Isn't it passive voice? If "we are supposed to x," someone (or everyone) supposes that we should and will x, but the identity of the supposer isn't really relevant, so we leave it out by using passive voice (in which case we use "-ed" even in the present tense).
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Linda Comerford [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 6:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Supposed versus Suppose
Help!
During an oral grammar workshop, somehow the class got into a discussion about the difference between "supposed" and "suppose." The participants didn't pronounce "supposed" with the "d" and had assumed the word was "suppose." We discussed how past tense verbs have the "ed" at the end, whether we enunciate it or not, and thought that would suffice. It didn't because someone pointed out that "we are supposed to" is an an example of a present tense verb that still needed the "d" at the end. Okay, I must admit that stumped me.
Further confusion arose when someone contrasted "supposed" with "suppose" like, "Do you suppose we will ever resolve these questions?" At that point, I wasn't sure we ever would and called a break hoping I could find a dictionary to differentiate those words and how they worked. The dictionary was no help at all; the explanations were contradictory instead of enlightening.
Can any of you help me with this? I'd appreciate whatever you can send either through the listserv or directly to me. Since I'm "supposed" to follow up with the class, I "suppose" I should have a clear explanation for the class. Thanks so much.
Linda
Linda Comerford
317.786.6404
[log in to unmask]
www.comerfordconsulting.com<https://webmail.smcm.edu/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of STAHLKE, HERBERT F
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 10:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "thats" for "whose"
We’ve had considerable discussion of relative “that” from time to time, and I thought the following exchange from ADS-L might be of interest.
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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Sender: American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Poster: Jonathan Lighter <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: "I've a 24" 2.4Ghz iMac _that's_ hard drive recently packed
in."
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I mentioned this some years ago. I had a freshman in the early '80s who
insisted that "that's" was correct because "whose" referred to people.
When I surveyed English Department graduate students with a
fill-in-the-blank quiz, a fair number filled in the blanks with "that's"
instead of "whose."
God knows what they wrote in their own papers. They were mainly working on
masters' rather than doctoral degrees, if that makes anyone feel better. And
did I mention that the degrees would be in English? Yeah, I guess I did.
JL
>
> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 4:30 PM, Laurence Horn <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> wrote:
>
> > it's an instance of "that" (reanalyzed from complementizer to
> > relative pronoun) in the genitive, as noted.
> >
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