Fiber glass statues

[krishnakumarhod]

Originally Posted by Fiver

Here my understanding:
In option A: The Swiss govt. performs 2 actions: 'commissioned' and 'set', while 'having decorated' is a participle (not a verb) modifiying 'the swiss govt.' and the following 'them' refers to 'cow statues'. Hence here we have 2 actions that the govt. does in active voice(hence parallell) and a well defined modifier in between.

In option C: The swiss govt. performs 3 actions: 'commisioned', 'had decorated' and 'set'. Here the 1st & last actions are in the active voice, while the 2nd is in the passive voice. I would agree to the usage of passive if the subject were not clear; however here the subject is 'the govt.'
Moreover the order of occurrence according to me is: First the Gvt. commissioned, then decorated and then set them up. Hence the act of commisioning preceeds 'decorating'. Then how can 'decorated' become 'had decorated' (past perfect) when 'commissioned' is simple past.
IMO the parallellism as well as tenses is at fault here.

Please pour in more thoughts on my query.
BoB/Erin where art thou?

I think "Had" here is not past perfect.The 'Had' used here itself is a verb.
I think it is similar to saying
Raj had dinner

eg:
Past perfect:Rita made sure that john had taken out the garbage,
Past:Rita had john take out the garbage

I am also not sure whether 'had' clause used here is actually
passive

Do correct me if i am wrong

[Fiver]

Aaha! Great point.
Now i see that 'had' does not make the tense past perfect nor does it convert the voice to passive.

e.g. The statues were decorated by local artists
Here voice is passive in simple past while the subject is 'artists'

e.g. I had the statues decorated by local artists.
Here I becomes the subject and not 'artists'; hence the voice is converted to active with 'had' as main verb in the simple past and 'decorated' as a participle modifying 'statues'

Valid point. Thanks for bringing this up champ.

Would be great if others could add their inputs.