Re: OT: ago

Harold Ensle wrote:
[snip]
>>With respect, you did not. It is true that you first used the simple
>>subject line 'ago', but the thread about 'ago' had started some time
>>before. Previously the subject line was 'THEORY ago (was: Most common
>>irregular verbs?)'.
...and at one stage we had just plain "THEORY ago".
>
> YES I did start this thread..which has the simple subject line 'ago'.
> The fact that the subject is virtually identical to another thread
> does not make it part of the other thread.
I think that is a moot point. How different is "THEORY ago" from just
plain "ago"? OK - maybe I should have said: "While you may have begun a
new thread, it was certainly not a new topic." It is evident from other
replies that I was not the only one assuming you were basically
continuing the 'ago' topic. But I really do not think this is worth
exchanging emails about.

[snip]
> I did read relevant posts to see if someone had identical
> comments as my own. If someone had made the same comments I would
> not have needed to make them myself. I did see that people were
> "uncomfortable" with the adjective classification, but I didn't
> see my particular arguments being made.
Eh? But it began when some stated that 'ago' was a postposition!

After Charlie had given us the references from the AHD & the Columbia
Guide, others not merely said they were uncomfortable, but argued for
its being a postposition. I also said that while I understood that
analysis, I considered it an adverb; I wrote on 17th Jan.:
{quote}
Presumably everyone agrees that the phrase "an hour ago" _functions_ as
an adverb. If we take 'ago' as a postposition, we then have a
'postpositional phrase' (NP+postposition) similar in use to the familiar
prepositional phrases such as: 'within an hour', 'after an hour' etc.

If it is taken as an adverb, we then have an adverbial phrase where the
head 'ago' is the head and 'an hour' is a "measurement of time",
modifying the head of the phrase. It can be argued that the second
analysis is better in that 'long ago' can be analyzed in the same way.
{/quote}

> I also disputed The Colombia
> Guide's adverb classification in their particular context which
> I also did not see done before.
adjective classification, I think you meant. In another mail on 17th Jan
I wrote:
{quote}
 > The Columbia Guide to Standard American English: "_Ago_ is both
 > adjective, as in _The murder took place many years ago,_ and adverb,
 > as in _The murder took place long ago._  It is Standard in both
 > uses."

With all due respect to "The Columbia Guide to Standard American
English", I fail to see how _ago_ can be an adjective in the first
sentence. I am sure the intuitive feeling of most L1 speakers is that
'ago' is the "same thing" in both sentences.
{/quote}

Also, on the same date, Mark Reid wrote of the adjective classification:
{quote}
I think the idea is that "three years ago", the "ago" is telling you
what kind of "years" are under discussion, and the adverbial
relationship is merely implied.  I could be wrong.  It's not a very
good analysis, in any event.  :)
{/unquote}

[snip]
> Then why did you not "respond" to my post telling me so and revealing
> to me the previous resolution instead of continuing to add "nothing new"
> on top of my "nothing new"?
Because I didn't want to be so churlish. I hoped the thread would just
quietly fizzle out.

> BUT there is even a difference here. My "nothing new" was launched in its
> own thread. I would not have followed someones post without even
> acknowledging their existence.
Some do - tho it's good to know you don't.

>And I would certainly read previous posts in a thread I was responding to.
I guess there have been misunderstandings on both sides. It seems to me
that practically everyone is agreed about the AHD & the Columbia Guide's
adjective classification.

I don't really see the point of continuing to argue whether 'ago' is an
adverb or postposition in English. It is surely more on topic for this
list to be considering how this and relation time phrases are expressed
in conlangs.

--
Ray
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