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"Does" as a noun?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:19 pm
by pdh0224
Dear teacher,

Probably the most important misconception about concussions is that they always involve loss of consciousness. This is simply not true. In fact, most do not. There are three grades of concussions. In only one does the victim lose consciousness for seconds, minutes or longer.


Q : I think "does" is used as a noun meaning "grade" or "step".
If it does not, "In" is utilized as a conjuncton, which is odd to me.

What do you think?



All the best,

Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:02 am
by Alan
'Does' is never a noun!
The construction here is

IN ONLY ONE: adverbial prepositional phrase
DOES: main verb (aux.)
THE VICTIM: subject
LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS...LONGER: predication (infinitive phrase complementing 'does')

Where a negative or restrictive adverbial is preposed, as here, subject-verb inversion is the norm. Cf. In hardly a single case DID THEY successfully prosecute one of these crimes.