Inversion

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Optimus  #302050  Sat, 09 Dec 06 03:48 AM
A. To these causes may our disasters be attributed.
B. To these causes may every one of the disasters be attributed that have come upon us.


Hello. According to Fowler, sentence A violates the rule of balance inversion, namely, the subject should stand absolutely at the end. He says if the subject were "every one of the disasters that have come upon us" instead, the inversion is satisfactory.
So is B the correctly inverted sentence?


He also says the following inversion is wrong:
D. Much deeper down than the history of the human race must we go to find the beginnings of these connections.

He states that "if the verb is compound, the subject must be long as well as emphatic" and that in the above sentence,"we do not mend matters much by substituting lie for must we go to find." Could someone explain what he's saying with lie and must we go to find?

Thank you





  
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Mister Micawber  #302064  Sat, 09 Dec 06 04:30 AM

Well, Fowler is a little out of date now, and I imagine that many of his suggested inversions would be considered overprecious, but:

1-- B is not a correct correction of A.  Fowler is saying that A should read 'To these causes may be attributed our disasters'-- thus placing the subject, disasters, at the absolute end.  If we use the longer subject, then this would be OK:  To these causes may every one of the disasters that have come upon us be attributed.

2-- I don't even understand his rationale on this one, since I don't see a compound verb (e.g. run and jump)-- all I see is a verb phrase (must...go -- to find is just a verb complement).  However, what he wants to say (I think) is that in D, must we go to find is wrong, and equally wrong would be must lie.  He wants to see a longer, more emphatic noun phrase as subject:

Much deeper down than the history of the human race must our university researchers go to find the beginnings of these connections.
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Anonymous  #302071  Sat, 09 Dec 06 05:04 AM
It makes sense now. Thank you for the help.

  
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