More on that particular topic here, with particular reference to Inspector Rebus:

http://dialectblog.com/2012/11/18/americanized-non-american-novels/

A question for Brus. When discussing language nowadays the Latin word 'corpus' is used a lot; for example most dictionaries are now corpus based. The plural of 'corpus', it seems, is 'corpora'. Are there any other examples of this '-us / -ora' construction in current use in English?

@jayles - I doubt that there are many schools nowadays where Latin and /or Greek are compulsory and where pupils lose out on learning a modern language because they have to do Classics instead, so I think this is a bit of a straw man argument. And surely there is nothing wrong with having the opportunity to learn Ancient Latin or Greek if pupils want to.

As for the plurals you mention, I rather like having these exceptions; they make life a bit more interesting. Wouldn't English be awfully dull if it was one hundred percent regular?

@steve3 - to which I could reply - backwards full stop. But it doesn't get the discussion very far, does it?

@MsPedant - 'he tumbled backward(s)' - I suppose it depends on whether you have more British or American readers, how used the American ones are to British English and how much British character you want to give to the story. As a Brit I'd always use 'backwards', but (like most Brits) I'm reasonably accustomed to American writing, so wouldn't be particularly fazed by 'backward'.

Unfortunately, the same doesn't seem to hold true the other way round. As far as I'm aware, American fiction is published in Britain unchanged, but American publishers deem it necessary to 'translate' British fiction before it can be published in the US.

The most notorious examples are the Harry Potter books, although it seems that Canadians get the original versions. Here is a side-by-side comparison of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (where even the title got changed in the US edition). Note the changing of 'towards' to 'toward', 'afterwards' to 'afterward' and of course 'backwards' to 'backward':

http://home.comcast.net/~helenajole/Harry.html

A year later, looking at it again, I would have to agree with porsche as to what 'their' refers to - i.e. The Oslo Accords. However, I prefer to deal with complete subjects which make sense, so I'll stick with ''the years following the Oslo Accords' rather than simply 'years' as the subject.

@jayles - are you perhaps thinking of the story where the young Churchill has just been introduced to noun cases, and asks when he should use the vocative and say (the Latin for) 'O, Table', and the Latin master replies 'When you are addressing a table, of course'?

@Brus - I realised later that that was probably what you meant, but as you appear on feed readers as 'retired teacher', I had assumed you were much the same generation as me and that you would be familiar with the name of Pius XII, who died when I was at primary school. And as you say, we've all (Catholics and non-Catholics alike) heard about him because of the controversy over his actions, or lack of them, during the Nazi period.

Hover, my tongue was also pretty firmly in cheek, and I was in no way suggesting that being a citizen of modern Rome makes you an expert on Classical Latin. But, as I said earlier, Church Latin is based on the Vulgate. As are romance languages, as I understand it, which suggests to me that the influence of Vulgate Latin has been just as great as Classical Latin, albeit in different ways, and need neither be seen as incorrect nor somehow inferior.

@HS - it may well make you cringe, but the idiom 'as regards' in your example is certainly not a misuse, although the bare 'regards' is. Rather, 'as regards' is seen as being quite formal:

'as regards content, the programme will cover important current issues' - Oxford Concise
'I have little information as regards her fitness for the post.' - Oxford Advanced Learner's
'As regards the potential energy crisis, why aren't we putting money into serious alternative sources of energy?' - Macmillan
'As regards a cure for the disease, very few advances have been made.' - Longman

And there are plenty of examples at, for example, at the Times Literary Supplement (the most highbrow periodical I could think of):

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22as%20regards%22%20site:www.thetimes.co.uk#hl=en&psj=1&q=%22as+regards%22+site:www.the-tls.co.uk

Here is Bryan Garner, from 'Garner's Modern American Usage' which has almost cult status in the States, on 'as regards'. 'a much-maligned phrase, is sometimes called a solecism. Actually it's a traditional literary idiom (although now a little old-fashioned)'.

He seems to have some sympathy for your position, however - ' Though "as regards" is no more objectionable that "with regard to", the whole lot of such phrases is suspect' (his verb form) and appears to think they're rather 'lame'.

http://books.google.pl/books?id=FwmQpyibKkAC&pg=PA69&dq=%22as+regards%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3jtgUtHmCfDV4QS_soGIDQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22as%20regards%22&f=false

Fowler didn't seem to like it very much either, and Burchfield, editor of the Third Edition says 'they are all in standard use, but should be used sparingly and with discretion'.

A lot of the time it could certainly be replaced by 'regarding 'or 'as for'. But this is a style issue and nothing to with correctness.

@Linda - I totally agree with you that 'she' sounds off in that context, and I would say 'her' myself, as I'm sure most people would. But I've no doubt there is the odd pedant who will tell you it is an ellipsis (shorter form) of 'Who is she', and should therefore be 'she'.

The same people who tell us that in reply to the question 'Who did that?' 'I' is correct and 'me' is incorrect, which for most of us is utter nonsense.

@Markustenhaafus - You could be right, but in the indicative past perfect (or pluperfect) is usually used in conjunction with past simple or past continuous, as it signifies a 'further past'. I agree past tenses can be used for distancing - 'How long did you want to stay for', 'Were you wanting something to eat', but when we use past perfect for distancing, we usually still use it in conjunction with a verb in past simple or continuous. 'I was wondering if you had decided what you want to do'.

Of course it's also used (as a hidden subjunctive if you like) in past counterfactual conditionals and related forms which use the 'Unreal past', such as 'I wish I hadn't said that', but that's not what we have here.

Fairly recently I wrote a post for my blog on the twelve tense system, for which I did quite a bit of research on verb forms, and I can't remember seeing past perfect being used in this way.

I don't think it matters too much whether 'continue' is in the past or the present, but I think that after 'as a child who had cried itself to sleep', I would expect something like 'would continue to sob in its dreams'.

Incidentally, I too was brought up on 'pluperfect' and plain 'perfect', but now I teach foreign students I've learnt to use the standard EFL expressions - 'past perfect' and 'present perfect'. I didn't like it at first, but now it makes sense to me: four past tenses (or forms, if you prefer), all starting with the word 'past'. Actually, I quite like the French name 'plus-que-parfait', which suggests this aspect (no pun intended) of going back.

Agreed it's not a present counterfactual, but it's often listed as a subjunctive fixed expression, along with things like: be that as it may, come what may etc

http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/subjunctive