Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

Peter Bleackley wrote:

> Staving Christophe Grandsire:
>
> The nearest equivalent of the Latin "ne" in English is "lest" - slightly
> archaic, but a little bit of archaism never hurt anyone. Your last two
> examples are then "I fear lest he comes", and "I fear lest he comes not."

And while we're indulging in archaism, we caould go the whole hog and
put the verb of the subordinated clause into the subjuctive: "I fear
lest he come (not)"

:)

s.
--
Stephen Mulraney  ataltane@ataltane.net  http://ataltane.net
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