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

J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> "Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
>
> > True.  But analogies based on Shakespeare shouldn't be taken too far.
> > He had no qualms at all about bending English syntax to fit the needs
> > of meter at times.  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?"  Agggg!  No wonder Pepys thought so lowly
> > of him.
>
> What's wrong with "What heard you him say else"?  Seems perfectly fine to me.
> If you abstract away from the absence of "do"-support, it's no different in
> structure from modern English "What did you hear him say besides (that)?", a
> completely normal sentence.
Well, I had been under the impression that lack of do-support was a
somewhat artificial, archaic usage that still then obtained only in some
parts of Britain.  Maybe I'm wrong; I'm no Shakespeare expert (nor
Anglicist, for that matter).  I have read, though, that those who do
consider themselves experts have made the same observation about
him.

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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