I prefer choice #1.

Mary Mocsary
Southeastern Louisiana University


At 12:03 PM 4/28/04 -0500, you wrote:
>(1) It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch.
>
>I read the preceding sentence as having an infinitival phrase acting as an
>extraposed subject with an expletive.  After reinserting the extraposed
>subject, it would read:
>
>(2)  To love what death can touch is a fearful thing.
>
>However, I can also see "a fearful thing" as the extraposed subject and "to
>love what death can touch" a complement, making the reconstructed sentence:
>
>(3)  A fearful thing is to love what death can touch.
>
>Which reading do you prefer?
>
>Diane
>
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