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Stenka25 Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

About the usage of 'reckon'

About the usage of 'reckon'

The passage below comes from Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

http://erenow.com/common/sapiensbriefhistory/11.html

Living around what is now Adelaide in southern Australia were several patrilineal clans that reckoned descent from the father’s side.

I'd like to ask a question about the underlined 'reckoned'.
I don't understand why this world-famous author chose to use 'reckoned' instead of 'are reckoned' the way this word is usually used.

For the chance of there's something I miss, I checked out a few dictionaries, but I couldn't find none that suggests this aberrant usage.

I need your help.

Regards.
  

Top answer

It is not aberrant. The verb is, correctly, active voice. Your passive-voice suggestion makes no sense.

  • It is not aberrant.
  • The verb is, correctly, active voice.
  • Your passive-voice suggestion makes no sense.
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2 Answers
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It is not aberrant. The verb is, correctly, active voice. Your passive-voice suggestion makes no sense.
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Thanks a lot for your reply, fivejedjon.


In that case, you mean the sentence in quesion 'reckon' is used to mean #2.

Am I right?


(I misunderstood it to mean #3 when I posted this question.)



http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reckon

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