 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009As perhaps I should
Hello: Isn't a "have" missing right at the end? Everything seems past time here. --- The extent to which Stringham had resolved to settle his own career was brought home to me one morning, through the unexpected agency of Quiggin, next to whom I fond myself sitting, when attending one of Brightman's lectures, at which I had not been appearing so regularly as perhaps I should. Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 139 --- -- Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > > Isn't a "have" missing right at the end? Completely optional, I would say (BrE) > Everything seems past time here. irrelevant the 'have' is implied if not written. > > Isn't a "have" missing right at the end? > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > irrelevant the 'have' is implied if not written. OK, need to write down this somewhere:-) Thanks. Marius Hancu > OK, need to write down this somewhere > > Thanks. > Marius Hancu Funny thing is I would almost certainly /say/ 'should have' probably write it too and then edit it on re-reading. [...] > OK, need to write down this somewhere:-) The question of what is and what isn't acceptable ellipsis is one of the trickiest of all, and there's little to be done for it (as with the unrelated but also difficult issue of which prepositions go idiomatically with which verbs) save read, read, and read some more. With ellipses, the safe rule is if there is any nontrivial doubt about whether virtually all readers or listeners will readily and correctly supply the elided words, don't omit them.  SignatureCordially, Eric Walker, Owlcroft House http://owlcroft.com/english/ >Hello: > >Isn't a "have" missing right at the end? > >Everything seems past time here. In BrE it is fine the way it is. The "have" at the end is understood. I'll risk the comment that it might not be "best style" to include it. >--- >The extent to which Stringham had resolved to settle his own career [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 139 >--- SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > Isn't a "have" missing right at the end? > Everything seems past time here. > --- > The extent to which Stringham had resolved to settle his own career > was brought home to me one morning, through the unexpected agency of > Quiggin, next to whom I fond myself sitting, when attending one of > Brightman's lectures, at which I had not been appearing so regularly > as perhaps I should. > Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 139 > --- Wouldn't a BrE speaker have said "should have done" instead of "should have", in that context anyway? I think the word "should" here is simple past tense, as it can sometimes be: they did exactly as they should. >Marius Hancu wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >simple past tense, as it can sometimes be: they did exactly as they >should. The "have", and then the "done", are both optional. But we need to distinguish between off-the-cuff speech and considered prose. I think that in speech I'd probably do as Marcus suggested -- "so regularly as I should have", but then I wouldn't have uttered all that other formal structured sentence content beforehand. Given the rest of the text, "as I should" is better than the alternatives. In speech, I'd never in a thousand years be jawing about "the unexpected agency of Quiggin". SignaturePaul > >Marius Hancu wrote: > > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > I should" is better than the alternatives. In speech, I'd never in a > thousand years be jawing about "the unexpected agency of Quiggin". I'd finish it "...should have been", which can be shortened to "should have" or just "should" in AmE as I speak her. I'd expect BrE to offer the further alternative of "should have been doing." SignatureRoland Hutchinson He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba," ... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy. --Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ ) |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.