Re: USAGE: 2nd pers. pron. for God

Quoting bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>:

>  --- Joe <joe@...> wrote: > ----- Original
> > > bnathyuw wrote:
> > > That, to me, sounds like the prisoners were the
> > ones who received the
> > > orders, as if the judge said to them "Be placed in
> > detention!"  :-)
> >
> > I think he mucked up there...I'd say 'the judge
> > ordered that the prisoners
> > be placed in detention'
>
> no i didn't, but looks like we're now on a 50:50 on
> the british vote . . . !
>
> actually, i would probably say 'the judge had the
> prisoners detained' and have done with the whole
> mandatio obliqua
I get the impression that, in American lawyer's jargon
especially, subordinate clauses with bare subjunctives
are *very* common.  This has seeped into the rest of the
population via courtroom dramas, and so maybe that's why
the strategy with the subordinate clause sounds more
natural to me.

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
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