 | "Treasure Island" by Stevenson |  |
 Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:54 pm |
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| saproj |
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| Joined: 06 Mar 2009 |
| Posts: 1 |
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Hi!
Here is a sentence from "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
| Quote: | | He gave it me at Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as if I was to now, you see. |
The grammar is weird to me (non-native speaker). My questions:
1. What verb does 'to' refer to? (give, lie, die)?
2. Was it a normal grammar at the time of writing (1883) or was it a stylization? |
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| Re: "Treasure Island" by Stevenson | |
| Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:37 pm |
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| Dave |
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| Joined: 08 Jun 2006 |
| Posts: 357 |
| Location: Washington, DC |
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| saproj wrote: | Hi!
Here is a sentence from "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
| Quote: | | He gave it me at Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as if I was to now, you see. |
The grammar is weird to me (non-native speaker). My questions:
1. What verb does 'to' refer to? (give, lie, die)?
2. Was it a normal grammar at the time of writing (1883) or was it a stylization? |
Don't worry--it's weird syntax to me as well.
I can only presume the "to" refers to "a-dying." Nothing else makes as much sense (to me) as that does.
I think this usage is not necessarily deliberately stylized, but rather the opposite: I think it's meant to capture a colloquial tone. It sounds like an attempt to represent casual and somewhat clumsy everyday language.
But I could be totally wrong. Does anybody else have any insight? |
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