Re: Adpositions gaining new uses

Herman Miller skrev:
> Andreas Johansson wrote:
>> Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:
>>
>>> On 2008-11-18 Andreas Johansson wrote:
>>>> In my (tween) idiolect at least, _måste_ "must, have to,
>>>> need to" works in all
>>>> of those.
>>>>
>>> <slaps head> Of course!  Sometimes the obvious is too
>>> obvious.
>>>
>>> But are you really a tween (8-13 y.o.)?
>>
>> I'm not. For some reason I thought it meant someone in their twenties
>> (I'm 26).
>
> Tolkien used the word in that way (of hobbits).
>
> "At that time Frodo was still in his _tweens_, as the hobbits called the
> irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at
> thirty-three."
>
Indeed he does, which I had forgotten.  The basic
meaning is the same however: not anymore belonging
to a younger age group but not yet belonging to an
older age group -- small children vs. teens in one
case and children vs. fullgrown adults in the other.

I wonder if Hobbits actually matured later than Men
or only had a different social system. Notably Hobbits
had a 100 yrs life expectancy.

I also wonder whether Hobbits in their tweens could
be called _tweenies_?

(And I just realized my son is already in his mid
tweens by modern standards.  If time starts to fly
any faster he will be in his mid tweens by Hobbit
standards before I know it! ;-)


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
  à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
  ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
  c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)