On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:30:24 -0800, Marius Hancu wrote: > The concern I have is about the different number: was heaving > were shaking > singular -> plural
Don't lose sleep. English will never be logical :)
Marius Hancu <marius.ha...@gmail.com> writes: > Hello:
> Is it OK to ellipt the "were" before "shaking?"
Yeah, but I'm not sure you can get away with "ellipt". That would be a back-formation that the OED doesn't know about. I think the word you want is "elide".
That being said, Google Books has 494 hits for "ellipted" and another few for "ellipting", dating back to 1889 in scientific texts, so what do I know?
[Attn Jesse Sheidlower: OED missing word]
-- Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |If I may digress momentarily from 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |the mainstream of this evening's Palo Alto, CA 94304 |symposium, I'd like to sing a song |which is completely pointless. kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com | Tom Lehrer (650)857-7572
Marius Hancu <marius.ha...@gmail.com> writes: > On Nov 8, 11:19 am, "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>> > Is it OK to ellipt the "were" before "shaking?"
>> > ---- >> > I could see he was doing his best to reassure me it was all okay now, >> > but his chest was still heaving and his legs shaking.
>> > Kazuo Ishiguro, Never let me go, p. 274 >> > ----
>> Sure. You could even drop the 'and' if you were in laconic mode and >> replace it with a comma.
> The concern I have is about the different number: > was heaving > were shaking > singular -> plural
Not a problem, and I never noticed we did that until just now.
-- Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |"Are you okay?" 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 | Palo Alto, CA 94304 |"I'm made of felt....Add by dose |cubs off." kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com (650)857-7572
Marius Hancu wrote: > On Nov 8, 11:19 am, "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>>> Is it OK to ellipt the "were" before "shaking?"
>>> ---- >>> I could see he was doing his best to reassure me it was all okay >>> now, but his chest was still heaving and his legs shaking.
>>> Kazuo Ishiguro, Never let me go, p. 274 >>> ----
>> Sure. You could even drop the 'and' if you were in laconic mode and >> replace it with a comma.
> The concern I have is about the different number: > was heaving > were shaking > singular -> plural
> Thanks. > Marius Hancu
In a sense, this is an old friend iro your queries. You ask "Is it OK to ellipt the "were" " and one answer is:
Ishiguro is a writer of considerable descriptive power. He is under no obligation to conform to grammatical and syntactical rules. He is not obliged to spell words according to the commonly used form and he is not obliged to restrict himself to current or previously used meanings of words. In short, he is an artist and may do as he pleases to create the effect he intends. It may be, as seems to be the case, that he generally *does* conform to the commonly understood rules but he doesn't have to. Even if it were incorrect to ellipt the 'were', that would still not make it wrong for him to do so in a literary context. -- John Dean Oxford
>> Is it OK to ellipt the "were" before "shaking?"
>Yeah, but I'm not sure you can get away with "ellipt". That would be >a back-formation that the OED doesn't know about. I think the word >you want is "elide".
>That being said, Google Books has 494 hits for "ellipted" and another >few for "ellipting", dating back to 1889 in scientific texts, so what >do I know?
> [Attn Jesse Sheidlower: OED missing word]
That word, ellipt, struck me too. So hard that I couldn't finish the post, for it gave me the impression the OP had been digging, but, based on Evan's evidence, perhaps not. --
Regards,
Chuck Riggs, An American who lives near Dublin, Ireland and usually spells in BrE
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