In your last example: "Mr. Rushworth _was returned_”
“was returned” (singular, past tense, passive) is correct (although a simple “returned” would have been more powerful). There is no conditional, no “if”; as in your first example: "to inquire if Mr. Wickham_were returned_," Haven’t had this much fun with the language in a long time… > On Aug 8, 2015, at 1:07 PM, Richmond <richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 08/08/15 22:56, Paul Looney wrote: >> 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 > > I'm not sure anent that: > > "He had been visiting a friend in the neighbouring county, and that > friend having recently had his grounds laid out by an improver, Mr. > Rushworth _was returned_ with his head full of the subject, and very eager > to be improving his own place in the same way; and though not saying > much to the purpose, could talk of nothing else." > > Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park" > > Richmond. >> >>> 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 <mailto: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 >> <http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode> > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com <mailto: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 > <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
