Re: OT: ago

Kris Kowal wrote:
> Friends,
[snip]
>>Nor is 'ago' exactly unique. There are other words that behave in a
>>similar fashion. Our attention has already been drawn to 'away' as:
>>He lives three miles away.
>>She lives far away.
>
>
> However, none of them seem to have that one restriction that it must
> precede a qualifier like 'I went many years ago'.  While 'I went ago'
> never occurs in idiomatic English,
True - but, following the maxim of my English teacher "By their deeds
shall ye know them", the uses of 'ago' are the same as those of quite a
few other words in occurring after a phrase denote time or space. It is
true that 'ago' cannot be used by itself and in this respect _may be_
unique, but that is IMHO hardly a criterion for setting up another part
of speech.

> this is probably not because of a
> grammatical constraint but rather because it implies traveling through
> time backwards.
I am certain it is not a constraint of grammar, but simply one of meaning.

[snip]

>>Later in this thread we have 'hence' (not common now) drawn to our
>>attention:
>>I will go there three weeks hence.
>>He will be here not long hence.
>
>
> Are 'I came hence' and 'I will come thence' alright?  I'd accept it.
> Seems these would imply 'before' or 'after' specifically 'now' rather
> than a qualified date.
Except that by themselves those are ambiguous. It would require the
context to make it clear we were talking about _time_. "I came hence"
can also mean 'I came from here'. Both 'hence' and 'thence' can be use
(indeed were originally used) of place. They may even be used to mean
'as a result of this' & 'as a result of that'.

But of course, when they are modified by a time phrase, then the meaning
is unambiguous.

>
>>There are others, such as:
>>It's three feet below.
>>It is far below.
>
>
> 'after' and 'before' can replace 'thence' and 'hence' or 'ago', but
> have a subtle differences in connotation, which may even be a figment
> of my imagination.  Do not 'thence', 'hence', and 'ago' imply a vector
> into the past and future?  Do they imply specifically 'before now',
> and 'after now' or 'hereafter'?  How do 'I went long ago' and 'I went
> long before' differ?
Maybe, but that, it seems to me, is semantic rather than syntactic.

>
>>Well, yes, one would expect the complement of 'ago' to be *acome (go ~
>>come).
>> >Well, all right, you've got my vote; "athen" it is.  ---larry
>>But surely the complement of *athen would be *now, not 'ago'?
>>
>>In any case, for those who want to use a single word in these time
>>phrases referring to the future, English _already_ possesses the
>>perfectly good word "hence". Why do we need to adopt a synonym? I don't
>>get it.
>
>
> Agreed.  If we're in the business of trying to make English more
> orthogonal (I'm reminded of the 'somewhen' discussion; long live it in
> Sussex),
Amen! (I'm slightly biased, being Sussex born & bred   :-)

And long live 'anywhen' as well!

[snip]
> when (deprecated.  use 'whence')
> whence (a time)
> hence (meaning 'before', implying 'before now')
> thence (meaning 'after', implying 'after now')
> somewhence (some time)
> nen (the current time)
> hen (a female chicken)
>
> where (a place)
> here (before, use 'nere' for current place)
> there (after)
> somewhere (some place)
> nere (the current place.  hmm.  sounds like 'near'.
>    maybe something made sense once upon a time)
>
> who (a person)
> tho (you, perhaps 'thou' would be easier to say ;-))
> ho (me, possibly 'hou')
> somewho (some person)
> nho (the current person.  pronouned like 'new'?)
>
> whow (a way.  possibly collides with 'hou', depending on pronunciation)
> how (the traditional way)
> thow (the destination way)
> somewhow (a particular way)
> now (the current way.  use 'nen' for current time)
>
> what (a thing)
> hat (original thing?  hmmm.  we'll have to use 'cap' more often.)
> that (other thing?  at least somewhat makes sense)
> somewhat (a particular thing)
> nat (the current thing)
>
> So, it's ridiculous.  At least we know.  :-)
Well, as English is the de_facto IAL it guess it should have its table
of correlatives  :-D

(Just kidding)

--
Ray
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