In George R. R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones, there is a moment when one character says the following words:
“So the slaver has become a spy. I would rather he become a corpse.”
Now, I understand the general meaning of it: that the speaker would prefer that person to be dead rather than spying around. What I don't understand is the exact grammar behind the second sentence of the example below.
From what I know, rather is an adverb, so the main clause doesn't have a predicate and technically is incomplete. And since there is a common language structure "pronoun + would rather + verb1 (+ than + verb2)", like I would rather die (than do it), I assume that in my example is used some specific shortened form of a more verbose construction, like it's the case with would that i could. Am I correct? If so, then what is the full form of it?
Also, I'm not entirely sure in what tense become is used in the second sentence. Is it a subjunctive present form, or some shortened form of present perfect that was used in the first sentence, or maybe something else entirely?
And one more thing. When "would rather" is used like in the example above, does it imply some, I don't know how to say it, temporal reference, i.e. when the action described by the verb that follows it should happen or should have happened? In other words, in my example, does the speaker express a wish to see that person dead already or simply want him to die at any time in the future?
Thank you!
