Re: Rant on partial understandings (was: Spoken French, coins)

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
John Cowan wrote:
>>         Does it mean "since 1 January 1939" or "before
>>         1 January 1939"?
>>
>> Which of course is a point that is obvious to any French
>> three-year-old, who does not know the big words at all!
>>
>
>Well, I'm not that sure that a three-year-old boy would understand it
>immediately, knowing that this use of the preposition 'à' (you probably
>recognized it's form 'au', simply the contraction of 'à' with the masculine
>singular definite article 'le' :)) ) is rather rare and restricted to
written
>language (or spoken language of speeches, which is usually quite the same,
>since speeches are usually written down :)) ). "Au 1er janvier 1939"
>means "until the 1st January 1939", but is restricted to past dates
>(where 'until' doesn't sound right to me, but I'm not sure. Maybe your use
>of 'before' is correct, I didn't know it could be used like that), or at
least
>gives a feeling of looking back in time (so you could use it for a future
date,
>if you take a point of view after this future date). In fact, it's one of
the
>French constructions I would have difficulties to translate in English,
whether
>because my knowledge is not enough or because there is no strict
equivalent).


"up to/ up until 1/1/39" would be unambiguous.  "as of 1/1/39" could also be
said in this sense, but can be ambiguous, meaning either "from a time in the
past up to the time mentioned" OR "from the time mentioned up to the
present".   It needs a context.
"As of yesterday/today,  I haven 't smoked for 3 months" (and I continue not
to smoke)
"As of yesterday, I haven't smoked a single cigarette"( I stopped yesterday)
"As of today, I haven't smoked a single cigarette" (I stopped at some
unspecified time in the past)
"As of yesterday, I hadn't smoked for 3 months" (implies that I've started
again)
"As of yesterday/today I won't/don't smoke anymore"(I stopped
yesterday/today)

Now you've made me wonder-- how to make these distinctions in Kash?  Aargh.

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