R: Re: Degrees of volition in active languages(wasRe:Chevraqis: asketch)

On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> "Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
> > There's this one truly wretched line in _Much ado
> > about Nothing_  during the trial scene where the Judge goes "What
> > heard you him say else?"
>
> That's English?  ;-)
What's so strange?  The underlying sentence is "you heard him say what else",
and then the "what" gets rotated to the front, as usual in English.
Modern English would rotate the "else" with it, but in Shakespeare's
English "else" is still a "full" adverb, and can stay put.  Add to that
the lack of do-support, and instead of "What else did you hear him say?"
you get very naturally "What heard you him say else?".

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
C'est la` pourtant que se livre le sens du dire, de ce que, s'y conjuguant
le nyania qui bruit des sexes en compagnie, il supplee a ce qu'entre eux,
de rapport nyait pas.               -- Jacques Lacan, "L'Etourdit"