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Joined: Aug 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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She said she believes that the Pericue, who for unknown reasons went extinct in the 18th century, ... For some reason, this construction offends my ears. I would have used "became" in place of "went". What's your opinion?
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Joined: Jul 2002
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old hand
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old hand
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I find the use of "went" here very unbecoming.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Well it's better than "up and died."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Using the verb to go would seem to imply a willful ation on the part of the Pericue that to become avoids. Perhaps therein lies your dicomfort.
I would have thought that usage a Britishism.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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to imply a willful ation on the part of the Pericue Sorry, Faldage - I don't follow your meaning. Also, which do you think is the Britishism? I believe that most of my fellow-countrypeople would opt for "become" rather than "went" (excluding the vast majority, who would almost certainly prefer Alex's version! ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif) )
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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To me, to go extinct (the one which seems to me, however mistakenly on my part, to be the Britishism) would imply the Pericue had exerted some effort. The verb is active. To become extinct implies a passivity inherent in the passive construction; the Pericue became extinct through no effort of its own.
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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'...have been extinct since the eighteenth century' is the form that sits most comfortably with me.
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old hand
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old hand
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to go extinct..would imply the Pericue had exerted some effortHere I respectfully, yet strongly disagree: If someone goes mad, you would certainly not suspect a willful act, or would you? The question is interesting for me, because in many texts which are nearly perfectly translated from German into English, become is improperly used. (possible alternatives to consider: turned, grew..)
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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in many texts which are nearly perfectly translated from German into English, become is improperly used
Well, if you're going to have a periphrastic future in werden..
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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periphrastic future in werden Actually, I was not thinking of this type of - rather gross - error, but another habit of writing e.g. "..when he made this remark, she became red.." instead of .."turned red", or "blushed".
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