Grammaticalty?

Question

But the young Military Police officer have positively commanded me to start the train! He declare that all is ready and he do not wish to be kept waiting.

The sentences have been taken from the novel "Burmese Days" by George Orwell. Some verbs does not follow the grammatical rule, subject-verb agreement. Please explain it to me why.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

anonymous Please explain it to me ~~why~~.

These are direct quotations spoken by a stationmaster in India.

Orwell is writing in eye dialect. This is the way this character would speak if he actually existed.

Clive · Answer

If you look at the context and quotation marks, you will see that this is presented by Orwell as direct speech by an Indian stationmaster. The stationmaster does not speak good English.

Clive

Mrs Lackersteen leaned out of the rickshaw and called agitatedly through the rain.

“Stationmaster!”

“Madam!”

“What train is that?”

“That is the Mandalay train, madam.”

“The Mandalay train! It can't be!”

“But I assure you, madam! It is precisely the Mandalay train.” He came towards them, removing his topi.

“But Mr Verrall — the Police officer? Surely he's not on it?”

“Yes, madam, he have departed.” He waved his hand towards the train, now receding rapidly in a cloud of rain and steam.

“But the train wasn't due to start yet!”

“No, madam. Not due to start for another ten minutes.”

“Then why has it gone?”

The stationmaster waved his topi apologetically from side to side. His dark, squabby face looked quite distressed.

“I know, madam, I know! Most unprecedented! But the young Military Police officer have positively commanded me to start the train! He declare that all is ready and he do not wish to be kept waiting. I point out the irregularity. He say he do not care about irregularity. I expostulate. He insist. And in short —”

He made another gesture. It meant that Verrall was the kind of man who would have his way, even when it came to starting a train ten minutes early. There was a pause. The two Indians, imagining that they saw their chance, suddenly rushed forward, wailing, and offered some grubby notebooks for Mrs Lackersteen's inspection.

“What do these men want?” cried Mrs Lackersteen distractedly.

“They are grass-wallahs, madam. They say that Lieutenant Verrall have departed owing them large sums of money. One for hay, the other for corn. Of mine it is no affair.”

Cole Menezes · Answer

The recruitment of UP Police Sub Inspector 2020 is to be revealed shortly. Upon the board’s announcement, the prospective applicants, who desire to be a part of the UP Police Department, can fill out the online application by visiting the official website. Even though the board is yet to make an official announcement on the total number of vacancies for the UP Police SI post, we have an estimated number of 9534 total vacancies for all candidates. Hence, applicants must ensure that they apply it as early as possible after the application has been announced.

Grammaticalty?

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