English usage [OT] (used to be "Re: Jane Austen's peculiarity")

[Peter M. Brigham]

On Aug 8, 2015, at 4:44 PM, Richmond wrote:

> On 08/08/15 23:23, Paul Looney wrote:
>> In your last example:
>> 
>> "Mr. Rushworth _was returned_”
>> 
>> “was returned” (singular, past tense, passive)
> 
> I'm not sure if that is a passive, or an older form of the past perfect (= had returned) ???

I believe that with verbs relating to motion and location, the old past tense was not "has returned" but "is returned." "He has come home" is modern English, it used to be "He is come home." The old usage survives in modern French: "Il est venu," rather than "Il a venu." I agree that it's not passive, just an old auxiliary verb.

-- Peter

Peter M. Brigham
pmbrig at gmail.com
http://home.comcast.net/~pmbrig