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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004asked not be identified
Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and 'be identified' below? A similar structure I can think of is 'he asked to be heard / he asked not to be heard'. As man who asked not be identified says he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled promises he made to the Haitian people. In our last episode, <8dbavv0i05miku939lqb4uslo14nrpciu9@4ax.com>, the lovely and talented nick broadcast on alt.usage.english: > Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and 'be > identified' below? A similar structure I can think of is 'he asked to > be heard / he asked not to be heard'. > As man who asked not be identified says > he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled > promises he made to the Haitian people. Yes.  SignatureLars Eighner -finger for geek code- eighner@io.com http://www.io.com/~eighner/ "Where is human nature so weak as in a bookstore!" --Henry Ward Beecher nick <nick@news.com> wrote on 02 Jan 2004: > Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and 'be > identified' below? A similar structure I can think of is 'he [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled > promises he made to the Haitian people. Yes, the "to" is missing: "asked not to be identified" is correct. SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor. Nick wrote: >Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and >'be identified' below?. . . >As man who asked not be identified says >he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled >promises he made to the Haitian people. Yes, and you need an "a" before "man" and (probably) a "the" before "promises." Unless you add a comma after "says," you'll need to add a comma after "people" and supply a verb to complete the sentence. >Nick wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >Unless you add a comma after "says," you'll need to add a comma after "people" >and supply a verb to complete the sentence. I don't see that last bit. After your first two corrections, it looks right to me, and a comma would be out of place after 'says'. -- john John wrote: > Jan 2004 12:50:24 GMT, lovejw@aol.comma.net (J. >W. Love) wrote: [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >it looks right to me, and a comma would be out of >place after 'says'. At least in America, it's pretty much required after initial dependent clauses, such as those begun by "if," "when," since," "as," and so on. Lacking a comma after "says," the dependent clause doesn't end with "says": it keeps on going, with "says [that] he believes" and so on, permitting this continuation: "As a man who asked not be identified says [that] he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled the promises he made to the Haitian people, we may conclude that the public response to Mr. Aristide's rule is not unanimously supportive." >John wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] >not fulfilled the promises he made to the Haitian people, we may conclude that >the public response to Mr. Aristide's rule is not unanimously supportive." I misread. I was reading it with the 'A' replacing the intial 'As'. A man who asked not to be identified says he believes... -- john > Nick wrote: >> Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and >> 'be identified' below?. . . [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > "promises." Unless you add a comma after "says," you'll need to add a > comma after "people" and supply a verb to complete the sentence. Here's an example when even the American system will move a comma outside of the quote marks. Following the instructions above, the resulting sentence would look like "... be identified says,, he ...". In other words, adding a comma after the one included in the quote would result in two commas. SignatureSkitt (in Hayward, California) www.geocities.com/opus731/ >> Nick wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >would look like "... be identified says,, he ...". In other words, adding a >comma after the one included in the quote would result in two commas. I dunno about these rules. Consider these sentences and place the period in both by the American rule and the British rule. He said the painting was a "fake" He cried out "Fake!" >>> Nick wrote: >>>> Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and >>>> 'be identified' below?. . . [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > He said the painting was a "fake" > He cried out "Fake!" I'll try (no guarantees, as I am not an expert on the rules). AmE: He said the painting was a "fake." He cried out, "Fake!" BrE: He said the painting was a "fake". He cried out: "Fake!" I sit, ready to be corrected. SignatureSkitt (in Hayward, California) www.geocities.com/opus731/ "Nick" asks: >> Is there supposed to have a 'to' between 'asked not' and >> 'be identified' below?. . . ]>> As man who asked not be identified says ]>> he believes Mr. Aristide has not fulfilled ]>> promises he made to the Haitian people. J.W. Love writes: > Yes, Agreed. > and you need an "a" before "man" Alternatively, "as" is simply a mistake for "a". > and (probably) a "the" before "promises." If the man intends to refer to *all* of Aristide's promises, you need a "the"; if only some of them, that part is correct as written. > Unless you add a comma after "says," you'll need to add a comma after > "people" and supply a verb to complete the sentence. These are two alternative possible corrections, both assuming that the initial "as" should be corrected to "as a". Considering my suggestion above along with these two, the three possibilities are analogous to: Given: * As man said the computer was down. Correct (but all different): * A man said the computer was down. * As a man said, the computer was down. * As a man said the computer was down, I went home. SignatureMark Brader "You can do this in a number of ways. Toronto IBM chose to do all of them... msb@vex.net why do you find that funny?" --D. Taylor My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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