Re: What is this construction

Fergal McCullough wrote:
[snip]
> I'd like to point that I'm quite familiar with this sort of usage,
> though I'm unlikely to produce it. It sounds quaint and old-fashioned
> and english, all of which are synonyms. (I'm Australian, fwiw.)
>
> --
> Tristan.
>
> The strange thing for me is that as an Irish person who has lived in the
> North of England for 15 years this is a perfectly normal construction for me
> but I can't for the life of me remember whether I would have considered it
> normal before moved here
>
> Fergal
Oh dear, this turning - I guess inevitably - into YAEDT. For those who
said it ain't grammatical, it may well not be in your prescriptive
version of English, but it certainly occurs, including the Tolkien example.

Personally, I see nothing ungrammatical with either from a prescriptive
or descriptive point of view. Like Tristan, I (a southern Britisher) am
quite familiar with this sort of usage but am unlikely to produce. It
also sounds a little old-fashion to me, but I can well believe it is
current in regional colloquial forms.


Ray
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