Re: a grammar sketch...
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, September 30, 2000, 4:39 |
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Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> Except...<puzzled look again> I could've *sworn* I'd seen constructions
> like "The ring was given her" somewhere. Maybe Andre Norton or some
> other sf/f writer, because it sounds vaguely archaic to my admittedly
> untrained ear.
Yeah, it's an archaic usage. Compare the King James Bible, Ezekiel
33:24 -
"Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land
*is given us* for inheritance."
As opposed to "the land is given TO us for inheritance."
However, even in the KJV, it appears that the "given to" type usage is
more common, as in Ezekiel 11:15 "unto us is this land given".
--
Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos
God gave teeth; God will give bread - Lithuanian proverb
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