How about "ever" in a question?
Did he ever think of the answer?

tj



On Thursday 12/23/2010 at 3:25 pm, "Spruiell, William C"   wrote:
> 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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