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Discussion Groups / English Usage / September 2010Lewis: to meet
Hello: What I find interesting here is the use of "to meet": "I’m the sort of Faun _to meet_ a poor innocent child in the wood ..." Is this less frequent these days? I'd have expected "I’m the sort of Faun _that meets_ a poor innocent child in the wood ..." --- [The Faun talking to Lucy] "Would you believe that I’m the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent child in the wood, one that had never done me any harm, and pretend to be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?” C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - ---- --- Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > What I find interesting here is the use of "to meet": > "I’m the sort of Faun _to meet_ a poor innocent child in the wood ..." > Is this less frequent these days? > I'd have expected > "I’m the sort of Faun _that meets_ a poor innocent child in the > wood ..." Not the same thing. The latter implies that he is the sort of faun who is in the habit of meeting children in the woods. The former merely says that he is the type that would, even if this is his first time. It's implying a state of being rather than actual events. Looking at the full sentence, the meaning is pretty clear. Let's take out some of the extra stuff and get down to a bare sentence: "Am I the sort to meet a poor innocent child and pretend to be friendly with it all for the sake of lulling it to sleep." So in the full sentence he is asking if he is that sort of faun, asking about his actual state, who he is, etc. If you change it to "that meets" in the full sentence the sense would be slightly altered as the question would then be, is this the sort of thing I have done, as opposed to am I the type to do this. > "Would you believe that I’m the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent > child in the wood, one that had never done me any harm, and pretend to > be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake > of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?”  Signature'What good is a candle at noonday?' --Sourcery > > What I find interesting here is the use of "to meet": > > "I’m the sort of Faun _to meet_ a poor innocent child in the wood ..." [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > that he is the type that would, even if this is his first time. It's > implying a state of being rather than actual events. Glad I've asked. > Looking at the full sentence, the meaning is pretty clear. Let's take > out some of the extra stuff and get down to a bare sentence: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake > > of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?” Thank you very much. Marius Hancu > In message > <3d5024c3-0cba-4c81-8ebd-06ddf184b309@26g2000yqv.googlegroups.com> [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > So in the full sentence he is asking if he is that sort of faun, asking > about his actual state, who he is, etc. I agree that that's what it means here, but I'd like to point out that "the sort...to <do X>" doesn't necessarily imply a habitual activity. A predisposition or inherent proclivity is enough, e.g.: "Don't be absurd, old man, Smith isn't the sort to embezzle company funds and abscond to the Continent via the boat train. He's probably just home in bed with the grippe or something. We must seek elsewhere for our thief." > If you change it to "that meets" in the full sentence the sense would be > slightly altered as the question would then be, is this the sort of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >> be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake of >> lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?” 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 ) |
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