Dick,

It shows up in some other subordinate constructions, although I *think* they all have an element of negation or irrealis status ("I wonder when he'll ever finish that" / "If he were ever there, he would have known this"); I recall Quirk and Greenbaum having a section on this, but I don't have it handy (coffee shop posting).   I'm having trouble thinking of any examples in a main clause that don't sound archaic, but there are candidate expressions "He was ever the optimist/pessimist" and "It was ever thus." I suspect a lot of people would count those as fossilized, though. 

--- Bill Spruiell 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Dick Veit
Sent: Thu 12/23/2010 9:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Independent clause or noun phrase
 
"The last grill brush" is a noun phrase, with an implied "it is." The "you
will ever need" is a relative clause with a null (unstated) relative
pronoun.

I'd like to hear more from ATEGers about "ever." Am I wrong that it occurs
without a negative only in relative clauses like this? "You won't ever need
a grill brush" is fine, but not *"You will ever need a grill brush."

Dick

On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Scott Lavitt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Happy holidays all.
>
> I've been a member of this listserve for years and occasionally seek your
> collective opinion. Question: how does one parse the following?:
>
> The last grill brush you will ever need.
>
> I could see this as an independent clause, with "you" as the subj. and "The
> last grill brush" as the DO, but that doesn't seem right. Seems there is an
> implied "It is," making the above a noun phrase, and therefore not an
> independent clause. Thoughts?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Scott Lavitt
>
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>

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