MSGID: 1:153/716.0 ed70e5f2   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 5ed2e91c   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Anton!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AS>  I should fear to hear it -- what if the inheritance   
   AS>  turns out to have another magickal item?   
      
   AH>  Nah.  Just a few ordinary household items made of xxx,   
   AH>  yyy, and zzz... none with magic(k)al powers, but all   
   AH>  of which we are still using.  :-)   
      
   AS>  Then I won't pursue this quotidian matter any futher.   
   AS>  But may I make so bold as to question the grammar in   
   AS>  the quoted sentence?   
      
      
             Of course.  You may be sure that whatever I say in the E_T echo has   
   been edited & proofread thoroughly; however, I do miss things sometimes.  :-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  1. Is it correct to use "but.. which" without a prior   
   AS>  occurence of "which" in the sentence?   
      
      
              If I hadn't thought so, I wouldn't have done it.  Perhaps it is an   
   error... or perhaps it's one of those stunts one shouldn't try at home.  :-))   
      
              I could have written "... none of which has [blah blah] but all of   
   which we are still using."  Although it would have made a nicer parallelism I   
   felt it might be unnecessarily wordy.   
      
              IIRC I've seen a few constructions like "... most, but by no means   
   all, of which [i.e. covid-related deaths in this country] are associated with   
   long term care facilities".  In such cases the logic is more obvious....  :-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  2. Is it correct to express the continued use of these   
   AS>  items in the present progressive tense?   
      
      
              As a native speaker I depend heavily on my Russian modem buddies &   
   foreign language textbooks to identify the names of verb tenses.  It seems to   
   me, however, that this tense is appropriate in situations where the action is   
   ongoing.  I could have typed, in a separate sentence, "None of them has [blah   
   blah]... but all of them are still in use."  IMHO the original sounds better.   
      
      
      
   AS>  This distinction causes me serious doubts in my own   
   AS>  writing, but in your case I should without   
   AS>  vaccilation say: "and we still use all of them."   
      
      
              In general the present tense would work too, but in this example I   
   figure it would change the emphasis as well as the rhythm I had in mind.  :-)   
      
      
      
   >>>  In a moment, his wife looked up at him and said, "I'm   
   >>>  sorry. I'd not thought she was capable of a thing like   
   >>>  that."   
      
   AS>  Mark the last sentece, which, again, is uttered by an   
   AS>  apparently educted person.   
      
      
              It strikes me as unusual, but not incorrect.  If the person you're   
   referring to lives in the Southern States I'd cut her a bit of slack....  :-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  How about this:   
      
   AS>  a. I forgot he was vegetarian. (he still is)   
      
      
              That's what I'd probably say.   
      
      
      
   AS>  b. I forgot he had been vegetarian. (he has reverted)   
      
      
              If I knew he'd reverted but my brain slipped a cog, I might say "I   
   forgot he'd been vegetarian as an impecunious student but modified his stance   
   after he began doing hard physical work in the construction industry....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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