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 > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/