Timeline for Why is this sentence from The Great Gatsby grammatical?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
3 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 5, 2023 at 12:46 | comment | added | Greybeard | @JK2 Moreover, your "ellipsis" answer cannot explain how "that came" can transform into "come", come is simply an irregular colloquialism - very common. | |
| Mar 4, 2023 at 2:51 | comment | added | JK2 | English doesn't allow all "ellipsis" simply because the meaning remains unambiguous and clear. Whether a certain example of ellipsis is grammatical or not heavily depends on usage, which does change over time. The ellipsis of "that has" may have been possible and even natural back in 1925, but it doesn't seem to be anymore unless of course you can produce some recent examples of the past participle "come" being used without the help of the auxiliary have. Moreover, your "ellipsis" answer cannot explain how "that came" can transform into "come", because transformation is not ellipsis. | |
| Mar 2, 2023 at 11:46 | history | answered | Anton | CC BY-SA 4.0 |