anybody II

[navi tasan]

Consider the following dialogue:
-Why did she ask for you to take her home?
1-She didn't ask for me to take her home in particular.
1-She asked for anybody (to take her home).
2-She asked for somebody (to take her home).
3-She just asked for somebody.
4-She asked for just somebody.
5-She asked that anybody take her home.
6-She asked that somebody take her home.
7-She asked that just domebody take her home.
8-She just asked that somebody take her home.

Again a long one. My apologies.

 

[RonBee]

Are you asking for corrections and suggestions?

Why did she ask for you to take her home?

We would not normally use a preposition there. Instead, we would say:

• Why did she ask you to take her home?

1-She didn't ask for me to take her home in particular.

There are a couple of possibilities here. Examples:

• She wasn't specifically speaking to me.
  She didn't ask that question of me specifically.
  She didn't direct that question to anybody in particular.
  She didn't specifically ask me to take her home.

 

[RonBee]

1-She asked for anybody (to take her home).

Say:

• She asked if anybody would take her home.

2-She asked for somebody (to take her home).

• She asked if somebody would take her home

Or:

• She asked somebody to take her home.

(The two sentences mean two different things.)

 

[RonBee]

3-She just asked for somebody.

That is a grammatical sentence. Whether it is a meaningful statement, depends on context, of course.

4-She asked for just somebody.

That is a grammatical sentence. However, there is unlikely to be a context in which it would make sense.

5-She asked that anybody take her home.

She asked if anybody would take her home.

6-She asked that somebody take her home.

I wouldn't argue with that one.

7-She asked that just somebody take her home.

I don't think so.

8-She just asked that somebody take her home.

Yes, that is perfectly fine. Possible scenario:

• A: What did she say?
  B: She just asked that somebody take her home.

 

[navi tasan]

Well, you gave me both corrections and suggestions. Actually I didn't expect such a complete reply. I thought you'd just go "yes" or "no", but you did go the whole distance.
Thanks a lot!

 

[Tdol]

Number 8 would be fairly unusual in BE as we generally try to avoid the present subjunctive, except in fossilised phrases about the queen. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

Well, you gave me both corrections and suggestions. Actually I didn't expect such a complete reply. I thought you'd just go "yes" or "no", but you did go the whole distance.
Thanks a lot!

I've been inspired by Cas to do more.

:wink:

 

[RonBee]

Number 8 would be fairly unusual in BE as we generally try to avoid the present subjunctive, except in fossilised phrases about the queen. ;-)

Does that have anything to do with the queen being fossilized?

:wink: