Re: OT: ago

On 1/20/06, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:

> So I propose we create a new category and call "ago"
> an "agoative". Now we can coin a new agoative for the
> future so the category won't be so sparsely populated.
> I propose the agoative "athen" to indicate some future
> time. As in "I'm going to Scotland 3 weeks athen." or
> "Long athen, when you're all grown up, ...".
"hence" already exists and is more or less (among
other uses) an agoative.  It may be a bit archaic though.

I was there three weeks ago.
I will be there three weeks hence.

Both are postpositive, forming temporal postpositional
phrases (or agoative phrases?).  It doesn't quite
fit "long" as an abbreviation of "a long time"
though:

*Long hence, after our civilization falls,
our descendants will mine our landfills.

But this works:

*Ages hence, ....

Given the etymology of "ago", maybe
"acome" /@."kVm/ would be a better
fit than "athen".  Or we could stretch "hence"
and declare that the agoative use with "long"
is in fact acceptable.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang.htm

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