Re: Disambiguating polysemy (was: "triggers et al" as I presently understand them)

Cowbert von Moo wrote:

>Tristan,
>
>
>
>>I think there are some areas that use 'somewhat' instead of 'something',
>>saying things like 'somewhat of a good time' instead of 'something of a
>>
>>
>This is the case in my, Californian, dialect.  I don't believe we use
>it in a sense analogous to 'something'.  Idiomatically, I think we
>mean 'aproximately', as in:
>
>"That was somewhat interesting." = "That was interesting, but I'm not
>convinced that I wasn't dilusional at the time."
>
>
Yeah, I use and expect 'somewhat' then, it's when it's followed by 'of'
that I'd use and expect 'something'. 'Somewhat interesting' is right
(for me), 'something of a good time' is right, 'somewhat of a good time'
is something I often see on the Internet but it sounds wrong to me, no
better than 'I want somewhat'. In fact, I'd expect someone who was
saying 'somewhat of a good time' would also say 'I want somewhat' and
they were doing it tongue-in-cheek or something (I know people who do).
But they don't _seem_ to be using it tongue-in-cheek, so I assume it's a
native part of their dialect and don't know how far it extends. (I'm
Australian.)

>>good time'. There's (was?) also a word 'summut' in some dialects that
>>means (I think) 'something' and derives from 'somewhat'.
>>
>>
>
>I think I have heard this in Scottish dialects, I think.  May be
>spelled "summat".
>
Could be right, makes more sense like that.

PS: Kristopher, you're setting the Reply-To header, so the list doesn't
override it and replies are directed to you instead of the list. Could
you disable it? It's not normally needed.

PPS: a post of mine and Kristopher's went off-list... Here is what I
said, minus a brief welcome:

> I say 'somewhen' often for 'sometime'. I think it started out
> self-concious but I've lost control of it now and there's a (-n
> unconcious) set of rules about when I pick 'somewhen' and when
> 'sometime'. No-one gives me funny looks, but I'm already trying to
> convince them I'm insane, so I don't suppose it's that strange
> compared to the rest of me.
>
> I think there are some areas that use 'somewhat' instead of
> 'something', saying things like 'somewhat of a good time' instead of
> 'something of a good time'. There's (was?) also a word 'summut' in
> some dialects that means (I think) 'something' and derives from
> 'somewhat'.
>
> I've never heard nor even thought of 'somewho' for 'someone'. I dunno
> why though...
--
Tristan.