

Thanks, panj.
I think "accompanied by" is a good answer.

It wouldn't always be quite right - for example it seems a little strange to think of "Accompanied by a song in my heart, ..."

The point, perhaps, is that the with is introducing an adverbial clause that tells us more about how, in this case, the bomb exploded. This structure appears very often in descriptive narrative - certainly the kind of narrative that I read aloud to 7-year-old WMPG. You know the kind of thing, "With a fearsome howl, the wicked wolf jumped out of bed and gobbled up Little Red Riding Hood."

 

[ajlindsay]

Is there a grammatical convention here? If not, how about; two things happened.

i) A bomb went off, and ii) a bomb went off, with - to quote Panjandrum - a whopping great enormous thunderous deafening bang.

The two events are, in effect, one and the same. One *with* the other.

 

[nichec]

It wouldn't always be quite right - for example it seems a little strange to think of "Accompanied by a song in my heart, ..."

The point, perhaps, is that the with is introducing an adverbial clause that tells us more about how, in this case, the bomb exploded. This structure appears very often in descriptive narrative - certainly the kind of narrative that I read aloud to 7-year-old WMPG. You know the kind of thing, "With a fearsome howl, the wicked wolf jumped out of bed and gobbled up Little Red Riding Hood."

I think "with" makes the description/plot vivid.

--She walked away from him.
--She walked away from him with tears in her eyes.
--With tears in her eyes, she walked away from him.

The third one sounds much more dramatic to me.

 

[GreenWhiteBlue]

Is it the word order, Dandelion? "With a deafening bang, the bomb went off" means the same thing as "The bomb went off with a deafening bang." Would that second sentence cause confusion?

If the second sentence is understandable, just turn the sentence around when it starts with "With...".

If the changed word order does not make things clear, let us know and we can try again.

 

[quietdandelion]

Thanks, my helpful friends.