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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

The analyses of a text #6

The narrator recalls his adolescence.
He encountered Steerforth, the old friend elder by several years in the hotel he stayed at.
And the narrator was invited to his friend's.
After he stayed at Steerforth's, he stays at an inn near on the way to his old nurse Peggoty's hometown with Steerforth.
Peggoty was married to the coachman Mr. Barkis.

"Now what are you going to do? You are going to see your nurse, I suppose?"
"Why, yes," I said, "I must see Peggotty first of all."
"Well," replied Steerforth, looking at his watch. "Suppose I deliver you up to be cried over for a couple of hours. Is that long enough?"
I answered, laughing, that I thought we might get through it in that time, but that he must come also, for the would find that his renown had preceded him, and that he was almost as great a personage as I was.
"I'll come anywhere you like," said Steerforth, "or do anything you like. Tell me where to come to, and in two hours I'll produce myself in any state you please, sentimental or comical."
I gave him minute directions for finding the the residence of Mr. Barkis, carrier to Blunderstone and elsewhere, and on this understanding, went out alone.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if "to her" is implied before "to be cried."
2. I'd like to know "Suppose I deliver you up to be cried over for a couple of hours." means "If I deliver you up, and you cry over
3. I'd like to know if the adverbial phrase "sentimental or comical" modifies "in any state."
4. And I'd like to know what "carrier" means here and why there isn't any article.
Thank you in advance for your help.
  

Top answer

1. Yes. 2.

  • 1.
  • Yes.
  • 2.
  • No, you have changed passive to active.
  • e.
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1 Answers
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1. Yes.

2. No, you have changed passive to active. He is to be cried over, i.e. someone (Peggoty I assume) will cry over him.

3. Yes.

4. "carrier" is his profession (he transports goods and/or people). The article can be omitted like this with job titles, in certain cases. I guess it is similar to "Barack Obama, President of the United States".

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