Friday, December 27, 2013

Detail #71: A weirdo place to put auxiliary-like things

Make some auxiliaries be genitive attributes of the subject, and add a copula between the subject and a somewhat less inflected (possibly infinitive) form of the verb:
[word indicating obligation]'s men are eat → men have to eat
sometimes [word indicating occasional occurence or possibility]'s me am doubt the wisdom of this plan → sometimes I might doubt the wisdom of this plan
These nouns can also appear as dummy subjects for verbs that usually do not take subjects, or for modal passive-like constructions (passive in that the subject is omitted, but an object is retained).
 

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