Thread: ".., whatever his reasons for wanting it to be that way."

She sighed and punched up a star map on the visiscreen so she could make it simple for him, whatever his reasons for wanting it to be that way.
© The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I can't understand whether is there dropping the verb "be" there? I mean being completed this part looks like this:

whatever his reasons for wanting it to be that way were.

Yes?

...whatever his reasons were for wanting it to be that way.

Originally Posted by sperk

...whatever his reasons were for wanting it to be that way.

???...
So is "for wanting it to be that way" attribute of "reasons" or adverbial modifier?
I mean:
- What is his reasons for?
- for wanting it to be that way.

No, it's not "whatever his reasons were for, wanting" but "whatever his reasons were for (wanting)". He has reasons for something. The whole "for" phrase could be replace by a dependent clause: whatever his reasons were, which made him want it to be that way.

In Russian maybe something like несмотря на то, какие у него причины, чтобы хочеть, что вещи так будут. Or something like that, which may not be the way you'd actually put it.

несмотря на то, какие у него причины, чтобы хотеть этого.

или
Какие бы ни были у него причины, чтобы хотеть этого. (... чтобы хотеть, чтобы было так.)

Thanks a lot, sperk and bitpicker.

Thanks, I knew something was wrong there but couldn't put my finger on it...

Not that I qualify to restrike a phrase penned by the great Douggie Adams, but..

.. it might also be said: "She sighed and punched up a star map on the visiscreen so she could make it simple for him, regardless of what reasons he had for wanting it to be that way."

.. it might also be said: "She sighed and punched up a star map on the visiscreen so she could make it simple for him, no matter why he wanted it to be that way."

This may have already been explained, but I think the quirky way he wrote that was to denote that: she sighed, punched up the map on the screen to make it simple for him, despite being unconcerned with *why* he wanted it to be made easy for him.

God, I love those books.