| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: nouns; so that it is even more generally useful than as a
journalistic epithet with us. As a verb, it does duty as predicate
and copula combined. For such an unnecessary part of speech as a
real copula does not exist in Japanese. In spite of the shock to
the prejudices of the old school of logicians, it must be confessed
that the Tartars get on very well without any such couplings to
their trains of thought. But then we should remember that in their
sentences the cart is always put before the horse, and so needs only
to be pushed, not pulled along.
The want of a copula is another instance of the primitive character
of the tongue. It has its counterpart in our own baby-talk, where a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Suellen got this wagon and got your pa in it and off they went to
town without a word to anybody. Miss Melly had a notion what it
was all about but she was prayin' somethin' would change Suellen,
so she didn't say nothin' to the rest of us. She just didn't see
how Suellen could do such a thing.
"Today I heard all about what happened. That pusillanimous fellow,
Hilton, had some influence with the other Scallawags and
Republicans in town and Suellen had agreed to give them some of the
money--I don't know how much--if they'd kind of wink their eye
about Mr. O'Hara bein' a loyal Union man and play on how he was an
Irishman and didn't fight in the army and so on, and sign
Gone With the Wind |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: "I folded up the paper flat, put it into my inside pocket, and went to
Rufe's room. He was nearly dressed, and was feeding the pig the rest
of the milk and some apple-peelings.
"'Well, well, well, good morning all,' I says, hearty and amiable. 'So
we are up? And piggy is having his breakfast. What had you intended
doing with that pig, Rufe?'
"'I'm going to crate him up,' says Rufe, 'and express him to ma in
Mount Nebo. He'll be company for her while I am away.'
"'He's a mighty fine pig,' says I, scratching him on the back.
"'You called him a lot of names last night,' says Rufe.
"'Oh, well,' says I, 'he looks better to me this morning. I was raised
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