Richmond, The key here is the “if” - which creates a conditional clause - which requires the past plural of the verb (in this case “were”). This is similar to the “wenn" clause in German (Deutsch) and the “ut” clause in Latin. If I were able, I’d thank you in person for mentioning this.
Paul Looney > On Aug 8, 2015, at 9:42 AM, Richmond <richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Jane Austen [amongst others] uses an interesting type of grammatical > construction of this sort: > > After breakfast, the girls walked to Meryton to inquire if Mr. Wickham > _were returned_, and to lament over his absence from the Netherfield ball. > > Pride and Prejudice. > > I would like to analyse a million word corpus that I have been granted access > to for this type of construction. > > However, I don't want to find examples of only 'were returned', but all > examples of > > were + infinitive / preterite / past participle > > and, presumably for that I shall have to use wildcards . . . > > OR ??? > > Richmond. > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode