Re: THEORY: NATLANGS: Pro-Forms

On 5/26/06, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
>
>
> As for "somewhy" - I've never encountered it.
> but
> > is there a reasonable substitute for "somewhy" that is anywhere near as
> > economical?
>
> No, there isn't. But how would it be used?
>
> "Why are you doing that?"
> "Somewhy"
> ???
>
> Surely the response would be something like "Just because" or something
> less polite like "Leave me alone!" or "Get lost!" etc.
>
>
"Somewhy" could mean, if it really existed, something like "there is some
motivation or reason for this to be done or to happen, but it does not
matter which reason." When a military person receives in a war a request to
perform some task, usually it is mandatory to do it well and he does not
have the right of asking why it must be done. But he knows there is some
motivation, and it is known to his superior. In George Orwell's 1984,
Newspeak could very well have this word in its lexicon.
What I want to show here is that it is (almost) always possible to find a
meaning that makes sense for each combination that was pointed out earlier.

Antonielly Garcia Rodrigues