Monday, March 30, 2009

Wondering what a thy looks like

True story: I recently heard a sacrament meeting speaker whose intonational pattern made it clear she analyzed thy will be done not as NP[thy will] VP[be done], but as NP[thy] VP[will be done]. (That is, she clearly used will as the future aspect marker, not the subject of the sentence.) Further proof that we really ought to give up on the whole thou-thee-thy-thine thing (and maybe adopt a more Modern English-type Bible translation), when members of the church start thinking that there’s such a thing as a thy.

1 comment:

Heather the Mama Duk said...

Do you know the thy is done when the little thing pops out?