OBSERVATIONS ON NEW ENGLISH SYNTAX.

ESTON EVERETT ERICSON

doi:10.1515/angl.1939.1939.63.100

$I Some years ago ), I discussed several unusual constructions in New English. Among these was the use of did to express the conditional subjunctive by way of transposed word-order in the subordinate clause. It can be stated unqualifiedly, I think, that such clauses are not found in American oral language, and to the average reader look odd when found in writing. It will be observed that four of the examples are found in the twentieth Century, so that this construction may be described s inveterate. /t Thou'dst be desired Didst thou less beauteous seem. Thomas Stanley, Changed, Yet Constant (1651). Oh, did our British Peers thus court renown And grace the coats their great forefathers won, Our arms would then triumphantly advance. Joseph Addison, To the King (1695). Did the matter stop here, it would certainly be one of curious investigation. Edward Everett, in a review of the Speeches of Henry Clay, North American Review 25, 429 (1827). W» w/\nW ^+ a ^.haijter tn dpAo.rih« t.hft «motion« of Mr«. Firkin, did not the passions of her mistress occupy our genteeler muse. W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, chapter XVI (1847). Did a Jury seem incUned to be werciful,$

OBSERVATIONS ON NEW ENGLISH SYNTAX.

ERICSON, ESTON EVERETT

Follow Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie , Volume 1939 (63) de Gruyter – Jan 1, 1939